Historic buildings line Green Street in downtown Gainesville. Once stately homes, they are now offices for lawyers, property managers and real estate agents.

But there is one old home that stands alone, having served as the only restaurant: the Dixon-Rudoph home.

"It was of course a lovely, lovely house. She always had a beautiful garden," said Happy Kirkpatrick, a longtime Gainesville resident who grew up on Green Street. "I went to The Book Club at her (Georgia Rudolph Wall) house as did my mother Gladys Garner. It was started by ladies on Green Street in the early 1900s."

The historic home, which was built in 1915, stood once as the residence of Dr. John Rudolph and his family. Later the home went to the Rudolph children: John Rudolph, Dixon Rudolph and Georgia Rudolph Wall.

Kirkpatrick remembered Georgia Rudolph Wall as a lovely, refined lady and said she always enjoyed visiting with her.

Although Rudolph's Restaurant has recently closed, its Web site remains up. And according to the site, the English Tudor-style home has a granite foundation, porch and side porch and chimneys. The living room has exposed beams and there are four tile-covered fireplaces.

During the mid-1970s, the home was bought by Warren Smythe who restored the building and turned it into a restaurant with room for diners upstairs and downstairs. Today, both sides of Green Street, from Green Street Place to Glenwood Road, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Others who have leased the building to run the restaurant include Marsha Wall, Raymond and Melanie Swett and most recently Michael Hunt.

"It has so much character from the street and has so much history," said Melanie, who ran Rudolph's from 1998 to 2002 with husband Raymond. "It has a lot of nostalgia.

"The basement, the wine cellar, was one of the coolest features of it."

Swett said there were struggles in dealing with a building of that age.

"It definitely has its different smells and creaks and obviously wears an older house like that quicker," she said.

In 1985, Jim Walters bought the Rudolph-Dixon house from Smythe and has owned it ever since. Gainesville's Tim Fetzer also is a minority partner in the building.

In January, Hunt had to shut the doors to the restaurant due to the poor economy, but Walters is hopeful new tenants will soon occupy the historic space.

"It has a long history, as you know, as a restaurant, and a lot of folks probably look at it as an upscale place to dine and sort of synonymous with Gainesville and Green Street," he said. "So I think it's important to keep it that way."