The walls that once formed Macon’s historic Atlantic Cotton Mill are now huge piles of red brick behind the Pio Nono Avenue Kroger store.

Only the shell of the multiple buildings remained after a devastating fire in March 2011 incinerated hopes for loft apartments on the site off Mailey Avenue.

Jerry Carpenter, of Carpenter Construction in Warner Robins, said his company was hired to demolish the buildings and salvage the bricks that survived the blaze.

Workers are separating out wood and metal remnants of the structures destroyed in an accidental blaze on a windy spring day last year.

Only the site’s towering smokestack remains after nearly three weeks of demolition.

Carpenter said there is a possibility the smokestack will remain -- for historical purposes.

Mercer University, which owns the property, hasn’t made any final decisions on what will happen with it, spokesman Larry Brumley wrote via e-mail.

“It’s simply a clean-up operation to remove debris left over from the fire,” Brumley wrote. “The University has no immediate plans for the property and, at least for the time being, the smokestack stays.”

Writer Phillip Ramati contributed to this report. To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303.