About The Herndon Home
The Herndon Home is the Atlanta residence built between 1908 and 1910 for Alonzo Franklin Herndon and designed by his wife, Adrienne McNeil Herndon. Alonzo Herndon was born into slavery and in 1905 founded the business that became Atlanta Life Insurance Company, while Adrienne was an educator, actor, and cultural figure at Atlanta University. The home was constructed almost entirely by African American craftsmen and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000.
The mansion’s architecture and interiors reflect the success, aspirations, and cultural life of the Herndon family, with decorative influences ranging from Renaissance Revival to Rococo. It is an important place for understanding Black entrepreneurship, institution-building, and social mobility in Atlanta during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Herndon Foundation currently reports that the home is undergoing repairs and general maintenance as part of a plan to reopen it for public tours, so visitors should treat the museum as temporarily closed until reopening details are announced.
