By Roger Bakeman. The Smith-Benning house at the corner of Oakdale Road and Benning Place is absolutely unique in our neighborhood. Perhaps you have wondered about its history and the new pergola on the south side of the garden. Here is your chance to find out. Recently I talked with the owner, Robert Craig (a retired Georgia Tech architectural historian). He told me he plans to give a series of three talks on the 45-year preservation/rehabilitation of the c 1883 Smith-Benning House. The first will be June 4, 6:30-7:30 at the DeKalb History Center (the old courthouse in Decatur) and is titled “Garden Preservation and Development at the Smith-Benning House, Dekalb County: Influences from Sir Edwin Lutyens, Bernard Maybeck, and Ji Cheng.” All talks are free and open to the public.
According to Dr. Craig, the first talk (Part 1) “will describe efforts to preserve the Victorian east garden and develop the south garden now framed along the property line by a 65-foot stone and heavy oak pergola (built in 2025). The major feature of the side garden, the pergola’s design was influenced by the work of two Arts and Crafts architects: Sir Edwin Lutyens’s pergola at Hestercombe (England) and Bernard Maybeck’s Faculty Club in Berkeley. Inspired by Lutyens’s geometric garden layouts, the Smith-Benning House south garden (long a neglected void framed by the house verandah and a new property line (created 100 years after the house was built), is now an ordered layout of reclaimed-brick paths, piers, and low garden walls, highlighted by a pergola constructed of Tennessee stone, massive hand-hewn, white oak timbers (reclaimed lumber from 1840s Ohio barns), and featuring recycled Stone Mountain granite curbstones, hexagonal sidewalk pavers, statuary, garden seats, and bird baths, all newly ordered by axis and geometry.”
He continued, “Watch out for the complimentary talk in early August (Part 2) on the preservation and rehabilitation of the Smith-Benning house itself, a project of historic preservation ultimately involving the Craigs’ restoration of ten other Atlanta houses and a derelict 1920s commercial building, en route to saving one of Dekalb County’s most notable houses, The Smith-Benning House in Candler Park. A third talk (Part 3) on the rehabilitation of the property for modern living and the new Arts and Crafts kitchen will be scheduled in the fall.”