Historic Macon flea market sets record for preservation work

Historic Macon Foundation’s semiannual flea market raised a record amount of money at its fall three-day sale, which happened Oct. 3-5 in downtown Macon.

The $75,000 raised — minus a handful of organizational expenses — will go toward the organization’s ongoing preservation efforts, including rehabilitation work in the Beall’s Hill neighborhood and the foundation’s free education programs, said Oby Brown, director of communications.

Brown said singling out the most interesting item sold at the fall flea market was “tough — since there are thousands of things inside the warehouse.”

“We did sell a huge millstone that a woman brought down to Macon with her when she moved here from New York state many years ago,” he said.

Millstones are large, circular stones traditionally used in pairs to grind grain into flour in a gristmill.

Brown said a shopper also bought the original metal building letters for T.D. Tinsley Elementary School, which once sat at the current location of Northwoods Academy on Pierce Avenue.

Those letters were rescued from a garbage pile after Tinsley’s demolition. They were donated to the foundation earlier this year, Brown added.