Christmas lighting for Marietta's old streets and the Square

Victorian porches on Whitlock Avenue, the storefronts around Glover Park, and brick traditionals under the East Cobb canopy

West of the Square, Whitlock Avenue and Church Street keep some of the oldest houses in Cobb County: deep Victorian porches, turned columns, a few antebellum facades behind old magnolias. East of town the pattern changes to brick traditionals from the 1970s through the 1990s on wooded lots in Indian Hills and around the Atlanta Country Club. We design for each. Greenery and a quiet line on the old houses, roofline and trunks on the brick. Our installers have been on Atlanta rooflines since 2018. Text a photo of the house and we will send a free written quote.

Text us a photo Call (470) 380-7797

White porch columns wrapped in garland beside a lit front door

A courthouse town that kept its porches

Marietta grew up around its courthouse square in the 1830s, and the railroad that followed made it the county seat and the market town for this side of the Chattahoochee. The houses that line Whitlock Avenue, Kennesaw Avenue, Church Street and Cherokee Street came in waves after that: a handful of antebellum houses, then a long run of Victorians and Colonial Revivals through the end of the nineteenth century. Three of those streetscapes are now listed historic districts, which tells you how much of the fabric survived.

What survived is mostly wood. Painted clapboard, turned porch posts, sawn brackets, tall sash windows, and porches that wrap a corner or run the full width of the front. A Victorian house does not want to be outlined. Its roof is a stack of gables and hips that reads as a silhouette, and a line of bulbs on every edge turns the silhouette into a diagram. We put the weight at the porch instead. Garland on the rail and up the posts, a wreath on the door, lanterns if the owner has them, and perhaps one warm-white line along the porch eave so the house reads from the street. The wreaths and garland page covers how we build and hang the greenery, and the journal post on historic district houses goes into the choices in more detail.

Old trim is the other reason for restraint. We do not drive anything into a hundred-year-old post or a bead-board ceiling. Garland is tied with soft wire or hung from clips that grip the edge of the trim, and the roofline runs on gutter clips or shingle clips that lift off clean in January. If a porch has no gutter and the trim cannot take a clip, we say so and plan around it.

Then there is East Cobb. Along Roswell Road, Johnson Ferry and Lower Roswell, the subdivisions filled in between the early 1970s and the late 1990s with two-story brick traditionals and colonials on half-acre wooded lots. These houses were built for the roofline. Clear gables, straight eaves, a brick front and a symmetrical door. Warm white on the front edges, a wreath, and a wrapped tree or two is a complete plan there. Our residential design service begins with a photo and ends with an itemized quote for each piece.

The porch carries the old houses

On Whitlock and Church Street Victorians, garland and a lit wreath do the work. A single eave line is added only where the house can carry it.
Roofline on the brick

East Cobb traditionals from the 1970s to the 1990s have clean gables and eaves made for a warm-white C9 line.
Trunks under the canopy

On wooded lots in Indian Hills, wrapped hardwood trunks bring the display forward to the street when the house sits back.
Nothing fastened to old trim

No nails, screws or staples in turned posts, brackets or clapboard. Clips, soft wire and tension wraps only, removed in January.

Whitlock Avenue and Church Street

Whitlock Avenue runs west from the Square past a mix of antebellum houses, Victorian mansions and smaller late-nineteenth-century cottages, most of them painted wood with deep front porches. Church Street and Cherokee Street to the north hold a similar run of Folk Victorian and Colonial Revival houses. These are close to the sidewalk and seen at walking pace, so detail matters more than reach. Full garland on the rail, a lit wreath on the door, and a lantern or two carry a porch. The paint is usually white or a pale historic color, and warm white sits on it well. Cool white turns the same paint blue.

Glover Park and the storefronts around the Square

The Square is the center of Marietta's December. The city lights its tree in Glover Park early in the month, and the restaurants and shops around the park stay busy through the season. A storefront here is seen up close by people on foot. Window frames in warm-white mini lights, garland over the door, and a pair of wreaths on the glass make a storefront read as open and welcoming without competing with the park. We install before opening or after close and set the timer to the posted hours. The journal post on storefront lighting has the details.

Kennesaw Avenue and the northwest district

Kennesaw Avenue leaves the Square to the northwest between some of the largest old houses in the city, several of them brick behind long lawns and old trees. A brick antebellum or Victorian house with a formal front takes a different plan from a wooden cottage: a single warm-white C9 line along the main cornice, wreaths at the first-floor windows, and garland at the entry. The trees along the avenue are old enough that one wrapped trunk near the street can do more than anything on the roof.

Indian Hills and the Atlanta Country Club

Indian Hills was planned in the 1960s as a golf course community and built out through the 1970s and 1980s with two-story brick traditionals, colonials and a few contemporaries on wooded lots. The streets around the Atlanta Country Club, off Paper Mill Road, are similar in era and larger in scale. On these houses the roofline is the plan. Warm-white C9s on the front gables and eaves, a lit wreath on the door, and foundation shrubs in mini lights give a complete display. On a steep lot we light the trunks of two or three hardwoods between the house and the street so the display reads at a distance.

In season, and in January

Every display goes on a timer at install. If a run goes dark, text a photo to (470) 380-7797 and it goes on the next route. In January we take everything down, coil and label it. The lights are ours, and we keep them between seasons unless we agree otherwise with you. Our takedown and storage page walks through the schedule. We also work in nearby Vinings, Sandy Springs and Roswell.

Marietta lighting questions

What owners near the Square and out in East Cobb want to know before they text a photo.

What works on a Victorian with a wraparound porch and turned columns?

Lead with greenery. Garland along the porch rail and spiraled up the turned columns, a wreath on the door, and a lit wreath at the front gable window if the house has one. A warm-white mini-light line on the porch eave is enough roofline. Leave the upper gables dark. We attach everything with soft wire and clips, nothing driven into the old wood.

Our house on Kennesaw Avenue is in a historic district. Does that change anything?

Not for seasonal lights. Clip-on lighting and tied greenery that come down in January are a temporary display, not a change to the house, and that is the only kind of work we do on old houses. We do not give advice on the city's preservation rules. If you are considering permanent roofline lighting, talk with the city before booking it.

Warm white or cool white on a brick house in Indian Hills?

Warm white, about 2700K. Cool white turns red and brown brick grey and makes mortar look chalky. Warm white brings out the color in the brick and matches the light from the windows. The journal post on warm white versus cool white on brick shows the difference side by side.

Our house near the Atlanta Country Club sits well back under big trees. Will lights on the roof even show?

Often only partly, which is why we start with the trees. Two or three hardwood trunks near the drive wrapped in warm-white mini lights up into the first limbs read from the street no matter how far back the house sits. Then we light the roof edges that do show, usually the front gable and the eave over the entry. Our tree and landscape lighting page explains how we size the wraps.

Do you light shops and restaurants on the Square?

Yes. Storefronts around Glover Park usually want the window frames, the entry and any awning or patio lit before the Square's December events begin, installed outside business hours with a timer set to posted hours. Our storefront lighting page covers how we quote a storefront from a photo.

Also near Marietta

Plan a Marietta display from a photo

Text a photo of the house and the street to (470) 380-7797, and tell us if the porch is old wood or the house is brick. We will send a free written, itemized quote for each line, tree and piece of greenery.

Text us a photo Call (470) 380-7797

Email christmaslightsofatl@gmail.com