Second Atlanta home of Tuskegee Airman’s family offered as affordable housing at $198K

The second of two homes previously owned by the family of the late Edward Johnson, a ground instructor in the Tuskegee Airmen, is now available for purchase for qualified buyers, as part of a push to keep homeownership attainable west of downtown Atlanta.

Built in the 1920s as a two-bedroom bungalow, the property now includes an addition in the back that created a third bedroom and second bathroom. It measures a total of 1,300 square feet.

The renovated Earthcraft-certified property at 1575 Mozley Place retains some of its original touches, such as the hardwood floors, brick fireplace, and wood trim, while sporting modern updates in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Across Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from Mozley Park, the property also is near the Beltline’s Westside Trail.

The home is one of two the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation purchased as part of its West Atlanta Preservation Initiative, which aims to affordably and sustainably revitalize neighborhoods on the city’s westside.

The first home, located at 1138 Harwell Street in Washington Park, became available last September but has yet to sell. Both homes are priced at $198,000.

Potential homebuyers must meet qualifying income requirements, specifically earning 80 percent or below of the area median household income. That translates to no more than $57,400 for a family of three and no more than $63,750 for a family of four.

Each home comes with a preservation easement to protect it from demolition or “insensitive” alterations in perpetuity.

Both homes will host open houses Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

As the first black Licensed Master Electrician in Atlanta, Johnson had built the Washington Park home himself on one of the neighborhood’s last available lots, neighboring an active railway that’s since become the Beltline’s Westside Trail.

With his wife, the late Harriet May Robinson, an Atlanta Public Schools kindergarten teacher and Spelman College graduate, he raised three daughters there. His mother-in-law lived in the Mozley Park home.

Johnson died in June at age 103. But before his passing, he’d sold his properties to the Georgia Trust in hopes the houses could afford other families a life similar to what he’d known.

Here, a closer look at the Mozley Place option: