Sidney Lanier Cottage

the COTTAGE IS now A PRIVATE RESIDENCE

In 2020 Historic Macon’s board of trustees voted to sell the cottage and use the proceeds to endow the Lanier Education Fund at the Community Foundation of Central Georgia.

The cottage was sold in February 2021 with the following deed restrictions:

1. The house must be used as a single family residence in perpetuity;

2. All interior and exterior alterations must meet the National Park Service Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation;

3. The house shall be made available to Historic Macon Foundation for one event per year on a mutually agreeable date.

LETTER FROM ETHIEL GARLINGTON, HMF Executive Director

August 2020

Lanier Cottage decision involves more than meets the eye 

There are five stages to the grieving process — from denial to acceptance, psychiatrists tell us. Since our announcement in May about plans to eventually close the Sidney Lanier Cottage, I’ve heard from folks across the community at various stages of that spectrum. It hadn’t occurred to me until recently that I’d already reached the “acceptance” stage, since I’d been part of the lengthy decision-making process.

The decision may have caught some folks off guard. It may have seemed abrupt or hasty. It wasn’t. Still, I wanted to take a moment and share some background and details of  what went into the decision. 

When I started work at Historic Macon Foundation in March 2014,  the organization had just wrapped up a contract with an outside consultant to help guide it through a “reimagining” of the Cottage. The report shed light on the facility’s struggling operations, the ongoing capital improvements needed and the overwhelming trend in house museums’ demise across the country.  

As you can imagine, the report drew a chilly response from  the Cottage’s longtime volunteers and supporters. And in my new role with the organization, I made the prudent decision not to press the issue. At the time it seemed like the Cottage could transition to a new, more viable use.  Not to mention, it seemed like tackling the Cottage as my first order of business would get me run out of town.

Since the 2014 report, Historic Macon organized two task forces to examine the Cottage.  In 2016, we convened a group to examine the facility, while another group looked for a new office location, since the staff size had doubled in short order.

The Cottage Task Force, as it was aptly known, reviewed programming, financial statements, marketing and capital needs, and its members met with a variety of stakeholders. We vetted a handful of potential uses and buyers, but in the end we recommended to the board that the first floor remain a house museum, as it is, and to transition the upstairs offices back to bedrooms, which we would rent out to help offset operating costs.  

The experiment hasn’t worked. The units have high vacancy rates, and tenant activities have often competed  with events on the first floor. Not to mention, the meager rental income has not generated revenue needed for operations and capital improvements.  

But it’s more important to look further back in the arc of the Cottage’s life to understand why it can’t continue operating as a museum, event facility or a residential rental.

The house was built in 1840 as a four-room cottage. Sidney Clopton Lanier was born there on Feb. 3, 1842. He spent many years away from Macon once he was grown, but the city has a rightful claim to Lanier, a poet, musician, lawyer and soldier. Just ask any graduate of the old Lanier High School what that name means to them.

Lanier, best known for his regional poems including “The Marshes of Glynn” and “Sunrise,” is actually buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. Among the family artifacts at the Cottage are the silver alto flute he used while playing for Baltimore’s Peabody Symphony Orchestra as well as his wife, Mary Day’s, wedding dress.

The Cottage itself has been altered extensively over the years. In 1879, the building was moved 50 feet, and the family added two rooms to the second floor as well as a porch. The home was renovated to its present Gothic Revival style in 1880.

“The History of Macon, Georgia, 1823-1949,” published in 1950, described the Cottage as a “party house and historic center” during the years that Mrs. O.H. McAfee owned it. In 1973, she approached the Middle Georgia Historical Society (MGHS), the forerunner of Historic Macon, and offered to sell the Cottage. 

After reviewing the minutes of meetings starting in 1964, when the MGHS was established, I was shocked to learn that the organization was founded on real estate and “revolving fund” principles that Historic Macon now leads the country in.  I incorrectly thought that MGHS was a genealogy and museum-centered organization not a real estate focused one.  

The timing was fortuitous. In 1973, MGHS needed office space to get out of its cramped quarters in the Centerplex.  Mrs. McAfee’s offer to seller finance the Cottage was an offer that the organization couldn’t refuse.

Again, looking at the minutes, it’s evident that for most of the ’70s the organization struggled finding a viable business model for the facility.  Its leaders considered continuing to operate it as a tea room, and they sought out other uses from consultants and advisers.  In the end, it became a house museum honoring Sidney Lanier.  The house is furnished, in large part, with items from the first Flea Market sale, which was held in a nearby park as a fundraiser for the Cottage.

The 1980s were the heyday for the Cottage and many house museums nationally.  After the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, there was a renewed patriotism that showed in school curricula, tourism and the country’s general mood.  As such, Lanier’s story was included in classrooms across the south, making his birthplace a relative attraction. Kitty Oliver, the longtime executive director of MGHS (and whose great-grandfather once lived in the Cottage), as well as many others, built the humble Cottage into a respectable destination for field trips, group tours and special events.

Becky Bowdre oversaw the gift shop that was a popular retail destination for Maconites and visitors alike.  The programming ranged from summer camps to garden parties.  

In 2003, when the MGHS and Macon Heritage merged to become Historic Macon Foundation, the Cottage was at the heart of the marriage.  In many ways it felt like the dowry and was sacred to MGHS members.  In hindsight, I think that prominence was bestowed for fear that the new HMF entity would lose sight of the MGHS legacy and its notable contributions. And in some ways we did.

I’ll be the first to admit that we could do more education programming.  I’ll be the first to admit that we need to grow our oral history archives.  I’ll be the first to admit that the MGHS legacy is vital to our organization today.  But the Cottage, as a facility, does not solve any of these problems. 

These days the Cottage draws fewer than 1,000 visitors a year, besides event rental guests. Rental receipts have averaged about $6,500 a year over the last five years. Historic Macon has spent an average of $10,000 a year during that period, though, to cover Cottage operations.

And that’s not counting staff time and ongoing maintenance and repairs that have largely been funded by generous grants and the endowment fund.  The building itself is in generally good condition, but all of the systems need substantial repair or replacement.  

As I said at the beginning, I’ve heard from lots of folks in various stages of grieving.  A couple of them have even said they want to buy the Cottage and continue to operate it as is.  While well-intentioned, the notion of continuing to operate it as a house museum is shortsighted and unsustainable.  It’s not a simple one-time undertaking that a handful of enthusiastic people can solve. I think they’re still in the “denial” stage.  Or maybe “bargaining.”  

The bottom line? Using the Cottage as a house museum, special event facility or apartment rental are not viable uses in the community today.  Gone are the days of saving houses strictly as museums.  

But let’s be clear: The Cottage will be saved — forever.  With the sale, I’d even argue that the property will be better maintained and shepherded to the next generation by returning to its original use as a home.

In our business, it’s a rare and welcomed opportunity to return a building to its original purpose, especially when it’s a home on the beautiful brick-paved, live-oak-lined High Street.  Historic Macon will convey strict covenants with the property — including agreements that the house must be single-family, owner occupied and must be made available annually to the organization for a reception or a Sidney’s Salon lecture.

Since October 21019, Historic Macon officials have talked with nearly 30 people who have deep connections to the Cottage.  Some of them are descendants of Lanier, and others are descendants of longtime cottage stewards.  I won’t pretend there was unanimous consensus on the plans, but for the most part everyone appreciated the circumstances and are delighted to hear the future education prospects. 

Historic Macon plans to hold a reception at the Cottage to celebrate those who have been involved over the years as well as HMF’s 47-year stewardship of the Cottage.  The plaques and markers there will remain in place, and the story of the Middle Georgia Historical Society legacy will live on through educational programming.

It’s that educational component that Historic Macon plans to enhance with the transition.

The Cottage assets will create a permanent Lanier Education Fund at the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. Assets from the Cottage sale would be the lead gift, but the aim is to grow the fund — which now stands at about $80,000 — to nurture and inspire future preservationists with hands-on workshops; programming for children, including camps; Sidney’s Salons; publications and research; and much more. 

In the end, we learned that the Cottage legacy and the special meaning it has for us is not just the building, though it is beautiful. It’s not just the history, which is important to this community and which we will preserve and nurture.

It’s the people who brought the place to life over the years and looked after it. It’s people like Kitty Oliver, Becky Bowdre, Betty Sweet Ladson, Claire Smith, Sally McKay, Sally Heard, Lois McLain, Tricia Burttram, Bernard Turner, Jim Barfield, Anita Sandefur, Janis Haley, Vickie Hertwig, Gene and Claudia Strauss, Lesley Volpe, Chris Howard, Bob and Carolyn Hargrove, Gloria Wynn and countless descendants of Sidney Lanier. And we know we forgot people. That’s always the risk when you recognize a list of folks - you never include everyone. So please accept my apologies in advance and call or email and let me know how you were involved with the Cottage.

Their guidance and dedication over the years are an example to us all.

Please stay in touch with the process as we move forward.  I’m happy to speak directly with you if you have more questions.  Just send an email to egarlington@historicmacon.org.