John Wesley Dobbs Building, Sweet Auburn

Q&A What made you select tis property during your initial investigations?

Being new to town, I surveyed several people for suggestions on a building to pick for this project. One of my dearest friends from Seattle, who graduated from Clark University, suggested I visit the APEX Museum. When she was an undergraduate student, she participated in a local African-American “Sweet Auburn” tour which included the museum. The structure’s classic beauty, its origins in education, and the non-profit missions of its recent residents appealed to my sensibilities and past careers.

Doing this project, what did you discover about the building or the site that surprised or puzzled you?

One of the claims I discovered in my early research was that the Southern School-Book Depository was the first building on Auburn Avenue with air-conditioning. The claim held that it was to protect the books from humidity. A reasonable proposition, but nothing in the architectural drawings indicated such a system was included in 1910. In addition, Mr. Dan Moore said he installed air-conditioning into the building when the APEX acquired it in 1986. So, it was interesting to find out, via the assistance of the Georgia Tech Operations Team of the Kendeda Building that air conditioning first arrived to the Southeast for commercial purposes only, but not until the 1940s, after it had commenced in the north.

Using the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, for the appropriate treatment for a historic building or landscape, what would be your suggestion for the property: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, or reconstruction?

Since the 1980s the stewards of 135 Auburn Avenue NE have done an excellent job of preserving and rehabilitating the structure across the decades. Between ER Mitchell Construction, Menefee Architecture, and Cognitive Design, the John Wesley Dobbs Building has been more attended to than many other structures down that block. Moving forward I would recommend to continue practicing the Secretary of Interior’s Standards in focusing on the maintenance and repair of existing materials and retention of the property’s form as well as addressing the need to alter and add to the historic property to meet climate, energy, and technology changes while retaining the its character.

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