Gris List: College Street tidbits and showtime

A dozen astonishing tidbits along College Street 

1. Tattnall Square Park was once proposed as the location for the Georgia State Capitol. 

2. Alexander II Elementary, which opened in 1902, is the oldest schoolhouse in continuous operation in Georgia.

3. The building at 1051 College Street was where cable television pioneer Ted Turner got his start running his father’s billboard business, Turner Outdoor Advertising. After a few adventuresome years in Macon, Turner went on to launch WTBS, CNN and TNT, was owner of the Atlanta Braves, won the America’s Cup yacht race, was married to Jane Fonda and was once the largest landowner in North America (he’s now the third largest with 2 million acres.)

4. The house on the hill at 730 College Street was once the home of Joseph N. Neel, founder of the city’s most famous department store. It later became the home of the Federated Garden Clubs of Macon. Now a private residence, it was designed by Neel Reed, the renowned Macon architect of the early 20th century.

5. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, at the corner of College and Forsyth Street, was built on the site of one of the city’s earliest railroad depots. Remnants of the original tracks can be found in the basement. The Tiffany windows in the church are mentioned in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’’ by playwright Tennessee Williams.

6. The huge 24,000-square foot home at 619 College Street was once owned by Macon cotton entrepreneur Wallace McCaw and is sometimes referred to as the “House That Crisco Built.’’ In the early 1900s, McCaw discovered a profitable use for cottonseed by creating a vegetable shortening. He eventually sold the formula to Procter & Gamble, where it became known as Crisco, a staple of Southern kitchens. When the house was built, McCaw specified the kaolin brick had the same flaky white texture as the famous shortening.

7. Washington Memorial Library, at the corner of College and Washington Avenue, opened its doors in 1923, the year the city of Macon celebrated its centennial. The library had its own 100th birthday last year. It is the flagship of the Middle Georgia Regional Library system and its genealogy department attracts researchers from all over the world. On the second floor is a marble bust of Macon-born poet Sidney Lanier. It was designed by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, whose most famous works include carving the heads of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore and starting the project for the Confederate soldiers on the side of Stone Mountain.

8. The main post office at 451 College Street was once the site of Wesleyan College, which burned to the ground on Feb. 25, 1963, in one of Macon’s most famous fires. College Street got its name from the days when the campuses of both Mercer and Wesleyan were bookends on the road.

9. The Raines-Carmichael House at the corner of Georgia Avenue and College was once the home of the late Kitty Oliver, the longtime director of the Middle Georgia Historical Society. The majestic 10,000-square-foot Greek Revival home features white columns, a cupola, and a curved veranda. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

10. The 1842 Inn at 353 College has hosted celebrity guests from Oprah Winfrey to Herschel Walker over the years. It was built by John Gresham, a former Macon mayor, judge and cotton merchant.

11. The Massee apartments on College Street were Macon’s first residential high-rise (eight-story) apartments. They were designed by famous architect Neel Reed in 1924. They are observing their 100th anniversary this year.

12. When Mercer’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings became a reality 12 years ago this month, McDuffie called it a “magical and historical venue.’’ It was once the home of Beall’s Restaurant, and the cover photograph for the 1969 debut album of The Allman Brothers Band was taken on the front porch.

Four actresses with Macon fingerprints

1. Carrie Preston, star of the CBS series “Elsbeth,” grew up in Macon and graduated from Central High School, where she once directed the play “I Never Saw Another Butterfly.’’ She cut her teeth on the stages of Theatre Macon and Macon Little Theatre. Preston is also known for the HBO series “True Blood” and the CBS legal drama “The Good Wife,’’ which earned her a PrimeTime Emmy. Preston has also appeared in almost three dozen films, including “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “The Legend of Bagger Vance.’’ She and her husband, Michael Emerson, who played Ben Linus on ABC’s “Lost,” were married on the stage at Theatre Macon in 1998.

2. Natalia Livingston made her stage debut as a snowflake in “The Nutcracker” at Macon’s Grand Opera House. In 1993, she was homecoming queen at Mount de Sales Academy. In 2005, she won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role as Emily Quartermaine in ABC’s “General Hospital” – the longest-running (1963) American soap opera currently in production. She appeared in 1,069 episodes and was later on 51 episodes of NBC’s “Days of Our Lives.”  

3. Cassie Yates was born and raised in Macon and also lived in Atlanta and Dublin. She is best known for playing Sarah Curtis in ABC’s “Dynasty” and appeared in “The Streets of San Francisco,’’ “Knots Landing,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “McMillan & Wife,’’ “The Bionic Woman,’’ “Quincy,’’ “Magnum P.I.,’’ “Barnaby Jones” and “Murder, She Wrote.’’ She returned to her hometown as grand marshal of the Cherry Blossom Festival parade in 1985 and again for an appearance at the Macon Film Festival in 2012.

4. Brett Butler starred in the ABC  comedy, “Grace Under Fire,’’ which aired for six seasons (1993-98). She later became a stand-up comedian. Her real name was Brett Anderson, and she took her stage name as a twist on the character Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind.’’ She served as circulation district manager for The Macon Telegraph in the late 1970s – the first woman ever hired for that position. Not all of her time in Macon was pleasant. She claimed she met a man in a pool room and married him three months later. She accused him of being an abusive husband and they divorced in 1981.

Three Macon gems to impress your friends

1. The USS Macon airship made its maiden voyage in 1933 and, at one time, was the largest flying object in the world. It was named the USS Macon because Macon was the largest city in the congressional district of U.S. Rep. Carl Vinson of Milledgeville, who was considered the “father of the modern Navy” and “aviation’s elder statesman.’’ At the time they were built, the USS Macon and its sister ship, the USS Akron, were the largest helium-filled airships in existence and were so impressive they were once described as the “ninth and 10th wonders of the world.’’ The USS Macon made only one flight over its namesake city, in October 1933, on its way from Lakehurst, New Jersey, to Sunnyvale, California.

2. Actor Jack De Mave, who lives at Carlyle Place in Macon, rode a horse as the Lone Ranger in Macy’s annual Thanksgiving parade in 1976. DeMave’s acting career carried him across four mediums — stage, television, movies and commercials. In the early 1960s, he was cast as Ranger Bob Ericson on the TV series “Lassie.’’  He played opposite Doris Day and Mary Tyler Moore on their TV shows. He appeared on “The Fugitive,” “Days of Our Lives” and “Marcus Welby M.D.” He worked with such stars as Don Rickles, Bob Newhart and Bette Davis. 

3. The late Ronnie “Machine Gun” Thompson could boast  perhaps the most versatile and unique resume in Macon history. In his lifetime he worked as a shoeshine boy, a newspaper carrier, a jeweler, a TV gospel singer and a country music recording artist. He was a Macon city alderman, a two-term mayor and a gubernatorial candidate in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.  After his political career, he worked as a chemical salesman, moonlighted as a funeral home director and served as a mental health administrator.