Blanton House in Chamblee

I noticed the old two-story Blanton house on a visit to Chamblee in the late part of 2025 while visiting some of the antique shops along Peachtree Road. The two-story home at 5449 was empty with a sign out front.

This is a recent Google Maps image of Blanton House.

According to a 1987 article in the Atlanta Journal, the house was built in 1917.

There was a family named Blanton that lived there in the early part of the 1900s, but census records indicate they lived in Forsyth County, Georgia in 1910 and 1920. By 1930, Albert L. Blanton and Lizzie Pirkle Blanton live in the Chamblee home. Some of their neighbors include the Hyde, Thomas, Wade and Bales families.

When the Blanton family lived in Forsyth County they operated a store. They continued as merchants after their move to Chamblee according to the census.

According to that 1987 Atlanta Journal article, Erma Anderson bought “Old Blanton House” in 1972 when it was about to be condemned. She left her previous location in Brookhaven because the street widening for MARTA forced her out. She had ten antique dealers in the old house in 1987. “She has recently spruced up the 1917 house, one of the oldest in the area, with a new porch.” (Atlanta Journal, Nov. 19, 1987, “New shops and MARTA refinish Chamblee’s antique row”)

Other stores in 1987 along what became known as Antique Row in Chamblee included The Game Preserve, a natural history shop offering fossilized sharks teen, sea shells, coral, deer hides and beaver skin. There was also Paper Chicken and Truly Truffles.

Albert L. Blanton died in 1936. His obituary names the children, Mr. Olen Blanton, Mrs. Claude Wallace, Mrs. R. H. Thomas, Mrs. H. D. Tomlin, Miss Alline Blanton and Mrs. T. F. Dyer Jr.

Lizzie actually died a few months earlier, also in 1936. They both were buried at Chamblee Baptist Church Cemetery, now known as the Johns Creek Baptist Church Cemetery.

In 1940, their son Olen still lives in the house, but as to who occupied it all those years before it became an antique store, I do not know. Also, if it was really built in 1917, who built it and lived there until the Blantons arrived. There are many unanswered questions.

My hope is that it will find a new owner soon and remain standing along this stretch of Peachtree Road.