Curving streets, small parks, and early 1900s houses on The Prado and Peachtree Circle
Ansley Park was drawn in curves. Solon Ruff's 1904 plan for Edwin Ansley bends The Prado, Peachtree Circle, and Westminster Drive around small parks, so most houses are seen from an angle, across a lawn or from the far side of a green. We design for those angles, with warm-white lines on the gables that face the approach and light carried into the trees. Our installers have worked Atlanta rooflines since 2018. Send a photo of the house for a free written quote.
Ansley Park was the idea of attorney and developer Edwin P. Ansley, laid out on about 275 acres from a 1904 plan by landscape designer Solon Z. Ruff. Ruff borrowed from Olmsted's thinking: streets that curve with the ground, parks set into the plan so no house is far from green space, and lots big enough for real lawns. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, with a boundary increase in 2015. From 1924 to 1967 the Governor's Mansion stood at 205 The Prado, which says something about the kind of houses the neighborhood was built to hold.
Those houses cover several decades and several styles. Along The Prado and Peachtree Circle there are large Colonial Revival and Neoclassical houses with columned porches, English Tudors with steep front gables and half-timbering, Craftsman houses with wide eaves, and Mediterranean houses with tile roofs. That variety is the pleasure of walking the neighborhood in December. It also means there is no house-type formula here. Each design starts with the facade in front of us.
What stays constant is the geometry of the streets. Because the roads curve, a house is often seen corner-first. A roofline lit only on the front eave can look unfinished from that angle, while one lit on the front and the visible side gable reads as a solid form. We walk the approach before we write the plan, from the direction most people see the house, and we decide which edges to trace from there. The residential design service is built around exactly that kind of site look.
The neighborhood's parks, Winn Park and McClatchey Park among them, and the large oaks along the streets frame many of these houses. Lit trunks near the curb often do more for an Ansley Park house than a second line on the roof. Our tree and landscape lighting is quoted tree by tree, with the height to the first limb measured.
We look at the house from the direction people actually see it on a curving street, and light the edges visible from there.
Columns get garland on a Neoclassical porch, a single steep gable gets C9s on a Tudor, wide eaves get a clean line on a Craftsman.
2700K warm white suits the brick, stucco, and painted trim on these houses. Cool white is available if the house calls for it.
Nothing is nailed, screwed, or stapled into historic trim, and everything comes off in January.
A brick house with two or three front gables is one of the most common shapes in Ansley Park, and one of the most rewarding to light. Warm-white C9 bulbs tracing each rake and the connecting eave create a series of peaks that read clearly from across the street. We keep the spacing identical on every gable so the rhythm holds, and we cut each strand to its measured run so the corners meet cleanly.
The Tudor houses in the neighborhood tend to have one dominant front gable, sometimes with a smaller one beside it and an arched entry below. Lighting the tall gable alone, top to bottom, is often stronger than outlining the whole roof. A wreath on the arched door and lit shrubs at the foundation finish it. The steep pitch shows best in warm white.
Many Ansley Park lots have mature oaks between the house and the street. A wrapped trunk, lit from the ground to the first fork, adds a vertical line that frames the facade and carries light toward the sidewalk. We wrap tightly and evenly with warm-white mini lights so the trunk reads as a column of light rather than a tangle.
Colonial Revival and Neoclassical houses here often have full-height or one-story columned porches. Garland wound up each column, with warm-white mini lights inside it, gives the porch depth at night. A single lit wreath above the door and matching wreaths in the front windows complete the look without competing with the architecture.
The timer is set at install. If a run goes dark in December, text a photo to (470) 380-7797 and it goes on the next route. In January we remove every strand, coil it, and label it by location. Our takedown and storage service keeps them until next season. Next door, we also light Midtown and Morningside.
Curves, columns, tile roofs, and park-side trees.
We walk the street and look at the house from the most common approach. If the side gable shows from there, it usually gets lit along with the front, so the house reads as a solid shape rather than a flat front. The written quote names every run so you can see the plan before install day.
Yes. Tile roofs are handled from the gutter line and rakes with clips made for that edge. We avoid walking on tile and never fasten through it. On many Mediterranean houses, a warm-white line at the eave with lit shrubs below is the cleanest look.
Garland wound on the columns with mini lights, a lit wreath centered over the door, and a warm-white line along the porch roof. It is a classic combination on Colonial Revival and Neoclassical houses. Our wreaths and garland service covers the greenery side.
Temporary seasonal decorations are generally not treated like a building alteration. Our part is the method: clips and tension wraps only, nothing driven into the house, and full removal in January. Our journal post on lighting a historic district home goes into more detail.
Install season runs from late October to about mid-December, and the earlier dates fill first. A late-summer or early-fall request gives the widest choice of dates.
Send a photo of the house and the address. We will reply with a written, itemized quote that lists every run, bulb type, and tree, so you can see the design before we arrive.
Text us a photo
Scan with your phone's camera to start a text to (470) 380-7797. Attach a picture of the front of the house.
