Macon Magazine

October/November 2025 | maconmagazine.com 69 A t a chaotic junction in East Macon, there sits an oasis of calm. Steps away, cars whizz by on their way to somewhere else, perhaps with no sense of place anchoring them. Just over the river from the burgeoning downtown scene, Coliseum Drive moves people. They are ferried across the bridge to the other side of town, onto the perennially in-progress interstate, to the soon-to-be-replaced arena for sports and entertainment, and for healing at Piedmont Hospital. But if one steps away from the bustle of vehicles and construction, there's a little inlet full of public art, freshly planted trees, a walking trail, benches to rest, and expansive greenspace. Surrounding the park is a community art center, quaintly updated historic cottage homes, and a pedestrian entrance to the Ocmulgee Mounds. This is Bicentennial Park, a convergence of forces in Macon's story. As finishing touches are put in place, it weaves itself into the fabric of the city's history and looks to be a prominent location for its future. M A C O N ' S O R I G I N A L M A I N S T R E E T Entering the park on Clinton Street, another road branches off in a different direction. This is Main Street, a name that reflects the original founding of Macon. Many do not realize that the city we know today—built upon lands that had been continuously inhabited for thousands of years by the Muscogee (Creek) people and taken from them during forcible removal—was originally on the east side, developed around Fort Hawkins. Downtown Macon came later, and so this truly was the first Main Street. The park location was chosen for this reason, because it represents the intersections of Macon's deeply important Indigenous origins along with the founding of the city in 1823. East Macon's historic district is also considered a historically Black neighborhood today, with a mix of mid- 19th and early 20th-century homes. It also reflects Macon's industrial mill history, with Bibb Mill #1 once located nearby. Several of the mill homes and the Mill Hill Community Arts Center have since been restored by the Urban Development Authority. A R T A N D C O M M U N I T Y I N P U T C R E A T E D Y N A M I C P U B L I C S P A C E The Macon200 Bicentennial Committee, co-chaired by Wes Griffith and Alex Habersham with members selected by Mayor Lester Miller, picked the site as its signature project for the 2023 bicentennial celebrations, raising approximately $1 million for the park. For Macon's centennial celebration in 1923, the project was creating Macon City Auditorium, which opened in 1925. One of the architects leading the charge for the auditorium was P.E. Dennis. A century later, his great-granddaughter, Wimberly Treadwell, a well-known landscape architect, was selected to design Bicentennial Park in a fitting tribute. The park design drew from community input from the original Mill Hill project, where East Macon neighbors requested a walking path and an open field for athletics. The Macon200 committee put their stamp on it by using some of the money raised to work with world-class artists for major pieces in the park. Using an open call managed by Macon Arts Alliance, the committee ultimately selected several sculptures that are in the process of installation. The sculptures are meant to enhance Macon's history. First to arrive was Ilan Averbuch's towering boat-like structure in early April, titled "Even Walls Can Move." Averbuch, whose studio is based in New York, works frequently with recycled materials. The boat, which is partially made up of salvaged local Cherokee Brick, gives an appearance of a brick wall. Metal stick figures appear to carry the vessel, symbolizing community BELOW An aerial view of the park shows the freshly planted trees and walking path.

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