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Neel Reid-designed showstopper with ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ ties fancies $2.7M

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It’s marketed as a six-bedroom masterpiece in Druid Hills

A white and brick mansion with manicured bushes in front and trees all around.
The classic stucco-and-brick facade at 850 Oakdale Road NE.
Dorsey Alston Realtors; photography by Lance Bryant

This elegant example of French Provincial design by one of Atlanta’s most storied architects is brandishing another claim to fame—a connection to the city’s O.G. silver screen days, long before the current TV and film zeitgeist.

Designed by famed Atlanta classical architect Neel Reid and built in 1915, about a decade before Reid died young of a brain tumor, the six-bedroom “masterpiece” with a carriage house was originally the property of Alfred and Clementine Montag.

Per the listing, Driving Miss Daisy playwright Alfred Uhry has said the home once belonged to his beloved Aunt Clemmie and served as the play’s inspiration and setting in his mind. That echoes what Uhry once told the New York Times.

These days, it still stands pretty off Ponce de Leon Avenue, between Virginia-Highland and the Fernbank Museum, on tony Oakdale Road. It listed this week for $2.65 million with Dorsey Alston Realtors.

Occupying a 1.2-acre intown lot with a greenhouse and plentiful patios, the home has been restored with a buyer of today in mind, leaning toward modern restraint more than neoclassical pomp.

With its wide hall and formal living and dining rooms, the main level is described as a “master class in symmetry.”

A huge hallway with several rooms at left and right.
The generous main hall, a Reid hallmark, upon entry.

Upstairs is a master suite with a sitting room and three more bedrooms. Over that is a media room (or huge office) for movie night.

All told, there are five and a half bathrooms among these 6,064 square feet.

Records indicate it last traded for $1.3 million in 2003 and had been listed for as high as $3.1 million in the spring of 2017. It was offered for a few months last year at $2.8 million.

Since last summer, other noteworthy examples of Reid homes have listed next door to Fernbank Museum and in Buckhead.

A formal dining room with abstract art and a fireplace at right.
Formal dining, with the first of several fireplaces and so much handsome molding.
A white kitchen with wood floors and a small table.
The classy dual-sink kitchen.
An open and airy living room with furniture in leather and gray and brown.
A living room with patio access and no dearth of windows.
A white master bedroom with a large white bed and four-poster frame.
High ceilings in the master bedroom.
A master bathroom with white cabinetry and two mirrors.
The master bathroom could be the home’s most elegant room.
a fireplace and wood floors in a white bedroom.
A secondary bedroom.
A white media room with red and beige chairs.
The third-level media room, or office.
A white and brick home with trees all around it.
Patio space and exterior detailing, as seen from behind the home.
A basketball court and carriage house in Atlanta.
The carriage house in back includes a full kitchen above and electric-car charging stations below.