Welcome to the 881st Metamorphosis Monday! Before we get into today’s post, in case you find it helpful, here’s what my pest control company did last week to prevent any more squirrels from accidentally falling down my chimney in the future. (Ha! I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence!) They added screening all around the opening, as seen in this photo below.
When the workman first climbed up to take a look, as he was shining his flashlight into the opening, a squirrel flew out of the chimney, briefly landing on the ceiling of the screened porch before jumping down to the deck and off the deck into the yard. He checked to make sure there were no more squirrels nesting on the narrow ledge just inside the chimney before screening it off.
Now that we have that bit of squirrel news out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff! One of the things I look forward to at Christmastime is a great Christmas home tour. This past week, a friend and I had the opportunity to take a wonderful tour through the Tate House, a pink marble palace built in 1926 in Tate, Georgia. The Tate House is a private home, but it’s also available for weddings. With the gorgeous views that surround this home, it’s perfect for that. I took quite a few photos to share and will do that over the upcoming weeks. Today, I am sharing an incredible, awe-inspiring Christmas tree we saw in the dining room of the home.
Here’s a bit of history from the Tate House website sharing how this marble palace came to be built:
In 1834, Samuel Tate purchased the land the Tate House stands on and moved his family from Lumpkin County, Georgia. His son, Stephen Tate, began the mining of marble, which eventually placed Tate, Georgia on the map. It was Stephen Tate’s son, the eldest of his 19 children, known as “Colonel Sam Tate,” who consolidated the marble interests and gained control by 1917. Designed by the International Architectural Firm of Walker and Weeks, Cleveland, Ohio, building began in 1921. Legends were told of a rare, bright pink marble, referred to as “Etowah” marble. In 1920-21, Colonel Sam began watching the rare Etowah Pink Marble that came from the quarry just behind the house.
As we entered the dining room, we were greeted by the owner of the home, Marsha Holbrook Mann. After thanking her for opening up this wonderful home for tours, we began our tour, starting with this jaw-dropping tree in the corner of the dining room that Mrs. Mann described as a “one-hundred-thousand-dollar tree.” That definitely got our attention! lol As the sign states, the tree is covered in 1,000 Christopher Radko ornaments! Photos don’t do this tree justice! It was stunning!
A view of the topper on this amazing tree…
A few closeups…
While we were chatting with Mrs. Mann before beginning our tour, I thanked her for opening her home for Christmas tours. She replied, saying she has collected some wonderful treasures over the years and enjoys opening her home to share them with others. We did see some wonderful collections during our tour, including a beautiful collection of teapots in the Butler’s pantry and a large collection of nutcrackers in an upstairs room. I really love it when a home tour includes an entire house and not just the downstairs. The bedrooms are one of my favorite rooms to see during a home tour. I’ll be sharing photos of some of those in an upcoming post.
If you live within driving distance of Tate, Georgia, you’ll want to find the time to tour this beautiful home. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner just before the tour, and the food was excellent! I purchased a book about the home in their gift shop, and I’m looking forward to reading it this winter. Looking forward to all the wonderful Before and Afters linked for this week’s Met Monday!
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Metamorphosis Monday: Metamorphosis Monday is a party that’s all about Before and Afters. Please link up your Before and After projects, like DIY projects, room makeovers, craft projects, and even recipes. Please do not link up Table Settings; save those for our Tablescape Thursday party on Thursday. If you are participating in Met Monday, link your post to the party using the “permalink” to your MM post and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on the name of your post, then copy and paste the address (that shows in the address bar at the top of your blog) into the “URL” box for InLinkz when prompted.
Susan, I’m glad to hear you got your squirrel problem resolved. As cute as wildlife can be, no one wants them running through the house. That tree is gorgeous! What a lovely tour to take right before the holidays.
True! Cute, but best on the outside and not the inside. lol
You just “knocked my Chridtmas socks off!!!” Did you say…NINETEEN CHILDREN??!!?? O, what that Christmas list looked like…
Did you say, “ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND $…I believe it…holy mackrel, that tree is loaded…(& so must be the owners!!) Just GORGEOUS!! franki
I know, I was shocked when I read that. I wonder if he was married more than once. I can’t imagine 1 woman having that many children. Yes, that’s what our hostess said about the tree. That’s a collection of a lifetime, for sure.
lol- my dad was one of 19 too!
i have cousins- ooh so many cousins!
a few of those ornaments i would love to have! and one i saw looked like “Glinda the Good Witch from the North”!! i didn’t know there was such an ornament!
it’s stunning- all of it- can’t wait til you show more of the pics- wow
It was breathtaking! I think I own either 2 or 3 Radkos and that’s it. As clumsy as I am, that’s probably best.
When my son and DIL got married in 1996, my husband started a tradition of gifting me and my DIL a Radko ornament each Christmas, so we each have 29 Radkos now. I saw of few of mine on Mrs. Mann’s tree. I’ll have to suggest to my husband that he needs to get us each more than one ornament each year if we’re ever to get close to what Mrs. Mann has!!
lol Your collection sounds wonderful! I think that makes it so special, that it’s just one per year.
You mean there’s a tree under there-lol? All teasing aside it is a beautiful tree! Can’t wait to see the rest.
I know, it’s well hidden! I wonder how all those ornaments would look spread out a bit on a larger tree.
Wow! Can’t wait to see the rest of this home. How nice of her to allow photos throughout the home. How did she insure that all her treasures remained in her home? Was there someone posted in each room to “answer questions” and guard her collections?
I hope you closed the damper on your fireplace as well as adding the screening to the top. We had squirrels chew through a doubled metal gutter end piece…
There were signs throughout the home advising that cameras were in all the rooms, or something like that, so I’m sure that helps.
I have never seen a home exterior like that! It’s fascinating. When you teased the picture last week I kept looking at it thinking, what is that? It looks like marble, but surely it’s not marble! 😀 So unusual. I can’t wait to see more pictures.
I was trying to figure out how she gets so many ornaments on her tree! They lean, rather than hang from branches. I spotted some long green wire in spots, so now I wonder if they all hang from the top.
I know how much you love home tours, Susan. You must have had a ball with this one. And how nice the homeowner was actually there to greet you and chat. Thanks for taking us on this tour as well.
I hadn’t noticed the wires before, but you’re right. I wonder if the ornaments are all strung together via a wire somehow, then secured at the top. That would keep anyone with sticky fingers from taking one and would probably makes them less likely to fall off the tree.
Ah, the Christmas Tree left me breathless, what a collection of beautiful ornaments. I started collecting Christopher Radke about 25 years ago, and definitely love the colors & craftsmanship.
They are really pretty!
Beautiful tree. Looking forward to more photos-and pink marble. Critters in your home are no fun. It’s cold outside and warm in your home and there’s food.They are partial to cat food. Ugh.
Reminder: as you take out your Christmas decorations and collections, be sure to take photos and inventory them for your insurance policy. Unusual weather across the country can wipe out everything. One lady told me about her enormous collection of Disney ornaments and memorabilia, but had no inventory or photos. Sometimes, like the Tate House tree, you need a rider on your homeowners insurance. How much is your household contents coverage on your policy? Ever increase it for inflation ie replacement costs? Digital equipment? Susan, remember Theresa’s (sp) snow storm damage on her beautiful landscaping ?
Thanks for the reminder, Myrna!
Wow – that’s gorgeous! The house isn’t so bad either! Thanks for sharing all the photos and info. I can’t wait to see more. And thanks for hosting. Also glad you got the squirrel situation taken care of!
Thanks, Barbara! Yes, def had to get that squared away. Merry Christmas to you! Hope you are staying warm!
WOW… that’s a decorated tree! Looking forward to seeing inside all rooms. Can’t imagine how it’s decorated inside since I’ve seen tree….
It’s very fancy, even without all the Christmas decor. Looking forward to sharing more photos soon!
I haven’t seen the inside of the house, but we have driven by it a Couple of times. Now I want to see the inside too. I’m looking forward to seeing your pictures.
Definitely take the tour, Pam! It is just beautiful and HUGE! It’s def worth the price of admission.
So glad you were able to resolve the squirrel problem – critters running around the house is no fun. That is quite the house and the tree is stunning! Luckily, the house looks fairly large so maybe there are no issues storing all those gorgeous ornaments (which would present a problems for me lol). But just wow! Happy Monday Susan!
You are not kidding! Yes, it is very, very large. I wonder if it has a basement for storage, or maybe they store everything off site. Not sure.
Absolutely gorgeous tree!!
Thanks so much for hosting this wonderful party!! I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into it along with visiting all the links!! I hope you are having a great week!!
Hugs,
Deb
Debbie-Dabble Blog
Viewing this post late, but WOW that tree so loaded. It would take a long time to actually view each ornament! How nice that Mrs. Mann shares her collections because a collector truly loves their collections. How about that squirrel actually waiting inside the day you schedule for the screen? Wonder how often that happens. Hopefully that ends the squirrel inside problem.