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MACON |
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MACON , eighty miles southeast of Atlanta on I-75, where I-16
branches off to the coast, makes an attractive stop en route to Savannah,
especially when its 200,000 cherry trees erupt with frothy blossoms (celebrated
by a festival in the third week of March). As the highest navigable
point on the Ocmulgee River , Macon was laid out in 1823 and became a
major cotton port. Downtown is no longer the commercial center it once
was, particularly following the arrival of the huge Macon Mall near the
intersection of the two freeways, but there are signs, everywhere, of an
imminent urban renaissance. Chief among these is the excellent Georgia
Sports Hall of Fame at 301 Cherry St (MonSat 9am5pm, Sun 15pm; $6; tel
478/752-1585), a handsome, state-of-the-art facility where you'll find
an interactive Paralympics exhibit alongside a celebration of the long-standing
football rivalry between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.
Close by, at 355 Martin Luther King Blvd, is the restored Douglass
Theatre (open for tours MonSat 9am6pm; donations; tel 478/742-2000),
Macon's premier movie theatre and vaudeville hall for African Americans
during the Thirties and Forties, hosting such blues greats as Ma Rainey,
Ida Cox and Bessie Smith.
Macon was home to Little Richard, Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers .
Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, killed here in motorcycle smashes in 1971
and 1972 respectively, are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery on Riverside
Drive, the inspiration for various of the band's songs. That heritage is
celebrated in the exuberant Georgia Music Hall of Fame , next door to
the visitor center at Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Walnut Street
(MonSat 9am5pm, Sun 15pm; $8; tel 478/750-8555). A huge roster of
Georgian musicians are recalled by themed interactive displays that
include a Gospel chapel, a rock'n'roll soda shop and a country caf. As
well as admiring Redding's trademark black sweater and the B-52s' wigs,
you can watch footage of Ray Charles singing Georgia on My Mind to the
state legislature, inspect a photo of James Brown confiding to the pope,
and listen to seventy years' worth of jukebox recordings.
One of the best of its kind anywhere, the celebratory Tubman
African-American Museum , 340 Walnut St (MonSat 9am5pm, Sun 25pm; $3),
has a wonderful, eclectic collection, from African drums and textiles
which schoolchildren are encouraged to handle and play with through
intricate quilts, to angry, dazzling avant-garde work. There's a reading
area, filled with studies books, autobiographies and photograph
collections, in a quiet room. Note that the museum expects to move to
larger premises sometime in 2003. A few minutes north of town at 4182
Forsyth Rd, the Museum of Arts and Sciences (MonThurs & Sat 9am5pm, Fri
9am9pm, Sun 15pm; $7) is a creative ensemble of interactive exhibits
geared toward kids and an indoor "natural habitat" complete with a
treehouse from where you can observe animals such as antelope, leopards
and deer.
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from $88.30
USD