By Gretchen Keiser

Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, and Father Don Kenny, vocations director and St. Pius X dean of students, are moving Jan. 26 from the archbishop’s residence on West Wesley Road, as part of a proposal to renovate the structure.

They will be moving to a home rented by the archdiocese on Hillside Drive, off Northside Drive near Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

A proposal is being considered to modernize plumbing, heating and electrical systems in the West Wesley Road house, put on a new roof, and renovate the interior to improve the house plan for the archbishop’s use not only as a residence but as a meeting place and for public gatherings for archdiocesan needs.

The Spanish-style residence on West Wesley Road in Buckhead is 60 years old. “There has not been any serious renovation done to the house in the last 25 years,” Archbishop Marino noted. He has been using the residence frequently for meetings and gatherings, hosting the permanent deacons and their wives, the Religious women of the archdiocese, bishops of the province and their priest representatives, and numerous other groups. He said he would like to hold Council of Priests meetings there, but cannot because of inadequate space arrangements.

“I think that gatherings like that are very good,” he said. “As we begin to gear up our development effort we will be inviting groups to come in to get them committed to long-range development” in the archdiocese, and the Catholic Center has no appropriate facility for such a combined meeting and meal.

Architect Carol Braun, who designed a plan for renovating the two-story, six-bedroom house, said it included functional work on plumbing, heating and electrical systems and a new roof. The proposed renovation to floor plans is designed to improve the layout for the kinds of gatherings the archbishop has hosted and the kind which he foresees hosting in the future for the archdiocese, for the province of Atlanta and for the Church’s role within the city and state.

As the plan has been developed, it has been considered and approved by the archdiocesan Building Commission as a design proposal and neighbors on West Wesley Road have been apprised of the proposal as it stands at this point. The next phase would be to seek bids on the work.