543 West Wesley Road Northwest
Atlanta, GA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Rutherford and Martha (Hodgson) Ellis House (Loblolly Hill)

Statement of Significant:

Rutherford and Martha (Hodgson) Ellis acquired the property, which was then a larger tract of land several miles outside Atlanta city limits, in 1938. They referred to the surrounding pine forest as "Loblolly Hill." Rutherford Ellis was a successful businessman and philanthropist who worked in insurance, real estate, property management, and mortgage loans. Ellis engaged noted Atlanta architect Philip Trammell Shutze to design a house based on a colonial cottage built in 1770 in Wiscasset, Maine. The unpretentious home design was a departure for Shutze who was famous for larger neoclassical estates. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis were active in the details of the house, such as providing Philippine mahogany for the library and erecting a greenhouse (no longer extant). The Ellis house is significant in the area of architecture at the statewide level as an excellent and intact example of the work of Hentz, Adler, & Shutze based on a renewed public enthusiasm for colonial precedents coinciding with the recent restoration of Colonial Williamsburg. It represents the work of a master melded with the desires of a client who wanted an adaptation of a house from an earlier period. Shutze was an expert at derivative detailing while also creating his own signature. The property is significant locally in the area of social history for the contributions of Rutherford Ellis to Atlanta's commercial and social life through his activities as president of Lipscomb-Ellis Company, founder of Southern General Insurance, national chairman of the American Cancer Society, member of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and trustee of Trebor Foundation and Egleston Hospital, among others.