Macon Magazine

August/September 2024 | maconmagazine.com 87 NewTown Macon is an independent nonprofit, making Downtown Macon safe, beautiful, fun, affordable, and locally led. Their comprehensive approach to downtown development has resulted in 83% storefront occupancy, 89% loft occupancy, and 1M+ annual event attendance. style of home: wattle and daub with thatched roofs. Because this was a capital city, everyone up and down the river in different tribal towns would come here to trade, go to council, dance, do ball games, and even file complaints or solve civil disputes in the grievance council. All of that would have been here. This would be the town center, where the main governmental functions took place, kind of like how Downtown Macon has City Hall, the courts, and so on in the center of the city. It's helpful that the Earth Lodge is reconstructed today. It gives your mind a place to start. But as you are imagining this town square between the Temple Mound and Earth Lodge, don't stop there. Neighborhoods radiated out from that center, with more Earth Lodges and homes in various neighborhoods. As you turn toward the river, you see where the agricultural crops would have been grown. At the river, boats docked, carrying people and goods. When you can envision all of that — like you envision chariots racing and crowded stands when you see what is left of the Circus Maximus in Rome — you'll have a much greater respect for the significance of the Ocmulgee Mounds as a historical and sacred site. It gives you an entirely new perspective. What should people do in Downtown Macon before or after that park visit? I love what Downtown Macon truly represents: a place for all stories to be told. Downtown is where your government's going to be and where policy is made. Policy hasn't always been kind to every person, but it is where policy is also made for the future. And I see the most revitalization, the heart coming out of that city center. I love that about downtown. When people come to visit, I love being able to take them to H&H. I want to look at the walls and say, here's the history of people who came through here, its music history. Plus, I love to talk about what a meat-and-three is. It's a very Southern thing. When you step out of H&H, you see the iconic symbol of the Black Masons at the top of the building that is H&H today, and I get to explain Macon's historic Black business district in that area. And then I do a walking tour directly from H&H to City Hall. The first thing you see when you're coming down the hill is the [Muscogee (Creek)] Nation's flag flying over City Hall. It's so prominent to me, and I always point it out. I point out the beautiful old armory where Just Tap'd is now. Then, as you begin to walk down Poplar, you start unfolding backwards in that history [see page 38]. As we go, I can talk about its history of people coming together through music. I talk about Grant's Lounge as the place that anybody could audition, even in 1971. Whether you were Black or white, anyone could come in and be able to show off. And it is still the place for all people to just walk in and be together. A couple blocks down, on the left, is the alley with Bright City installed. Bright City is so important to me because while we're in a historical city that grew up as a result of our [the Muscogee (Creek) people's] removal, it also shows our people today, living modern lives, and it shows that there's a space for all people in Macon. I love that and what it represents. It is incredible to be able to take people through that gallery, especially at night when the Tracie Revis in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Revis.

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