"The City of Macon is a treasury of great historic buildings . . . the range of architectural wealth is almost limitless." So said prominent architectural historians Carl Feiss and Russell Wright in their 1970 Report of A Comprehensive Survey of Macon's Architecture commissioned by the Middle Georgia Historical Society. Other visitors have called Macon an encyclopedia of architectural styles. Founded in 1823, the city offers buildings reflecting all the styles of the intervening years from Late Federal to Post Modern. Visitors driving, riding, or walking through Macon's eleven National Register Historic Districts can enjoy the typical Greek Revival mansions, the more modest Victorian cottages, a wealth of Arts and Crafts bungalows as well as a wide variety of other examples of architectural styles.

Among Macon's architectural gems are:

FEDERAL - 843 Poplar Street
A style developed by the young republic reflecting growing national pride, characterized by a foursquare box form, symmetry of all elements centered by a doorway with fan and sidelights. This house is one of Macon's only brick residences (1840) and features a graceful portico with classical columns of cast iron.

GREEK REVIVAL - 1261 Jefferson Terrace
Celebrating the United States debt to democracy in ancient Greece as well as the Greeks' 1829 liberation from Turkish rule, this style became identified closely with the ante bellum South. Taking the form of a Greek temple these houses featured Doric, Ionic or Corinthian columns topped by a heavy entablature or cornice. These crowning elements usually incorporated Greek motifs such as triglyphs and acanthus (stylized honeysuckle). This 1844 example uses laurel wreaths for decoration of the entablatures.

ITALIANATE - 1260 Ash Street
A popular mid-19th Century style characterized by wide roof overhangs supported by brackets, arches in doors and windows and shallow porches called piazzas. Cupolas or belvederes often topped these houses. This example features a fine iron fence made at the original owner's foundry.

VICTORIAN - 920 High Street
Macon is fortunate in retaining many of these small houses built during the reign of England's Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901). They are often asymmetrical and embellished with ornate decorations in wood, metal, and masonry. Carpenters were very imaginative in creating "gingerbread" to adorn what were essentially modest, middle-class dwellings.

QUEEN ANNE - 1085 Georgia Avenue
Also derived from early English buildings (not actually representative of the reign of the early 18th century queen), this late 19th century style, a variety of Victorian, featured asymmetrical massing, many gables, towers and turrets, and stained glass. This 1887 example displays many of the style's typical elements.

SECOND EMPIRE - 1144 Georgia Avenue
Of the period of the French Second Empire (1870s), this style's most typical feature is the mansard roof. Vertical elements such as the tall narrow windows are countered by horizontal elements, usually a broad but shallow porch. This house has elaborate wire work and molded cornices.

ARTS AND CRAFTS - 2545 Vineville Avenue
Early in the 20th Century a rebellion against the elaborate ornamentation of Victorian buildings in favor of functional elements created by craftsmen led to this early 20th Century style. Exposed rafter ends, window groupings, and natural materials such as stone and stucco were common elements of these houses. This house is repetitive of the style as is the fine pool pavilion behind it, which is visible from the side street.

NEO CLASSICAL OR BEAUX ARTS - 340 College Street
Early in the 20th Century, a renewed interest in early architectural precedents led architects to emulate Greek and Roman forms. Macon boasts many buildings, public and private, that fit in this category.

SHOTGUN - Walnut Lane Row
Houses for working class Maconites were historically interspersed with grander houses in adjoining neighborhoods. The Shotgun house is an arrangement of rooms in a straight line so that, in theory, a shotgun fired through the front door would exit the rear door. Houses of this type can be found throughout Macon's older sections.

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