Buckhead Heritage hosted a public tour of the 115-year-old E. Rivers Lodge on Monday morning to mark the start of a $100,000 renovation project that will restore the wooden structure for community use.
About 40 residents attended the tour, which was led by Buckhead Heritage president Wright Mitchell. The group walked the lodge’s sagging porch, examined the original timber framing, and learned about the building’s history as one of Buckhead’s oldest standing structures.
“This is a piece of Buckhead that almost nobody knows about,” Mitchell said. “We want to fix it up and put it to work for the community.”
The lodge, built in 1911 by one of Buckhead’s founding families, has been used in recent decades for storage and has fallen into disrepair. Under the renovation agreement announced last week, Buckhead Heritage will fund repairs to the foundation, roof, windows and porch, and will install a new accessible bathroom.
The renovation is expected to be completed by next spring. Once finished, the lodge will host educational programming and small community gatherings, including school field trips focused on Atlanta history.
The tour was the first of several planned events Buckhead Heritage will host at the lodge over the coming year. Future tours will be announced on the organization’s website at buckheadheritage.org.
