|
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.
|
