The Sidney Lanier Cottage was constructed circa 1840.  Sidney Lanier  was born in the "Cottage" on February 3, 1842, and moved to Griffin, Georgia shortly after his birth.   Lanier soon returned to Macon with his family where he completed his elementary education. At the age of 14, Lanier entered Oglethorpe College near Milledgeville, Georgia, and graduated in 1860 with high honors. Lanier entered the Confederate Army in 1861 with the Macon Volunteers and was captured in 1864 while serving on a blockade runner. He spent five months in a federal prison, where he developed consumption (tuberculosis), an illness with which he struggled for the rest of his life. Lanier married Mary Day on December 19, 1867 in Christ Episcopal Church in Macon. They couple had four sons. Lanier spent his latter years in Baltimore, Maryland, where, in addition to performing with the Peabody, he lectured in the English Literature Department at Johns Hopkins University. Lanier died near Lynn, North Carolina in 1881 at the age of 39. Mary Day Lanier, who outlived her husband by 50 years (d. 1931), spent her widowhood editing, publishing, and promoting her husband's copious letters, poems, and manuscripts.

The Sidney Lanier Cottage House Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976, the "Cottage" was designated a Landmark of American Music, and in 2004, designated a Landmark of American Poetry by the Academy of American Poets. Among the objects on view at the Cottage are one of Sidney Lanier's flutes (a silver, alto flute made by the Badger Flute Company), Mary Day's wedding dress of 1867, and several portraits and first editions.

For additional information about Sidney Lanier, read our facts page.