Beauty With Mission: Cator Woolford Gardens’ recent Decaturish honor reflects decades of community support for the Frazer Center mission
If you’ve walked your dog through Frazer Forest on a quiet morning, waved to a teacher escorting a group of preschoolers, or paused beneath the trees to admire the sunlight filtering through the canopy, then you already know the Frazer campus. For many Lake Claire neighbors, it’s part of the rhythm of daily life—a place of calm, movement, and connection.
What’s less widely known is how deeply that familiar landscape is connected to Cator Woolford Gardens, and how both exist to support the mission of the Frazer Center—a connection recently celebrated when the Gardens were named Decaturish Readers’ Choice Best Wedding Venue.
Decades of Meaningful Inclusion
Cator Woolford Gardens began as a 1920s estate owned by Cator Woolford, a co-founder of what is now Equifax. In the early 1950s, the property entered a new chapter when the founding mothers of the Frazer Center acquired the land with a vision that was quietly radical for its time: to create a community where people with and without disabilities could learn, grow, and thrive together. The gardens, house, forest, and campus were all dedicated to sustaining that mission.
That purpose still guides the campus today. When people choose to host weddings and events at Cator Woolford Gardens, they aren’t just selecting a beautiful setting. Each celebration directly supports Frazer Center’s inclusive early education program, as well as meaningful employment and community engagement opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. Weddings held among the Italian-style gardens help fund classrooms where children of all abilities learn side by side, while also sustaining programs where adults with disabilities build skills, confidence, and connection. The joy of one celebration ripples outward, touching many lives across the campus.
In addition to the Gardens, the Frazer campus includes other thoughtfully designed gathering spaces. The sunlit atrium, filled with natural light and views of the surrounding landscape, is available for meetings, celebrations, and community events. The historic Cator Woolford house is also being prepared to host smaller gatherings, offering an intimate setting that continues the tradition of supporting inclusion for all.
Your “Secret Garden”
Cator Woolford Gardens is often described as a sanctuary within the city, a “secret garden” and “hidden gem” right in the heart of Atlanta. For our neighbors, it is also something more: a shared place that reflects the values of care, inclusion, and connection that define this community. Seventy-seven years after the Frazer Center’s founding, the campus continues to thrive because neighbors notice it, walk it, respect it, celebrate in it, and take pride in what it makes possible.
We are grateful to Decaturish and to our neighbors for recognizing the beauty, mission, and heart of our Cator Woolford Gardens.
To learn more about Cator Woolford Gardens, explore event spaces, and discover how beauty and purpose come together on our campus, visit CatorWoolfordGardens.org.