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2300 Peachtree Road is a collection of upscale resources envisioned by Atlanta's grande dame of decorating, Jane Marsden.

The complex, with its shop-lined entry avenue reminiscent of Europe,  includes her two-story treasure house of antiques and accessories, topped by the penthouse she shares with her husband, Desaix Robert "Beans" Marsden.

The Marsden Mystique

Senior viewers may recall an advertising phrase of the 1930's: "They laughed when I sat down to play." This promoted piano lessons for adults. When Jane Marsden revealed her plans to purchase land for a shopping complex at 2300 Peachtree Road, on unattractive property bordering Peachtree Creek and across from an outdated strip center, there were many scoffers and naysayers. Jane has had the last laugh.

Two of the nation's premier home interior and antiques magazines are based in Atlanta, but it took a Yankee publication to focus attention on the remarkable Marsden family and their accomplishments.

The September 2000 issue of Traditional Home magazine, a Meredith publication, devoted six pages of copy and striking photographs to the homes of Jane and daughter Janie Willis.

A seasoned international traveler, Jane Sr. is a quintessential Southern lady, polite and soft-spoken, a gracious hostess. She avoids the spotlight, concealing inherited traits as an astute business person. A native of Tennessee, fresh from college, she became an IBM associate. That promising career was cut short when she married, victim of company policy that ordained that married women had no place in the business world and should stay at home and raise families.

She did: two outstanding sons and two daughters. When they were older, she launched an interior design business and, with two friends, opened The Brownstone, an antiques/design shop in a storefront across from her present complex.

"Jane has assumed the mantle," one admirer comments, "of the grand lady of Atlanta interior decorating, Edith Mansfield Hills, with her flair for design, good taste and integrity. She is, also, quietly philanthropic, opening her shop and home and grounds for charitable tours and events.

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