Don't bypass Macon

Travelers heading north on I-75 can find a wealth of cultural resources - from music to mansions - by taking a little detour.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 30, 2002

MACON, Ga. -- For a museum, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame rocks.

It also croons, harmonizes, swings, reaches toward your soul and toward heaven.

You don't just tour the Hall of Fame; you sway and bounce and hum along to it.

A visit to the nearby Tubman African American Museum, inspiring with its splendid art, is at the same time more somber. To celebrate the triumphs of black people, the Tubman must recall decades of prejudice overcome.

The two museums, and several historic sites, are more than enough to make Macon perfect for at least a day-trip detour on your way to the North Carolina mountains or Atlanta.

How you split your time could be a tough choice: You can ooh and ahh at antebellum mansions, duck inside the reconstruction of a 1,000-year-old American Indian lodge or tap your toes as some American originals play and sing the music that has swept us along from decade to decade.

First things first

Serious excavations, directed by Smithsonian Institute researchers, began in the 1930s at what is now Ocmulgee (OAK-mull-gee) National Monument, just east of downtown. But explorers with Hernando de Soto's 1540 expedition referred to the villages that featured large earth mounds.

The first humans traced to here were Ice Age hunters. But the Indians who left the most notable evidence of their lives were farmers who settled about 900 A.D., tribes the historians call Mississippians. They used the rich river plains to grow corn, beans and other crops.

The most recent descendants were members of the Muscogee tribes, whom white settlers later called Creeks. By 1704, English settlers had traded often enough with the Creeks that they had convinced the Indians to join a war party headed south; the party routed Spanish settlers and other tribes in northern Florida.

Enough of the Creeks remained after this invasion that they dominated the surviving Florida tribes, which was the beginning of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.

The settlers and Creeks alternated periods of friendship and tension, and after the American Revolution, the former negotiated treaties for the valuable land that Georgian settlers coveted.

The city plan for Macon was drawn up in 1823; the city was to be established just across the Ocmulgee River from the Indians' settlement.

National Park Service rangers now say it is not known why the last Creeks abandoned the area, though the rise of the white man's city and farms around them might have been the reason.

Certainly, few whites cared about the Indians' history. In 1874, construction for a railroad destroyed much of the historic earthen structures, used for ceremonial purposes. In 1933, one mound was decimated so the dirt could be used for paving a street.

But several concerned residents convinced the Smithsonian to begin research, and in 1934 enough significant finds were made that Congress designated 2,000 acres as a historic preserve, the largest archaeological excavation in the nation's history.

Visitors can enter the reconstruction of the Earth Lodge, a circular mound that stands on the site of a structure built about 1,000 years ago. It was probably used for meetings and rituals.

Other features at the site include a mound atop the furrows of an ancient cornfield, a "great temple mound" that rises 50 feet and the funeral mound. Though the last structure was partly destroyed during the railroad construction, researchers found artifacts from more than 100 funerals.

Can I hold the cannonball?

Macon prospered quickly, as boats carrying the white gold, cotton, plied the Ocmulgee River and unloaded their cargo into fireproof warehouses. Then the cargo was loaded onto trains to be shipped to textile mills up north, and east to Augusta and on to the coast, bound for England.

Then came the Civil War. An armory in Macon turned out rifle balls, cannons and sabers. When the foundry ran out of iron, five churches donated their bells to be melted.

Major battles were fought at Chickamauga, about 170 miles north of Macon, and around Atlanta, about 80 miles away. Macon was large enough and far enough away to become a hospital for Confederate wounded, as well as a camp for an estimated 1,000 civilian refugees.

Despite the years of war-related activity, there was one special day in the town's history: July 30, 1864. That's when Union forces arrived near Ocmulgee, on the eastern outskirts, to cut the railroad bridges and tear up track so vital to the movement of supplies throughout the Confederacy.

In a seven-hour battle, militiamen and Confederate regulars drove off the attackers, but not before the Yankees had destroyed an estimated 300 railroad cars. About three dozen Southerners died, and 50 were wounded.

Before being repelled, the Union forces fired two cannonballs at the city, about a mile distance. One ball fell harmlessly, but the other became the stuff of local legend.

Weighing 12 pounds, 3 ounces, it sailed above Macon until it hit one of the mansions on a hill. The shot passed through a hollow wooden column on the front porch, through a wall and rolled to a stop on the plank floor as the owner's wife descended a staircase.

Visitors to what is now the Cannonball House and Confederate Museum hear the story of the cannonball as they stand by the staircase, its wall adorned with portraits of Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Visitors are allowed to heft the cannonball before moving through the Greek Revival-style house, which has rooms with period furniture.

Behind the Cannonball House is a renovated servants quarters serving as a museum of Confederate odds and ends: weapons, uniforms and documents.

Though the house at 856 Mulberry St. has the cannonball lore, its neighbor just around the corner has the glory.

The Hay House is a mansion that took workers and artisans from 1855 to 1859 to build in Italian Renaissance Revival style. It encompasses 18,000 square feet on seven levels, including a cupola 85 feet above street level.

Its builder was a man who was a 19th-century conglomerate by himself. William B. Johnston made fortunes in jewelry, railroading and insurance, and he owned Macon's gas utility. He was so wealthy that he served as a treasurer of the Confederacy.

It might have been that connection -- or maybe just the majesty of the huge house -- that caused the Union forces to fire the cannon shots toward his home, only to miss everything with one and hit the neighbors' house with the other.

When Johnston married in 1851, he and his bride took off on a honeymoon, mainly in Europe, that lasted 31/2 years. During the tour, the Johnstons collected ideas and accessories for the home he was to commission.

The mansion, now known as the Hay House after the family that owned if from 1926 to 1963, is splendid. Ceilings on the main floor are 16 to 24 feet high. Plaster walls were painted with trompe l'oeil to resemble marble.

Brazilian rosewood pocket doors with silver-plated hardware still glide easily. Some windows are stained glass.

All the rooms were illuminated with gas fixtures, unusual for the time the house was built but not as unusual as was the indoor plumbing, primitive voice-tube intercom, eight walk-in closets, hot and cold running water, and a heating and cooling system in addition to 19 fireplaces.

During the narrated tours of three of the levels, guides reveal the hidden room on one staircase in which Johnston reportedly kept vast amounts of the Confederacy's gold and silver.

Two different museums

The Tubman African American Museum was the idea of a white man, a Catholic priest who had served in several Deep South towns. Because much of Richard Keil's service in the priesthood from 1965 until he left the clergy in 1988 was during the Civil Rights movement, Keil came to champion the deprived.

He also realized that there was too little promotion of black history, contemporary achievement and art.

In Macon he bought two adjacent buildings, and in 1985, with the help of other residents, he launched the museum named after Harriet Tubman. She was born into slavery about 1820 but escaped and went on to help an estimated 300 slaves use the Underground Railroad to gain freedom. Well into the 20th century, she helped raise money to educate and care for African-Americans.

The museum has 14 galleries showcasing history and art. Traveling exhibits have spotlighted contemporary black artists, decorative arts, quilts and African artifacts. For youngsters, the museum holds classes ranging from everyday etiquette to science.

A centerpiece for the Tubman is a 63-foot-long mural of the faces of achievers, from African chiefs to celebrities.

Already Georgia's largest museum focusing on African-Americans, the Tubman next year will move into a $15-million facility with 49,000 square feet. Fittingly, the new museum is on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Its neighbor across the street is the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which seems to exhibit everything but the hair oil its stars used for their pompadours.

It also underscores a theme: "African-Americans made the music that we call American," as hall curator Joseph Johnson puts it. "In many ways, James Brown, Ray Charles, Otis Redding helped break down, subliminally, the racial barriers" separating blacks and whites by making records nearly everyone had to have.

In a twist on the usual chronological arrangements of similar halls, the music hall presents its themes in a mock village. "Storefronts" represent styles of music personified by one or two performers. All the featured personalities have strong ties to Georgia.

These galleries are filled with performers' stage costumes, show posters and collected memories. Interactive areas let visitors listen to the music.

Farther down the village street is a small theater. Here, audience members indicate by their applause which music genre they want to view in a film clip or video.

For instance, visitors can watch a black-and-white clip of Lena Horne (a 1991 hall inductee) crooning Stormy Weather. Or they can opt for something by Georgia-bred musicians the B-52's (2000), the Indigo Girls or Travis Tritt (1999).

Ray Charles (closely identified with the soulful Georgia on My Mind) was the first inductee, in 1979. Honorees range across the musical spectrum: country stars Brenda Lee and Alan Jackson; Harry James and Connie Haines from the big band era, and representing classical music, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; its conductor, Robert Shaw, and Jessye Norman.

Macon was clever enough a few years back to capitalize on the impact of the hall: Callers to the city's visitor information line get a recording of Little Richard Penniman (1984) proclaiming himself "the architect of rock 'n' roll, talking to you from my hometown, Macon Ga., the Soul of the South . . . ."

For many driving Interstate 75, that might be a siren song to schedule Macon as a destination next time.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Macon is on Interstate 75, about 390 miles north of Tampa. There is no direct air service between the cities, but a Delta commuter airline connects Macon and Atlanta.

SEEING THE SIGHTS: Macon contains an estimated 5,500 structures on the National Register of Historic Places in 11 districts. Its events calendar is filled most of the year, and two of the biggest events are:

The Cherry Blossom Festival. The city has about 275,000 yoshino cherry trees, more than 50 times as many as Washington, D.C. The next festival is March 21-30, 2003; events are wheelchair accessible. For more information, call toll-free 1-800-768-3401 or (478) 751-7429, or go to www.cherryblossom.com

Georgia Music Week. This is a series of free outdoor lunchtime concerts plus a couple of larger jams. The event this year honors Otis Redding. Dates are Sept. 16-20. For more information, contact the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, 200 MLK Jr. Blvd., Macon, GA 31201; call toll-free 1-888-427-6257 or (478) 750-8555; or go to www.gamusichall.com.

The city and county tourism organization offers several self-guided, themed tours of the area, plus two-day, group-tour packages. There are also commercial tours of either four or eight museums and historic sites.

For more information on these tours, or to get an excellent map for a self-guided tour, contact the Macon-Bibb County Convention & Visitors Bureau, toll-free 1-800-768-3401 or (478) 743-3401, or via e-mail to maconcvb@maconga.org. The helpful Web site, which contains details on numerous museums and attractions, plus an events calendar, is at www.maconga.org.

The Ocmulgee National Monument is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Christmas and New Year's Day. The Museum/Visitor Center and Ceremonial Earth Lodge are wheelchair accessible; a paved sidewalk leads to the Earth Lodge. Several miles of walking trails around the 702 acres are not paved. Contact the site at 1207 Emery Highway, Macon, GA 31217-4399; call visitor information (478) 752-8257; e-mail OCMU_Superintendent@nps.gov, or fax (478) 752-8259.

The Cannonball House is at 856 Mulberry St. and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon.-Sat.. Admission: $5 adults, $4 seniors/military and AAA members, $1 students older than 6. Call (478) 745-5982, fax (478) 745-5944 or go to www.cannonballhouse.org.

The Hay House, called the Palace of the South, is at 934 Georgia Ave. It has a small elevator and is wheelchair accessible. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1 to 5 p.m. Sun.. Admission: $8 adults, $7 military and 55 and older, $4 students 13 and older, $3 ages 6-12. Call (478) 742-8155, fax (478) 745-4277, e-mail hayhouse@bellsouth.net or go to www.hayhouse.org.

The Tubman African American Museum is at 340 Walnut St. It is wheelchair accessible and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat. and 2 to 5 p.m. Sun.. Admission: $3 adults, $2 11 and younger. Call (478) 743-8544 or go to www.tubmanmuseum.com.

The Georgia Music Hall of Fame is at 200 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The facility is wheelchair accessible and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1 to 5 p.m. Sun.. Admission: $8 adults, $6 seniors and college students, $3.50 ages 4-16. Call toll-free 1-888-427-6257 or (478) 750-8555, or go to www.gamusichall.com.

STAYING THERE: Numerous national hotel and motel chains are represented. The "Welcome Center" rate is $45 at the 120-room Comfort Inn outside town (toll-free 1-800-847-6453); the Internet rate is $55.99 at the LaQuinta Inn, 7 miles from downtown (478 475-0206).

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