This Old House Has Old South Spirit Charlie and Sylvia Harrison restore antebellum home with due respect to 'the colonel' Story by Leslie Overman Photos by Melissa Bugg
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he remains of Col. Robert A. Alston, a Civil War veteran and DeKalb County legislator killed in a duel in 1879, are buried in Decatur Cemetery. But Alston's spirit lives in the Atlanta home he built in 1856 — or so say its current residents. "He's quite a character, and handsome," says homeowner Sylvia Harrison as she looks up at the portrait of Alston, dashing with a mop of wavy black hair and a beard and handlebar mustache to match, that hangs above the mantel in the home's living room. "He's our resident ghost. I don't mind having a cute ghost." Sylvia and her husband, Charlie Harrison, IM 52, have been living relatively peacefully with the ghost of Alston, or "the colonel" as they call him, for nearly 15 years. Perhaps the relationship has remained amicable because of the care the Harrisons have taken in restoring the antebellum home to its original luster after decades of misguided renovations and neglect. Nestled among oak trees and situated just across the street from East Lake Golf Club, Meadow Nook was Alston's wedding gift to his
bride, Mary Charlotte McGill. The home was designed in the Greek Revival style with coastal touches, like a wraparound porch, honoring Mrs. Alston's upbringing near Charleston, S.C. When the Harrisons bought the home in 1994, it was in desperate need of renovation. The fluted Doric columns that once lined the perimeter of the wraparound porch had rotted and been replaced with New Orleans-style wrought iron. The previous owner had been renting out the house, Charlie says, and Meadow Nook's grounds were overgrown and littered with auto-
Charlie and Sylvia Harrison have been renovating Meadow Nook for nearly 15 years, and they still consider the house a work in progress.
Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2009
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