For the Atlanta Preservation Center's Phoenix Flies program, the Castle on 15th Street flung its doors wide open for visitors to take a look at the five-story centenarian across the street from the High Museum. Eccentric businessman Ferdinand Dallas McMillan, desiring a house both "individual and peculiar," designed and built the Castle, also known as Fort Peace, as part of the development of Ansley Park in the early 1900s. The house has been many things in the last 100 years — among them vacant and derelict — and was threatened with demolition as a poster child for blight in Atlanta, with Mayor Andrew Young going so far as to call it "a hunk of junk" in the 1980s. Thankfully, fresh off the victory of saving the Fox Theatre, the APC intervened, hosting tours that drew more than 5,000 people and lead to the house being recognized with landmark status. While vacant for the following decades, a five-year renovation is wrapping up to turn the building into a bar, restaurant and private club with accommodations in four of the home's original bedrooms. Before the first patrons check in, see the sneak peek after the jump. UPDATE: Officials with the Castle project have asked that all interior photos be removed. Other photos from the tour remain after the jump.
· The Phoenix Flies: A Celebration of Atlanta's Historic Sites is returning for a 12th year! [Atlanta Preservation Center]
· Midtown Grapples with Balance of History, Development [Curbed Atlanta]
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