In the center of the Arts Center jumble, hugging a piece of the block occupied by the AT&T Promenade complex and the Atlantic Center skyscraper, sits a strange, and strangely attractive, house many know as The Castle.

This week Jonathan of Bloglanta profiles the Castle, which the City of Atlanta designated a Landmark back in 1989. 

For starters, did you know its original name was Fort Peace? Dubbed a "hunk of junk" by then-mayor Andrew Young, it was actually built in 1910 as the retirement home for an aging Civil War veteran, Ferdinand McMillan.

McMillan was a friend and one-time neighbor of Joel Chandler Harris, author of the “Uncle Remus” stories. According to atlantaga.gov, two niches in the second story façade and another niche below those contained small marble rabbits, the “Uncle Remus spring,” drinking fountain for pedestrians passing by, and other carved replicas of characters associated with Uncle Remus.

The position of the house allowed McMillan to maintain a large garden. Aside from his interest in gardening, McMillan had a great interest in inventing, according to atlantaga.gov. He reportedly designed one of the region’s first cottonseed oil presses, “the suction system for gins,” as well as the sub-irrigation system for his garden. With all of the unique features, McMillan said his basic intention was “to get as high into the air as I could, and there to build me a country home in the city.”

After McMillan's death the house stood out against its neighbors, who were all gobbled up by the Atlanta arts community under the leadershio of one of the homeowners, Mrs. Joseph Madison High. (Yes, that's where the name came from.) She first donated her Ansley Park mansion, which fronted on Peachtree, and later had her neighbors do the same. All the homes were later demolished to make way for today's Woodruff Arts Center.

But the McMillan mansion stayed, helped along by an eccentric owner, Hazel Butler Roy, who allowed a variety of arts groups to occupy it starting in 1945 and continuing to her death in the late 1970s.

By the 1950s, the buildings were listed in the city directories as "The Castle," with eleven individual rooms rented to a variety of artists. Through the late 1950s and '60s, the building also housed such groups as the Artists Assembly Club, the Children's Theatre of Atlanta, the Junior Theatre of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Writers' Club. In addition, the mezzanine level behind McMillan's old den was known as the Castle Playhouse, and below it in the old grotto was the Carriage Room Restaurant.

The home's survival, over Young's objections, was a turning point in Atlanta's attitude toward preservation, much like the earlier battle over the Fox Theater.

Wave at it as you go by.