A Columbus native whose birthplace stood close to this site, Shutze became one of the most prominent American architects of the twentieth century. After graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology and from Columbia University with degrees in architecture, Shutze studied for several years at the American Academy in Rome, Italy.

By R. Caligaris

Born in 1890, Shutze was a graduate of both the Georgia Tech and Columbia University architecture programs. A prolific designer, Shutze joined the architectural firm Hentz, Reid & Adler as a draftsman after returning to Atlanta from his studies in New York.

In 1915, Shutze won the prestigious Rome Prize for architecture and spent the next five years immersed in study at the American Academy in Rome. Despite the escalation and chaos of the first world war, Shutze found inspiration in the villas and city architecture of Italy. He travelled extensively during his time abroad. Rome afforded Shutze a practical, first-hand exposure to classicism—a style fundamentally different from the Beaux-Arts model on which he trained at Georgia Tech and Columbia. Of particular note to Shutze was the effect of time on the classical lines and textures of Italy’s landscapes. He found beauty in weather-worn facades and began to develop methods of aging a newly constructed building to more closely match its historical counterparts.

Upon his return to the United States, Shutze worked with architectural firms, including F. Burrall Hoffman Jr. and Matt Schmidt of New York. In Atlanta, he rejoined Hentz, Reid & Adler where he became a partner in 1927 after Reid’s death. The firm’s name became Hentz, Adler & Shutze, and later Shutze, Armistead & Adler until Adler’s death. The partnership of Shutze & Armistead continued until 1950.

Edward Inman was heir to a large cotton brokerage fortune amassed after the Civil War. He was an Atlanta businessman with interests in real estate, transportation, and banking. His wife Emily was involved in philanthropy, politics, and society. In 1924, they hired the architectural firm of Hentz, Reid, and Adler to design a house for their property in Buckhead, a residential suburb of Atlanta.

The Inmans moved into their new home in 1928, a year before the Great Depression began. Just three years later, Edward Inman died suddenly at age 49. Emily asked her oldest son Hugh, his wife Mildred, and their two small children to live with her. Grandchildren Sam and Mimi grew up in the home and moved out after they were married. Many household staff members were African American men and women. Discriminatory Jim Crow legislation created barriers to education, politics, and employment for many black southerners. However, during this time, Atlanta was home to a rising black middle and upper classes due in part to the large group of black universities and black owned businesses and cultural institutions.

In 1933, after several decades of working for the Inmans, Elizabeth “Lizzie” McDuffie left to work in the President Franklin D. Roosevelt White House as a third-floor maid. There she advocated for racial equality, was a political activist, and helped form a worker’s union for government employees.

Emily lived in Swan House until her passing at age 84 in 1965. In 1966, the Atlanta Historical Society purchased the home and most of its original furnishings, ranging from 18th-century antiques to 20th-century objects. It opened to the public in 1967 as a house museum and headquarters of the Atlanta Historical Society.

Shutze's date of retirement is listed as 1960 although he was involved with later architectural commissions and held a valid architectural license in several states as late as 1980. Until his death on October 7, 1982, he remained a staunch advocate of the classical mode.

Shutze's interest extended beyond architecture. The interior furnishing of structures concerned him and he often assisted his patrons in selecting antiques for their homes. Shutze was devoted to the cultivation and growing of the Camellia Japonica. During the 1930s, he added a greenhouse onto his residence and introduced many exotic camellia varieties into the Atlanta area. Shutze also collected furniture, porcelains, silver, objects d'art, paintings, books, photographs, professional papers, drawings, and other items of decorative arts, which he bequeathed to the Atlanta Historical Society.

THE SWAN HOUSE, COMPLETED IN 1928 FOR MR. & MRS. EDWARD HAMILTON INMAN, is preserved by the Atlanta Historical Society as an outstanding example of the best of early twentieth-century residential architecture; as a rare document of luxurious living, personal taste, and interior decoration from this era; and as one of the most successful residential designs and landscapes of architect Philip Trammell Shutze. The original owners, the Inmans, had accumulated wealth from cotton brokerage and investments on transportation, banking and real estate. The house combines Renaissance revival styles with a classical approach on the main facade.

PHILIP TRAMMEL SHUTZE