An Athens nonprofit has submitted a $24 million bid to turn the President’s House on Prince Avenue into a botanical garden honoring the late Vince Dooley, an avid gardener.
In July 2023, officials with the University of Georgia System announced that they were selling the Greek Revival house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been the official residence of UGA’s president since the 1940s. Maintaining a five-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot building and its adjacent five acres of gardens was just too costly, they said. In addition, with the new traffic reconfiguration of Prince Avenue, it was difficult to load and unload buses of wealthy donors for football games.
Local people who’ve worked in historic preservation got busy organizing, trying to convince officials from the university system and UGA officials that the property was worth protecting.
In January 2024, Harold Reynolds, head of the Board of Regents; Wright Mitchell, CEO of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation; UGA President Jere Morehead and community members met to discuss placing easements on the property, in order to protect the house and the surrounding acreage from development. The resulting easements they agreed upon will keep both the facades of the house and the gardens intact. Earlier this summer, the sale price for the property was set at $5.1 million.
One bid for the house has come from the President’s House Foundation, a recently formed nonprofit. While foundation members applaud officials for setting easements on the property, they want UGA to consider repurposing the property for the benefit of “university students, alumni and all Georgians.”
The foundation envisions creating a campus which could include the Willson Center, whose mission is to “promote research, practice, and creativity in the humanities and arts.” In addition, foundation members say, the property could continue being a house museum and a facility for hosting events.
Foundation CEO Lee Epting said Dooley’s widow Barbara has offered his room of memorabilia to be relocated to the campus, along with Coach Dooley’s extensive hydrangea collection. The foundation is asking the university to consider allowing time to consolidate and evaluate these and other options rather than disposing of this property.
“How can we, with integrity, invite students to come to our College of Environment and Design to study historic preservation when we give up the jewel in the crown?” Epting said. “Surely the administration is capable of a greater vision and an honest evaluation of what this historic structure has to offer all of us.”
Epting’s proposal calls for potentially expanding the new botanical garden to include other nearby historic properties, such as the Cobb House and the Taylor-Grady House, which Epting leases from the ACC government. It would require $6 million contributions each from the state of Georgia, UGA, ACC and the private sector.
The Board of Regents has sold residential properties on other Georgia campuses. The home of the chancellor of the University System of Georgia was sold years ago, as were the homes of the presidents of Georgia State and Augusta University. Georgia Tech has retained its president’s home.
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