Leila Ross Wilburn, Architect

Leila Ross Wilburn, who attended Agnes Scott College, was one of only two women registered as an architect in Atlanta in 1920. Ms. Wilburn designed and built a home in the neighborhood where she lived with her widowed mother and younger siblings. She published several popular plan books that emphasized her status as a Southerner and a woman. Through these plan books, she influenced neighborhood design throughout the Southeast during the 1920s. 

In 1907 John Mason and Poleman Weekes purchased property that was to become Decatur's first residential subdivision. The district known today as the M.A.K. neighborhood is named for its main streets, McDonough, Adams and Kings Highway, and encompasses ten city blocks of varying size. Ms. Wilburn was employed by Mason and Weekes to design many of the homes for the new subdivision. 

The MAK neighborhood retains many of the Wilburn-designed homes and offers excellent examples of craftsman style homes that were popular during the first three decades of the 20th century.