Between the Incline Railway and Point Park, the home of Scott and Lisa Maclellan is a gem of the Beaux Arts style with Corinthian columns and balustrades that accent its graceful porches and stately walls of square-cut sandstone.
For much of the century that the house has been a Lookout Mountain landmark, the façade has remained unchanged, but the original home, built by industrialist David Giles, was converted into six apartments during the Great Depression.
“There was nothing fancy about this house. It was clearly built for a man,” says Lisa, whose personal taste includes the feminine influences of the Victorian, French and Venetian styles. Scott, a Lookout Mountain native, and Lisa, a Birmingham transplant, surprised themselves when they bought the home at auction in July of 2009. “Scott said, ‘What are we going to do with this house?’ and I said, ‘We’re going to live in it,'” says Lisa.
Lucky for the Maclellans, Terry Barker of River Street Architects was already working with the previous owner and had drawn a plan for what the interior may have looked like when it was built. The Maclellans spent two years transforming the house from a no-nonsense apartment building to a luxury residence before they moved in. “Scott said the house had good bones,” says Lisa, which was fortunate since the couple’s renovation began by stripping the interior of everything but its sandstone walls. “We wondered if it was going to stay standing.”
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An established-looking garden surrounds the original exterior with evergreens and white blooms, but it was installed only a year ago. Landscape designer Sam Baker started from scratch, using white blooming cherry trees, white Knockout roses, Blushing Bride hydrangeas and Anabelle hydrangeas alongside English boxwoods, ferns, pachysandra and cedars. The slate roof is an addition but old, reclaimed from a Manhattan church.