Roger Smith and Christopher M. Jones, partners at NewTown Partners, learned the mansion was slated for demolition when City Council member Mary Norwood pulled Christopher aside at the Atlanta History Center in late 2012. The duo immediately decided to act, buying the vacant lot at 78 Peachtree Circle on May 30, 2013, and securing a preservation façade easement with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation; the project budget topped $1.5 million.
The Randolph‑Lucas‑Jones House, originally built in 1924 for Hollins Nicholas Randolph—great‑great‑grandson of Thomas Jefferson—had been sold in 1998 to the 2500 Peachtree Condo Association, which intended to use it as a clubhouse. Maintenance costs spiraled, the association obtained a demolition permit by autumn 2012, and the building stood abandoned on a corner of Peachtree Circle.
Preparing the move began in July 2013. Workers stripped the 8,000‑sq‑ft structure of its brick façade and slate roof, reducing weight and allowing the frame to be split above the first floor. Hydraulic lifts and a specially‑built temporary road across a vacant lot opposite the Woodruff Arts Center carried the two halves 2.1 miles to the new site—a seven‑hour operation that required police escort and utility crews to relocate power lines.
After the house settled, Smith and Jones rented an apartment behind the lot to oversee the 2014 rehabilitation, which involved cleaning and reinstalling the original bricks, re‑installing numbered interior elements, and restoring the Georgian Revival style. Christopher Jones died in January 2019, a few months before the renovation completed; the mansion was renamed the Randolph‑Lucas‑Jones House in his honour, preserving both its architectural heritage and the legacy of its saviors.