A Brief History of Glenridge Hall

             Thomas K Glenn married Elizabeth Ewing in September 1927 when he was 59 and she was 48. TK had been a widower for thirteen years, raised two sons, and prospered. In 1928 the couple commissioned Atlanta society architects to design houses for four different pieces of property Glenn owned: a Paces Ferry Road Italianate villa designed by Francis Smith (directly across from the already famous Swan House), a Sea Island Rococo-style beach house by Philip Schutze, a Sandy Springs Tudor country house by Samuel Inman Cooper, and a simple but elegant four-bedroom Neil Reid style mountain cottage on the Highlands Country Club golf course.

             Glenn decided to start with the Tudor country house on the four-hundred acre Sandy Springs farm he had purchased in 1915. Elizabeth fully intended to “outdo” her new sister-in-law Flora Glenn Candler’s famous Tudor-style home “Callanwolde.” All through 1928 Sam Cooper and the newlyweds created and refined three complete sets of blueprints, and even then made further additions and improvements while the house was being built. Construction of the mansion and its separate five-car garage and staff house for eleven took sixty workmen all of 1929 to complete. Meantime the Glenns made several voyages to Europe to collect enough art and furniture to fill twenty rooms. Glenridge Hall officially opened in October 1930 to celebrate Sam Cooper’s engagement.

             The Depression was clearly not going away, and so TK, banker and businessman, decided against building the other three houses.

             From 1915 to 1930 TK had already developed his Sandy Springs farm into a fully self-sustaining agricultural experiment with a five-horse stable, blacksmith and carpenter’s shops, massive cow barn, state-of-the-art dairy, smoke house, tractor and equipment barn, and three spacious duplexes for eighteen resident workers. Throughout the Depression the farm produced a wide range of seasonal crops, feed, seed, poultry, cattle, swine, dairy products, fruit, nuts, and even their own honey. TK also had built a skeet range with two trap houses, a rustic club house, eight miles of shaded bridle trails, a two-hog barbeque pit, and a covered picnic pavilion that seated 200. He frequently invited all the employees of Trust Company Bank, or Atlantic Steel, or Coca Cola, or Georgia Power to enjoy true Southern hospitality.

             The opening of Glenridge Hall, however, transformed “The Farm” into a grand country estate and TK Glenn, a Southern Gentleman Farmer, into a 20th- Century American Country Squire. Although it was a fifteen miles from town, an invitation to Glenridge was always worth the trip.

             From 1930 to 1946 TK and Elizabeth enjoyed Glenridge both as a quiet rural weekend retreat and as a permanent stage set for lavish social and corporate entertaining. Although his grown sons Wadley and Wilbur moved into the “Boys’ Wing” at Glenridge Hall year round, TK and Elizabeth continued to reside during the week in the top two floors of the Biltmore Apartment House.   Sadly, TK died in 1946, and Elizabeth moved to Manhattan where she died in 1970.

             Wadley and Wilbur continued to live in Glenridge Hall, each with his own family, until 1950 and 1951 when they built separate homes elsewhere on the estate. Glenridge Hall sat empty until 1952 when Westminster Schools rented the mansion and its staff house as a dormitory for 25 girls, 10 boys, and 8 adults. In 1964 Westminster built dorms on campus and moved out of the Hall. From 1964 to 1966 the house again stood empty and subject to vandalism by those brazen enough to sneak through the woods or up the mile-long driveway. To prevent further damage, Wadley and Wilbur moved the Glenridge farm manager and his family of five into the Hall, but by the mid-seventies the farm had ceased to function. Since then the house and grounds have been extensively restored and preserved.