From the TOH Job Site Safeguarding a legacy

A young family rebuilds a derelict 1890s house as a warm, welcoming home of their own, while paying equal attention to preserving an important piece of South Atlanta's past

- NEDRA RHONE

Seven years ago,  when she first glimpsed the bright-blue Folk Victorian in South Atlanta, Kysha Hehn walked away in something of a trance. Built-in the 1890s, the house had been unoccupied for decades and had fallen into disrepair, but Kysha couldn't shake the feeling that it was special. "There was something about the house," she says. "I wondered about its past."

Kysha and her husband, Jonathan, along with their two children, Alivia Sage, now 12, and Joia, 10, soon learned that the house was significant to South Atlanta, a neighborhood central to the city's elite Black community at the turn of the last century. The house had been built by Luther Judson Price, a local store owner and South Atlanta's first postmaster; he and his wife, Minnie, raised their five children there. Price was known as a community leader who actively encouraged the Black community to exercise their right to vote (see sidebar, opposite). "The story in this house is a source of joy and pride for South Atlanta because of Mr. Price's connection to the post office and to bringing people together," Jonathan says.

Now the couple, former Peace Corps volunteers who had been "world schooling" their children while living internationally, are ready to blend their own family history into this house's rich legacy. "We traveled with our children, allowing them to spread their wings. Now we want to provide them with firm roots in the community we hold dear," says Kysha. The Hehns found a like-minded partner in local builder Jerry Davis, who is helming the renovation of the 3,000-square-foot house, now being documented as part of This Old House's 44th television season.