Wednesday, March 7, 2001
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Wednesday, March 7, 2001 |
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Owners proud of their custom abodes, but wary of publicity By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE The Hamrick home For years, passersby in pastoral south Fayette County admired a bowed driveway with a sturdy house sitting at the top of an arch defined by cannas and crape myrtles. As the seasons changed, the colors leading up to the house changed too. The house that once presided over this striking display is gone now, a few small buildings and a windmill testifying to its history. Where it stood, a new driveway bends back toward dark pines clustered around a sizable pond. Against the pines rises a brick mansion with four double chimneys, arched windows and countless gables. "Chateauesque" is the term applied by one guide to architectural styles, and since this house resembles a rambling European country home, perhaps chateauesque it is. Owner and designer Patricia Hamrick said she and her husband, Doug, "were in the house-building business 20 years ago in Clayton County," so she had an idea what she wanted when she began work on her Brooks residence. For sure, she knew what she didn't want, she said. The Hamricks had traveled extensively buying antiques for another of their enterprises, and liked what they saw in European traditions. "I love the houses over there," Patricia Hamrick said, noting especially the Tudor style she saw in England. She worked closely with her architects to get what she wanted, and began to realize her dream house was veering away from Tudor. "But the more we drew, the better I liked it. I'd say it's a European country-style home," she said. Her architects Jim and Linda Strickland of Historical Concepts in Peachtree City contributed immeasurably, although the design and location of the garage was one detail on which Hamrick said they disagreed. She wanted it to look as though the house had grown organically, with add-ons like the garage appearing connected by a bridge to the rest of the house. "I wouldn't change that," she said. "I wanted it to look European-style, where even the barns are connected to the house. I wanted it to look like it been here a long time." Hamrick is a Clayton County native, having grown up on Mt. Zion Boulevard when it was a dirt road. Morrow is no longer rural Tara-country; Home Depot's arrival clinched that. The couple moved to south Fayette and "camped out" for seven years in the old house on the curved driveway, while planning and building the new one. They also bought the property across the road, and designed and built on it a home for Patricia Hamrick's mother. It took about a year just to draw the plans for each house, Hamrick said. Her mother's is now for sale. "We're getting older," said Hamrick, who is approaching 60, "and we enjoyed coming down here. We like the peace and quiet [of south Fayette.]" That "peace and quiet" occasionally underscored by bird song and the distant lowing of cattle is what she likes best about her home, Hamrick said, "and the house itself was everything I wanted." But asked if there's a downside, she was frank: There's a lot of upkeep to a house of just over 10,000 square feet on a little over 77 acres. She and her husband know of which they speak. They manage several commercial properties, including two in Fayetteville and an office building in Peachtree City's Westpark. "Been here and done this," she said. "I always thought I wanted a big house, but now I'm ready to go back down [in size]. There's so much work to do." A footnote to this story: Linda Strickland, who with her husband, Jim, labored alongside Hamrick to bring about this design, was effusive in her praise of the Hamricks, both as visionaries and as clients. "They were absolutely delightful," she said, "and the execution of the design was excellent. Everything was loved and thought out and done perfectly." Strickland said one of the disappointments of her profession is to render plans for a beautifully designed house, then have an interior decorator ruin it with "sometimes dreadful decorating." The Hamricks' experience kept that from happening. "This house is furnished so well, in pieces of museum quality," Strickland said. "It's absolutely exquisite. It's so rare to find in [a client] the taste and the money and the enthusiasm they had. They reveled in it; they were hilarious, happy, friendly, generous every person in our office loved working with them." The Brady home "You want to know something about our house?" Mike Brady asked disingenuously. "It's just a little cottage. You wouldn't be interested." Assured that interest was there, Brady got serious. He declined to invite a reporter to see his red-brick Georgian, politely asserting that he does not relish publicity and does not care for sightseers. "We've had a lot of various organizations ask to use it," he said, "and we have held some fund-raising events, but we've also turned down a lot of requests. We've protected it; this is our retirement home." Michael and Carol Brady moved to Peachtree City from Dix-Lee-On north of Fayetteville "across from Evander," he said and have lived in the county for 17 years. "We had been admiring Peachtree City," he said, and although they were about to become empty-nesters, made the move five years ago. "The house is pretty big, and quite different," he said in what may have been the understatement of several interviews. While the house was under construction, Brady said his son noticed people driving by to look at it, and was tempted "to sell lemonade or charge admission." That's just the point, Brady said. To his family, a house and grounds that sprawl over three generous lots and towers above a terraced front yard is not a curiosity. "There's a lot of pride in this house," he said. "It was a year in design and a year in construction. We worked closely with an Atlanta architect to design it, and it has a lot of special meaning to us." According to county records, some of that special meaning is rendered in Roman columns, arched doorways, built-in shelves throughout. At more than 8,000 square feet, Brady's description of "pretty big" would seem apt. The property, surrounded by wrought iron fencing, stretches from one street to the next. Visible from the rear is a greenhouse which appears to double as a pool house. "People ask what we'd change now that we've been in it for five years," Brady said, and answered the question firmly: "There's nothing we'd change after five years. The house works, and we love our subdivision and our neighbors very much. "The architect we worked with worked very hard to make the house livable. The total size is quite large, but we don't find it overpowering. My wife has made it very livable." Brady is "retired from the airline business." Their younger son is a freshman at Auburn; the older son recently graduated from Duke University and "still comes home on occasion." The Seals home Invited to a company Christmas party several years ago in the north Peachtree City mansion of Lamar "Lou" Seals III, a visitor was told that the house was at the end of a cul de sac. "Wrong," said the visitor. "It IS the cul de sac." True enough. The house with its low balustraded wall, cobblestone driveway and leonine fountain dominates a neighborhood of houses which, elsewhere, would appear regal. The "French-Romanesque hybrid" Seals' description has about 10,000 square feet of heated space, a clay tennis court he calls "pretty neat," and a total of six garages. Not bad for a local lad. Seals, 40 and a bachelor, grew up in Tyrone and was graduated from Fayette County High School, completing his education at then-Clayton Junior College and Georgia State. He is chairman and CEO of Seals Communications Corporation (Sealsco), the TV production and electronic marketing company he founded in 1984. Visitors report that the most breath-taking interior feature of Seals' house is the extensive trompe l'oiel artwork that Atlanta muralist Mike Shepard lavished throughout. A downstairs game room is painted to look like a dungeon lined with stone walls that have to be touched to determine that they are not real. There's even a suit of armor painted on the wall and wisteria vines "growing" on lattice work that isn't really there. Above the front door, in a living room with a vast fireplace and player-grand-piano, two staircases lead to opposite ends of the house. At the landing of one, an archway opens out upon a lovely garden or so thought a guest who actually walked into the wall before discovering it was a painted illusion. The rectangular first-floor master bedroom has domed ceilings about 20 feet high, done all in sky and clouds. Where the top of the walls begins, faux velvet drapes with gold cords "hang" around the room. Not even the bathrooms are exempt from such whimsy: An open medicine cabinet, with a jar of Noxzema and several razors in full view, must be touched to determine whether actual or artifice. Sculptures (they're real) surround an outdoor pool (also real) in the style of a Roman bath. Mirrors so completely cover the walls of the well-equipped downstairs workout room that even the light switch plates are mirrors. Not surprisingly, there's also a movie theater outfitted with popcorn machines and 20 luxurious theater seats. "The house is a work in progress," Seals says, "definitely something I enjoyed doing, designing and building it. I think of it as a means to an end, but no one knows the end yet, including myself. His favorite characteristic of the house is its privacy. "I like the overall openness of the house; it's very open, very accommodating, yet with a good degree of privacy. It's very visible from the street, has great curb appeal, but when you get into the house on the terrace level, even in the backyard area, it's very private, even in the wintertime when the foliage is gone." To a reporter's favorite question What would you do differently? Seals replied, "I would probably make it larger." Larger? "There are areas I'd like to add where I could do more corporate entertaining. I'd like to double the home theater and I'd probably put in another guest suite I have about five of those right now. I've got a full-time housekeeper and an estate manager," he added. Despite the fact that every conversation The Citizen had with him was long-distance one from a Manhattan traffic jam Seals says he works at home a lot, in a "fully-equipped office connected to corporate headquarters" in Governor's Square, just east of Peachtree City. His Web site describes him as "an expert at bringing specialized sports genres into the mainstream." Seals and his staff provide more than 200 hours of programming annually for ESPN, ESPN2, FOX Sports Net, Discovery Wings, and ABC, among others. His news magazine series, the flagship show "MotoWorld," was the first devoted exclusively to motorcycling. Wal-mart's "Great Outdoors," on ESPN2 Saturday mornings, is a Sealsco production. Some of the activities of Seals Communications Group Inc. and its affiliated companies, include "the sale of network media time for ESPN and ESPN2, development of screenplays and motion pictures, new media and distribution endeavors, and the direction of a wide variety of special programming projects and partnerships amongst Sealsco's Fortune 1000 client base," the Web site says. Seals' Web site: www.sealsco.com. The WCCI-Dollar home The white stucco house all 11,000 square feet of it sits on more than 27 acres. A large pond separates it from Sandy Creek Road. And a gate crosses the driveway, accessible only with a code tapped into a keypad. This is a $1.27 million parsonage. The house was built by former Cleveland Cavaliers' basketball player John Battle and his wife, R&B singer Regina Belle in 1994, but in 1998, records show it reverted to Davies General Contractor. According to data in the Fayette County tax assessors office, the Rev. Creflo Dollar, renowned preacher, televangelist and pastor to heavyweight boxing champ Evander Holyfield, bought the house in 1999. On the same day, he deeded it to his mega-church, World Changers Church International. The church does not permit access to its controversial founder, nor release information about him, but it is supposed that he lives there with his wife, Taffi, also a "reverend," and their five children. An article by John Blake in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution last year, however, indicated that the church bought the house, and that Dollar's family actually lives in another million-dollar church-owned residence in the upscale Guilford Forest subdivision in southwest Atlanta. In which case, the Fayette mansion may be only one of about a dozen properties, most in College Park, owned by WCCI in addition to a Gulfstream jet, a Lear Jet worth more than $5 million, a black Rolls-Royce, and the 8,000-seat World Changers Dome built off Old National Highway in 1996 for $6.5 million. As a church, is a WCCI property tax-exempt? According to Fayette County tax assessor Ellen Mills, the fact that a church owns property does not make it exempt. First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, for example, owns apartments and pays taxes on them. "It depends on what the church uses the property for," Mills said. "If it's for charitable purposes or worship, it would be tax-exempt. If World Changers filed for exemption, they'd have to go before the assessors' board. Use is the determining factor. "Of course, a church parsonage is exempt," she added. Her office received a call asking how to apply for tax-exemption on the Sandy Creek Road property, but no application has been made. In fact, WCCI paid $16,872.20 in county property taxes last year. WCCI is a College Park mega-church that has grown to more than 20,000 members since Dollar established it with eight people in 1986. According to his Web site, Dollar is "an internationally known author, teacher and conference speaker with a ministry that not only reaches the local community, but also spans the globe. He can be seen and heard throughout the world on the 'Changing Your World' broadcasts, via television and radio." The thrust of Dollar's message detailed minutely in his Web site and explained in books and tapes conveniently for sale on the same pages is that believers need not suffer through poverty and debt in this life, hoping for a heavenly reward. Money and wealth are given by God in this life to those who tithe faithfully, he says, with the expectation that they will continue to share their burgeoning wealth. "Nothing comes without a price tag," he cautions. "God's blessings always require a down payment." Dollar's Prophetic Financial Transfer Declaration begins with the instruction, "Repeat after me," and continues: "I declare now that I am a distribution center; unexpected and expected income, come my way. In the name of Jesus I am a money magnet. Money cometh to me now, and in Jesus' name I submit to the Spirit of God. ... You have given us the power to get wealth. I ain't poor no more." Blake wrote, "Supporters see Dollar as a compassionate man who helps the needy and a spiritual visionary whose message of prosperity is twisted out of context. Detractors characterize him privately as 'Cash-Flow' Dollar, a high roller who often refuses to let members touch him and whose church requests access to their W-2 forms." He is often accompanied by bodyguards in public, Blake said. According to his WCCI biography, "Dr." Creflo A. Dollar Jr. was born and raised in College Park, graduated from Lakeshore High School, and obtained a bachelor of education degree with a concentration in history from West Georgia College. He taught high school in Fulton County, then became an educational therapist for the Brawner Psychiatric Institute of Atlanta. But even Dollar's detractors have good things to say about him. According to a 1997 article by Rick Sherrell in Creative Loafing, J.R. Hudson was a member of World Changers who came to believe that Dollar's teachings are anti-scriptural and take advantage of poor people, that the preacher is the only one prospering under this philosophy. Sherrell says Hudson sees Dollar as "a very sincere, compassionate, strong-willed man who loves his family. 'If you knew him, you'd like him,' he says. 'I don't have anything bad that I can say about him personally. ... He's very sincere. He thinks he's right. There's a whole lot of people who think that, but the thing is, you can be sincere and be sincerely wrong.'" The Lenox home This is the house that Debi built. Curb appeal? Hardly any. When the leaves are on the trees, the house, set deep on its wooded lot, is virtually invisible from the curb. The neighborhood upscale and attractive, but restrained is not a neighborhood that brags on being the home of Peachtree City's first family. And that's exactly what sold Bob and Debi Lenox on this lot. It's very private, slopes down to a small lake, and the house appears to have grown on it. It takes a lot of planning to get so unplanned a look. This is the house that Debi built. The search for adjectives bogs down. Welcoming. Unique. Eclectic. All of these and one thing more. Loving. The entrance is on an upper-level foyer overlooking the great room where friends and family gather before a panorama of woods and pond. But halfway down the curving open stairway, a full-size grand piano seems to hover in space. "When I play it, the sound is awesome," says its owner. Her other favorite spot is more hidden: her work room at the far end of the house, where she can indulge her muse in stained glass and photography. Several of her glass creations serve as windows, and her photos of family moments line every available wall. The Lenoxes live in a collection of collections. Hand mirrors glitter in the powder room. Mannequins model vintage clothes, including an old Girl Scout uniform. There are the mayor's brass fire nozzles. And books! The library shelves extend to the ceiling, and require a traveling ladder to reach. Nearly every item in the house has a story to tell. Debi Lenox, who was raised in the country, said she loves the feeling of country-living combined with the advantages of living in town. Asked if this was her dream house or just a stepping stone to something else, she's very positive: "We're staying. When we get old, they'll just wheel us out in a wheelchair and we can watch the sun go down." There's nothing she'd do differently if she had it to do again. "Everything about it works so well. It's so cozy," despite its being a large house, she said. "People are not afraid to come in and walk around." She admits, however, that she hasn't run out of ideas, "but Bob won't let me do anything more." This is the house that Debi built. And built well. The county's property record cards (filed under Exceptional Homes) contain a box where assessors make notations that don't fit elsewhere on the form. Of the ten cards researched for this article, only this one bears the note, "Excellent workmanship." The Lenoxes' youngest daughter is getting married soon, and a busy schedule made it difficult to work in a visit but Debi Lenox was singularly cooperative with a reporter and photographer who wanted to see the house. She seemed puzzled that other owners of outstanding homes were not equally cordial. "I share," she said. "This house is very personal to me, but I just love to have people here. We do fund-raisers for good causes." She said she is disinclined to do a charity open-house "I do not want total strangers walking through" because she does not feel comfortable being considered wealthy or elite. "We moved here to start a business [Continuous Forms & Checks in 1982] with $25,000 in our pocket. We earned every bit of what we have." The things that matter most to her are not what a lot of people would consider valuable, she said, but "my grandparents' things, my great-grandfather's cameras, so many memories. It's a fun house, not at all pretentious. I shop at flea markets. I've always said if anyone wanted to rob us, they'd just find a lot of old junk." A visitor once wrote to the mayor that the house provides a glimpse into the heart of a family. "What a talented, imaginative, humorous, sensitive, unfettered lady [Debi] is. At the risk of getting carried away, I thought I could feel pure joy in what she has done with that house, as well as in her life with you and Stacey. ... I felt as though I caught a dimension of you that most people have not seen. Congratulations on what appears to be a life well-lived. I suspect you are possessed of the grace to appreciate it." This is the house that Debi built. The mayor said the same thing, and put his acknowledgment in bronze on an exterior wall: "This home was built by Debi Lenox. She did it with skill, determination and courage along with hard work and her blood, sweat and tears. I am proud of this home, but prouder of her. With love, admiration, pride and deep respect, Bob 1994."
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