Swan House. Photo by Valerie C of Igougo.com.

Every hour on the hour at the Atlanta History Center, a tour guide at the Swan House explains the bizarre, spoiled extravagances of a demanding Southern Belle. Adorned with hand-cut black-and-white marble, the floor of the grand rear foyer spirals into a central Italian mandala, recognizable now as the Center’s logo. As the Great Depression raged in the 1930s, servants at the Swan House tiptoed ever-so-carefully over this floor to step only on the white parts. Oddly, to walk on the black areas was forbidden. Why? Because, the story goes, there was no easy way to polish scratches out of dark marble in the early part of the century. As the dramatic African American tour guide relays this bit of information, however, I sense racial connotations.

“The Inmans made their money the old fashioned way …. They inherited it,” says the guide upon greeting visitors at the rear entrance. Even in the Swan House’s heyday, no one entered or even hung out in the front; that part of the house was just for show. As guests came onto the property, they were paraded by the foot of a high hill so they could gaze up at the symmetrical wonder: A Tuscan villa complete with a many-tiered, scalloped fountain and dominating aristocratic matriarch.

Edward and Emily Inman, heirs to a cotton brokerage fortune, commissioned Georgia Tech architect Philip Trammell Shutze to build this Classical Italian mansion in Buckhead after their Ansley Park home burned down. Ruby Ross Wood—the famous society decorator from New York—fashioned the interiors. It’s interesting to note that Mr. Inman paid $106,000 in cash to build the Swan House in 1928 at a time when the average house cost $2,000. He died three years later.

After Mrs. Inman’s death in 1965, the Atlanta Historical Society purchased the Swan House and most of its original furnishings from the family, who found the upkeep of the property financially unsustainable. The house opened to the public in 1967. Now it’s worth millions. Indeed, this spectacle of opulence stands as a local history lesson on the dangers of imbalance. At a time when many Americans waited in food lines and were restricted by racial segregation, the Inmans lived in an expensive La-La Land. The script of the tour dramatizes this well.

Racially connotative details are evident throughout. In the minty “green” room, Mrs. Inman’s favorite space, sit two outrageous pieces of decorative furniture: twin Venetian end tables. A pair of almost life-size black male figures bend subserviently to hold the table tops on their shoulders. In the context of American Southern culture, this art is quite a statement.

The ornate mirror over the buffet. Photo courtesy Goldleafdesigns.com.

In another wildly ornate area, the humongous dining room is still covered with original hand-painted tropical foliage and bird wallpaper. Now a subdued beige, it was once bright salmon in color. On one wall, an impressive asymmetrical mirror hangs over a decorative buffet. One can imagine mustached senators and business elites dining among freshly picked peonies and roses while the kitchen staff burned up in the back.

The Swan House’s central spectacle is the spiral staircase. Reinforced with steel, it is wholly suspended and quite inspiring. However, another of Mrs. Inman’s restrictions applied here: Only guests could climb the main staircase! Family and servants alike used the back stairs. Are current visitors allowed to walk up these stairs? Yes, and though I can speak only for myself, this small act felt like a defiance, and it felt good.

Some of greater Atlanta’s gated communities in Alpharetta and Marietta reflect a similar kind of materialist showmanship. (It must be in the water.) Their nouveau riche character often attempts to replicate the particular brand of Southern grandeur evident in the Swan House. Oddly enough, the romance of Tuscany in Georgia has not yet gone out of style. Although the Atlanta History Center itself is more than a bit stodgy with exhibits like Down the Fairway with Bobby Jones, I very much enjoyed the tour of the Swan House and found it a relevant tourist attraction.