{"nrhp_refnum":"04000683","name":"Alston, Robert A., House","other_names":["Meadow Nook"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2420 Alston Dr., SE off Eastlake Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Atlanta","county":"DeKalb County","state":"GA","lat":33.747523745000024,"lon":-84.30794234299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-07-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-a-half story wooden Georgian cottage with Greek Revival details, known as Meadow Nook, at 2420 Alston Drive SE in the East Lake area of Atlanta, DeKalb County, Georgia. It was built around 1860 for Robert A. Alston and is traditionally attributed to local carpenter Andrew Marshall.","why_significant":"The house is significant in architecture as a remarkably intact late antebellum Georgian cottage with Greek Revival details and extensive original materials. It is also tied to Robert A. Alston, a newspaper editor and state legislator who opposed the convict lease system and was killed in a duel in 1879. It is one of the few Atlanta houses surviving from the Civil War period.","narrative":"Meadow Nook is a story-and-a-half wooden house built around 1860 in what was then rural DeKalb County, now the East Lake area of Atlanta. Its plain Georgian cottage form is enriched with Greek Revival details, including Doric columns, trabeated doors, French doors opening to a wrap-around porch, and dormers. Inside are a central hall with an oval spiral staircase and Italian and Austrian marble mantels. The house was built for Robert A. Alston, a Georgia-born attorney who moved here during the Civil War. Union General John Schofield used it as headquarters during the Battle of Atlanta. After the war Alston edited the Atlanta Daily Herald, served in the state legislature, and opposed the convict lease system. He was killed in a duel at the State Capitol in 1879. The house retains most of its original floors, mantels, doors and moldings. It is one of few Atlanta houses surviving from the Civil War era.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1860-1879","architect_builder":"Marshall, Andrew, traditionally the local builder/carpenter","architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century: Greek Revival style; Georgian Cottage house type","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a single dwelling; a wing was added and the original Doric columns were replaced with replicas by the current owners.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.66342-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/04000683.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000683/7774987b76-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000683/7774987b76-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Brogers784","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2420_Alston_Dr_-_Atlanta_-_DeKalb_County_-_March_2013.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Brogers784</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2420_Alston_Dr_-_Atlanta_-_DeKalb_County_-_March_2013.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207734","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadow_Nook","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6803268"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/dekalb-county/alston-robert-a-house-04000683/"}