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Historic Mack-Burney House Turned Into Affordable Apartments

The Mack-Burney House on Reese Street. Credit: Rebecca McCarthy

When Dora Jackson Price snipped a ribbon spanning porch columns on the Mack-Burney House, the people congregating on the front walkway and in the yard clapped and cheered. Four years after the Gordy family donated the historic Reese Street house and two others to the Athens Land Trust, renovations on the large 19th century house were finished. Almost.

“We’re missing a mantel, and two doors are on back order,” said Heather Benham, executive director of the land trust. “Other than that, it’s done.”

Price, who works part-time as a custodian at Athens Academy, will be living in one of the house’s four one-bedroom apartments. Another tenant will be Robert Johnson, a driver for a staffing agency that helps people re-enter the job market. They will be moving in on May 1.

“Mine is the first-floor apartment on the left,” Johnson said. He heard from a friend about the nonprofit’s plan to create housing for low-to-moderate income residents, and decided to apply.

Renovations to the house have cost an estimated $650,000, Benham said. 

Built possibly as early as 1850, the Mack-Burney House was home for 50 years to educator Annie Burney, whose name anchors Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School. Her father, educator John Mack, had bought the house in 1906 for $600 from the Clarke County Building Loan and Improvement Co. Her husband, Isadore Burney, was Athens’ second Black dentist. Mrs. Burney died in 1963, and the house eventually was divided into apartments and allowed to slide into disrepair. By 2017, windows were boarded up and part of the roof had collapsed, leading to extensive water damage and rot. All of that is gone now—the house is splendid.

The Mack-Burney House, along with two adjacent houses, were going to be demolished by the Gordy family, which owned the Varsity property. In early 2019, the ACC Commission approved an overlay district for the area bounded by Chase Street, Reese Street and Milledge Avenue, restricting the size of what can be built there. The Gordy family donated all three houses to the land trust. Like the Mack-Burney House, the other two will be renovated and rented to low-to-moderate income tenants.

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