Macon, a city of wonderful ‘Ones’

We’re No. 1. Macon is a city with a long list of “firsts” next to its name. 

No brag. Just facts.

In celebration of next week’s one-year anniversary of The Macon Melody, this is the beginning of a three-week series of
“One-ders.” 

Enjoy your summer reading.

• Of the six cities and towns in the U.S. named after North Carolina statesman Nathaniel Macon — Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina are the others — we are No. 1 in seniority (established in 1823) and size (population 156,512).
• Wesleyan College in Macon was the first university in the world to grant degrees to women. It opened its doors in 1839 as Georgia Female College. 
• Among its most famous students have been Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) and former Miss America Neva Langley Fickling. The late Fickling, who died in 2012,  shared another “first.” When she was crowned on September 6, 1952, she became the first Miss Georgia to win the title and served her reign as Miss America in 1953. 
• Macon hosts the annual International Cherry Blossom Festival and touts itself as No. 1 in the world in Yoshino cherry trees, with more than 350,000 showing off their beautiful blossoms in the spring.
• The Macon Mall, which opened 50 years ago in the summer of 1975, boasted nearly 1.1 million square feet and a whopping 13 acres under one roof. At one time, it was the largest enclosed mall in the state.
• Macon’s YKK plant, which opened in 1973, was Georgia’s first Japanese-owned factory, and is the No. 1 zipper manufacturer in the world.
• Oprah Winfrey, whose award-winning talk show was the highest-rated program of its kind in television history, broadcast two shows from Macon in November 2007. A survey revealed that 45 percent of local TV viewers watched her show every afternoon at 4 p.m. — more than any city in the country.
• The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame opened in Macon in 1999. It boasts 43,000 square feet, making it the largest state sports museum in the country.
• The 10-story American Federal Building was considered the first “skyscraper” in the South. Designed by the famous Macon architect Neel Reid, it was the tallest concrete building south of New York City when it was built in 1906.
• Macon singer Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’’ was released posthumously after Redding died in a plane crash in 1967. The song became the first-ever single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts after a musician’s death. Ironically, it was his only No. 1 hit.
• Nu-Way Weiners, the second-oldest (1916) hot dog restaurant in America, had its slaw dogs rated No. 1 in the nation by the New York Times food section in July 2002.
• Macon was the birthplace of what became the first shortening made entirely of vegetable oil in the world. Macon cotton entrepreneur Wallace McCaw developed the formula, which was sold to Procter & Gamble in 1909. The company then introduced the familiar red, white and blue cans to American kitchens as Crisco Oil.
• When Macon’s Bobby Hendley was a pitcher with the Chicago Cubs, he threw a one-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 9, 1965. Hendley lost the game 1-0 on an unearned run after Dodger pitcher Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game. It is commemorated in a display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
• Although there was no formally appointed “poet laureate” in the 19th century, Macon’s Sidney Lanier was the first poet from Georgia to rise to national prominence. The state’s largest lake (Lake Lanier) and tallest bridge (Sidney Lanier Bridge in Brunswick) are named in his honor.
• The American Water Works Association awarded Macon first place nationally in the “Best of the Best Drinking Water Taste Test’’ at its annual conference in San Diego in 2009.
• Macon’s Viola Ross Napier was the first female to take Georgia’s bar exam, the first woman to argue cases before the state’s highest courts and the first woman to be elected to the Georgia Legislature. Her portrait hangs in the state capitol in Atlanta.
• Alexander II Elementary, which opened in 1902, is the oldest schoolhouse in continuous operation in Georgia.
• The roof of the Macon City Auditorium, which is celebrating its centennial this year, spans 152 feet in diameter, making it the largest true copper dome in the world. 
• The world’s first crop dusting company, Huff-Daland Dusters, was founded in Macon a century ago in 1925 and formed the foundation for a company that would later become Delta Airlines.
• Macon is home to the largest indoor pickleball facility in the world. In a 150,000 square-foot section of the old Macon Mall, the Rhythm & Rally Sports & Events opened in December 2023 and has 32 courts.
• The three Healy brothers — James, Patrick and Michael — were at the front of the line in almost everything they did. They grew up on a Macon plantation in the 19th century on what is now Healy Point and River North. 
  James became the first Black person to be ordained as a bishop in the U.S. in the Roman Catholic Church. Patrick was the nation’s first Black college student to earn a doctorate (he later became president of Georgetown University). Michael became the first Black man assigned to command a U.S. government ship and served in law
  enforcement in the territory of Alaska.