The Rufus M. Rose House at 537 Peachtree St. is for sale again, listed at $2.58 million by EXIT Realty West Midtown. The 1901 red-brick Queen Anne is the last Victorian left standing in the corridor where downtown meets Midtown, and it has sat vacant for more than 20 years — since the Atlanta Preservation Center moved out — behind graffiti, rust, and plywood-patched window openings.
The current owner, Atlanta Landsight LLC, bought the property in 2021 for $1.65 million and has since put more than $250,000 into replacing wood framing and other structural elements that had carried the building for over 125 years. Listing agent Felicia Moore, a former Atlanta City Council president, says the vacant and largely gutted house no longer fits the ownership group's real estate portfolio.
The house was built for Dr. Rufus Mathewson Rose, the physician, distiller and real estate investor who founded Four Roses Distillery. Architect E.C. Seiz, credited with more than 1,000 structures in post-war Atlanta, designed the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home; earlier listings have put it above 7,100 square feet. Original windows, moldings, woodwork, fireplaces and hand-carved interior detail remain. From 1945 the building operated as J.H. Elliot's Antiques and the Atlanta Museum, a public collection that included objects tied to Margaret Mitchell and Bobby Jones. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977 and became an Atlanta Landmark Building more than 35 years ago.
The revival attempts have been steady and unsuccessful. About a decade ago a plan surfaced to convert the mansion into an arts space and entrepreneurial hub. Inman Park Properties paid the full $1 million asking price in 2019 and later floated a renovation with a restaurant, which never happened. The current owners held a groundbreaking ribbon-cutting with former Mayor Kasim Reed in 2021 and started structural work aimed at an upscale office building. In late 2024 the plan pivoted again when Texas investment firm Vaycaychella partnered with the owners to turn the house into what they billed as Atlanta's most sought-after Airbnb ahead of 2026 FIFA World Cup crowds. Current photos show how that ended.
Moore says priority goes to buyers who see themselves as stewards — private families, organizations or foundations — and that the National Register listing could help the project qualify for state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits. She frames the building as a place that could serve Atlanta again, somewhere people gather, celebrate, advance important causes and build community. Marketing materials call it one of the last surviving unrenovated Victorian mansions on Peachtree Street.
Location is the rest of the pitch. The house sits near the Fox Theatre, Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, Bank of America Plaza and Emory University Hospital Midtown, and within reach of the highway-capping Stitch project, which is aiming for shovel-ready status this summer. Moore argues that in 10 years, with downtown and Midtown knitted back together, buyers who pass on the house now will regret it.
Original reporting: Urbanize Atlanta (2026-07-28)
