Macon Magazine

October/November 2024 | maconmagazine.com 53 addiction, increased poverty, and blight brought on by disinterest and divestment at various levels. Yet, the last decade has seen the neighborhood rebounding. Little Richard's childhood home is now a museum dedicated to the self-proclaimed "King of Rock & Roll." While the road has not always – and not recently – been smooth, Georgia Department of Transportation mitigation funding, along with investment from Macon-Bibb County, has led to revitalization and preservation e orts. A once underappreciated and underutilized park was repurposed and named after Je erson Long, and Mattie Hubbard Jones Park became a bene ciary of the SPLOST, transforming into one of the city's better outdoor inner-city recreation locations. Housing in ll has resulted in a modest increase in younger generations moving back into the district. R e u n i o n's s p a r k Four decades after Albert Howard's re ection, vestiges of the "it takes a village" mindset are still celebrated at the Family Reunion. At this year's June 15 reunion, Wayne Simmons reminisced about his childhood on Third Avenue: "We have a lot of history. A lot of educators bought homes here. So when we came up, we were surrounded by educators and we were surrounded by people in the neighborhood, like he said, who would discipline us. If one of our neighbors told our mother we did something? Oh, you on the hook for that all the way home." Yet Pleasant Hill's tenacious revival story begins much earlier, arguably with a key founder of the Reunion: Amir Hassan. Hassan was a tradesman whose family business, Brothers Reupholstery, has been a xture on Forest Avenue and Walnut Street for generations. The shop is now operated by his son, Alim Hassan, after the elder Hassan's passing in 2019. In addition to being a business owner, Amir Hassan was an activist and mentor. With a sign in the shop telling youth that they must learn a trade or go to college, he taught his craft to any neighbor willing to learn, wrote Pamela Ogunwusi in a social media post. Another resident he mentored, Latrice Davis, wrote about how he would open the shop doors on cold mornings for children to keep warm while they waited on the school bus. addiction, increased poverty, and blight brought on CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The iconic neighborhood signs for Pleasant Hill, a historic photo from F&S Grocery (now Brother's Upholstery), neighborhood reunion founder Amir Hassan, neighborhood children play in the park with Mattie Hubbard Jones.

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