Macon....
Georgia Farm Bureau's home
Visit Macon, chartered in 1823, and you'll see why this centrally-located city is a leader in Georgia's tourism growth.

Georgia visitors mingle here with folks from all over the USA and abroad. Macon has more Yoshino cherry trees than any other city. If the 275,000 blossoming Yoshino cherry trees in Macon, GA were planted in a single row, 10 feet apart, the snowy cloud-like trees would provide over 500 miles of springtime beauty from Macon to Memphis.

The annual International Cherry Blossom Festival attracts an average of 700,000 participants each year. This 10-day festival features over 500 events, of which 90 percent are free. Events range from a hot-air balloon fest and air show, dances, parades, arts & crafts and amusement rides to fireworks, historic tours and complimentary horse-drawn carriage rides, Coca-Colas and the Festival’s signature Cherries ‘n Cream ice cream. Concerts will be held daily, featuring popular artists, military bands and many talented up-and-comers. With so much to offer - including plenty of southern hospitality - the town hums with excitement! At right is a view of a downtown fountain with blossoms all around.

The Cherry Blossom Festival has been and continues to be a recipient of numerous honors and awards such as: 10 Best Destination by 10Best, Inc., Top 20 Event in the Southeast by Southeast Tourism Society, Top 50 Event in the U.S. by Leisure Group Travel, Top 100 Event in North America by American Bus. Association.

Macon ranks among Georgia's four largest cities, yet is the sort of place where downtown professionals and businessmen often slip away from their daily routine to watch the Atlanta Braves on TV.
Macon's Hay HouseMacon's Hay House (at right) is a must-see for first time visitors.
The four-story Italian Renaissance house has been featured on several state and national television programs (Bob Vila's 'Restore America' on HGTV for one) and is an architectural marvel you have to see to believe.

Recognized on A&E's America's Castles as "The Palace of the South," this 18,000 sq. ft. house was built by one of the country's early railroad magnates and one-time Treasurer of the Confederacy William B. Johnston.

One of Georgia’s most distinguished structures, the Johnston-Felton-Hay House was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. It was built from 1855 to 1859 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, a marked contrast to the more restrained Greek Revival architecture of the antebellum period.

The 18,000-square-foot mansion spans four levels and is crowned by a three-story cupola. Commissioned by imaginative owners and constructed by the most skillful workers of the time, its technological amenities were unsurpassed in the mid-19th century: hot and cold running water, central heat, a speaker-tube system, in-house kitchen and an elaborate ventilation system.

The unfortunate recipient of a Union cannonball meant for Hay House, the beautiful Greek Revival style Cannonball House stands two doors downhill. It was on July 30,1864 during the Battle of Dunlap's Hill that the house became known as The Cannonball House when it was hit by a non-exploding Union cannonball. General Stoneman's Union battery was positioned on a bluff overlooking the Ocmulgee River at a point that is now the location of Ocmulgee National Monument. The battery was firing at the Hay House on the next corner, known to store, from time to time, funds of the Confederate Treasury. The cannonball struck the sand walk close to where the historical marker now stands, bounced, struck the second column from the left and ricocheted, going through the house over a parlor window and landing in the hall. This was the only home in the city damaged during the Civil War.

The home of Judge Asa Holt, Cannonball House was built in 1853. Two of the rooms are recreations of the original meeting rooms of the first two secret societies for women in the world. Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu were founded in 1851 and 1852 respectively at Macon's Wesleyan College, the world's first college chartered specifically to grant degrees to women. Behind the house stands a two story brick servants' quarters and kitchen which also houses Confederate items from the Civil War.

Not far from these two house museums is the third of Macon's mansions open to share the story of life in the antebellum South. Sidney Lanier Cottage is a Victorian style cottage where the great southern poet Sidney Clopton Lanier was born in 1842. Lanier, for whom numerous schools, libraries and even lakes throughout North America are named, achieved greatness as a poet, musician, linguist, lawyer, mathematician and Confederate soldier before his death at the age of 36.

With hundreds of stately white columns and reportedly more churches per capita than any other city in the USA, Macon is a town where history buffs take rambles in the picturesque 1840 Rose Hill cemetery, made popular in a song by the Allman Brothers Band, who lived in Macon at the height of their popularity.

Interstate traffic abounds with I-75 and I-16 passing through downtown and I-475 on the western edge. There is a downtown welcome center located in the renovated Macon railway depot, at the beginning of Cherry Street, with ample parking. Write or click this link to the Macon-Bibb County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), 200 Cherry Street, Macon 31201, for more information.You can also contact them at (478) 743-3401.

The CVB lists 10 of the many reasons for Macon's growing reputation: 1) streets lined with historic mansions; 2) 275,000-plus Yoshino cherry trees (more than any other city in the world); 3) African -American art and culture at the Harriet Tubman Museum; 4) a 40-million-year-old whale fossil found 20 miles away; 5) some 2,000 acres of national historic districts; 6) the Georgia Music Hall of Fame; 7) the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame; 8) authentic Confederate relics and horse-drawn tours (which truly allow you to see details on Macon's fine downtown structures); 9) warm Southern hospitality; and 10) 12,000 years of Native American history and ancient mounds at Ocmulgee National Monument off U.S. 80 East.
Music Hall of FameVisitors touring the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (at left) can view exhibits encompassing all the greats from Little Richard to Trisha Yearwood to REM to the B-52's.

The Georgia Music Hall of Fame had a celebrity-studded opening in 1996, and is the state's official music museum, located in the city where artists like Little Richard, James Brown, Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers Band launched their careers.

The 43,000 square foot facility features permanent and changing exhibits that include music, video, memorabilia, instruments, performance costumes and more. Over 450 artists are represented in the exhibits.

The Music Factory Children's Wing encourages children to explore the world of music through interactive exhibits and hands-on activities. The Zell Miller Center for Georgia Music Studies houses the museum's library and archives.Educational programs include guided and speciality tours, workshops and lectures.The museum hosts frequent special events, concerts and exhibit openings. The Music Store offers a wide selection of Georgia music CDs, videos, books, educational items, apparel and more.

You may be surprised at just how many giants from rock to classical music have a Georgia connection. Enjoy their memorabilia and sounds in the ongoing festival in Tune Town or along Memory Lane at the multimillion-dollar, three-story 42,000 square-foot music hall at 200 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. You'll also see the hall's inductees.

Tune Town definitely is not a series of static exhibits. Go, see, and listen. You'll agree as you go "backstage" or sit in the Gretsch Theatre to enjoy video performances by your favorite stars that it is a lively musical village. You may find yourself singing or even dancing along, but do pause at the gospel chapel and at the 1950s-style soda fountain. Take a minute to enjoy the fountain at the Music Plaza across the street before you browse the other nearby attractions.

Cross the street to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the country’s largest state sports museum at 43,000 square feet. Created in 1956 as the Georgia Prep Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame has been in existence for more than 40 years.It was expanded in 1963 to encompass prep, college, amateur and professional sports.

The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame resembles a turn of the century ballpark with a red-brick exterior and green roof. From the old style ticket booths to the brick columns in the rotunda and special lighting, the museum invites visitors to experience the history of sports in Georgia with more than 14,000 square feet of high-energy exhibit space and a Hall of Fame Corridor that honors the nearly 300 members.

In addition, there is a 205-seat theater with exposed steel trellises based on the design of Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta. Also, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame offers visitors an extensive research library and gift shop.
The attraction is open daily Monday-Saturday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. except for major holidays.

Don't miss the historic 400-seat Douglass Theater across the street. It reopened in January 1997 after an extensive restoration that preserved much of its 1921 plaster details. Both structures represented multimillion dollar investments and boast state-of-the-art technology. Nearby is the state's largest African-American museum, the unique Harriet Tubman Historical and Cultural Museum, which opened in 1985 and is currently constructing a new home across from the Sports Hall of Farme.

Around the corner on Cherry Street is Theatre Macon, a thriving community group in a renovated old movie house. A few blocks away on Mulberry is the Grand Opera House, a "jewel" that dates back to 1883-84. It offers professional and local cultural programs and boasts one of the nation's largest stages.
You can stay at the 1842 Inn (at right). It's one1842 Inn of Georgia's most delightful bed and breakfast inns. Then ride or walk on a self-guided tour up Georgia Avenue to College Street, then down Bond Street, past the imposing Woodruff House on Coleman Hill (which offers super vistas).

The Neo-classical Revival style city auditorium, a Macon heritage landmark built in 1925, has one of the world's largest copper-covered domes. At First and Cherry streets, it's near the city hall. Macon also has a $16.3 million downtown Centreplex meeting and entertainment venue which opened in 1996. Close by, at the 250-acre Central City Park sits an 1871 bandstand, said to be one of the few left in the nation.

Visit a few of the beautiful downtown churches and gaze in awe at the many fine homes. Time permitting, drive out to the Museum of Arts and Sciences, home of the whale fossil and the excellent Mark Smith Planetarium. Adjacent is Macon Little Theatre. Not far away is Wesleyan College, chartered in 1836 as the first college in the nation to grant degrees to women.

The Georgia Farm Bureau Federation and affiliate companies are located at Exit 172 of Interstate 75 in north Macon at 1620 Bass Road.
All photos courtesy of the Macon-Bibb County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
You can also contact them at (478) 743-3401.