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Book A Room
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Event Calendar
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Major Events & Festivals
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Plan a Getaway
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Getting Around/Maps
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Photo Library
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The self-proclaimed Architect of Rock & Roll, Little Richard, a Macon native and the city’s Goodwill Ambassador for Tourism, sang the dishwasher’s blues at Macon’s bus station as a teenager, long before he sang “Tutti Frutti” for the world.
Macon is one of the only cities in Georgia to grow out of a real frontier fort. Visitors can see a replica of Fort Hawkins’ 1806 blockhouse on Emery Highway near the Macon Centreplex.
Wesleyan College in Macon was the first college in the world chartered specifically for the purpose of granting degrees to women. The world’s first two secret societies for women were founded there and are today the sororities of Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu.
Before “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” the late Otis Redding, Jr. was discovered in the Saturday talent shows at Macon’s historic Douglass Theatre. His family still lives here; his sons work in the music industry and his widow and daughter own a successful upscale shoe boutique in downtown Macon.
Macon has more cherry blossoms than any other city in the world, including Washington, D.C. and cities in Japan. It was proclaimed the Cherry Blossom Capital of the World by the Japanese Consul General.
Macon's only architectural casualty during the Civil War was the Cannonball House, a Greek Revival style mansion into which a Union cannonball crashed in 1864. The cannonball is on display today.
People have been meeting in Macon for centuries! Ocmulgee National Monument’s earthlodge is one of the earliest public buildings in North America dating back 1000 years.
Zygorhiza, or Ziggy, the 40-million-year-old whale fossil hanging in Macon’s Museum of Arts and Sciences, was discovered at a local kaolin mine.
Visitors to Macon have something free to do every night with Lights On Macon, a self-guided tour of the Historic Intown Neighborhood. The only tour of its type in North America, the route features more than 30 architectural gems, each dramatically illuminated to highlight its antebellum beauty.
Macon’s Luther Williams Field is the third oldest municipal baseball park in the nation. Pete Rose once played professional baseball for the Macon Peaces at the historic field.
The exciting, interactive Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is the largest state sports hall of fame in the United States, at 43,000 square feet. Georgia natives Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Evander Holyfield, Bill Elliott, Nancy Lopez and Bobby Jones are among the athletes represented here.
Macon’s City Auditorium boasts the largest copper covered dome in the world.
The character of Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was based on the patriarch of a Macon family with whom Williams spent time during his early writing years.
The Music Factory, located inside the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, is the only dedicated children’s music museum in the country.
“Southern Rock” was born in Macon at Capricorn Records - The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band and Wet Willie all recorded there.
Former Allman Brothers Band member Chuck Leavell, who now tours with the Rolling Stones and has recorded with the likes of Eric Clapton & George Harrison, is a nationally recognized tree farmer in Dry Branch, near Macon.
Compiled by the Macon-Bibb Co. Convention & Visitors Bureau Ruth Sykes • 1-800-768-3401 • rsykes@maconga.org
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