Dancing in the streets

There was a time, for those of you too young to remember the 1970s demise of downtown, when people joked about the city’s sidewalks being rolled up by sundown.

After dark, the inner city looked like a ghost town — and for good reason. Most of the major retailers had moved to the new Macon Mall on Eisenhower Parkway; movie theaters were shuttered, replaced by the popularity of television; and restaurants, having no one to serve, had vanished.

Fast forward almost 40 years. Now, looking for a parking place in downtown Macon, any night of the week, is a challenge. In addition to the many locally owned restaurants, entertainment is not reserved only for the weekends. Macon is no longer a weekender’s town.

You may find Louise Warren singing and playing her guitar in front of the Travis Jean Gallery one night or, if Parish’s New Orleans cuisine is your thing, you can enjoy Keith Williams and friends on Tuesday nights on the sidewalk stage, and a variety of musicians on the weekends. There is only one caveat — on week nights outdoor performances must end by 9 p.m. as a courtesy to the number of people who live downtown.

To really get in your requisite number of steps for the day, travel Cherry Street to the end where, on May 19 at 7 p.m., “Dance for the Fun of It” was underway at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, with Paula East and several of her students teaching brief classes in some of the more popular styles, like swing or rumba. To get everyone in the mood and shed of their inhibitions, East had DJ Chester Gibbs play music for a few line dances. There’s safety in numbers and the timid dancers could hide behind their friends. It worked!

Ellen Sappington and David Leathers, two of East’s stand out students, led the bolder novices on the dance floor, sharing tips on how to look like a dancer, even if a beginner. After the first hour, the floor was open to anyone who wanted to dance until the evening ended at 9:30 p.m. East thanked Darrel Jones for bringing a group of friends with him for the open freestyle dancing, when anything goes, only to find out that the eight “friends” were in fact Jones’ siblings, all of whom wanted to learn the finer points of ballroom and casual dancing.

That had to be music to East’s ears after ending her years of teaching ballroom dancing at the Macon Health Club when the revered institution closed its doors this month. Stay tuned: Macon is not passive about its love of music or dancing, and the demand for classes has East on the hunt for a new location.

Open Streets Macon Event Rained Out

Historic Macon Foundation’s idea for closing the streets from College Street to the old Miller Senior High School site on Montpelier Avenue on the afternoon of May 21 for walking and biking sounded appealing as a family outing. Although the threat of rain and thunderstorms canceled the event, it will be scheduled again during the fall.

This was the first planned event by HMF into the western part of a once thriving neighborhood — over the Montpelier Avenue bridge that spans the interstate, which isolated the same area by severing it from its life source, near Mercer University and Tattnall Square Park in 1969, and facilitated its decay.

The renovation and re-purposing of the all-girls high school as a senior living facility, after years of abandonment and being placed on HMF’s Fading Five list, is the catalyst for further redevelopment and restoration in a forgotten area of the historic district that once bustled with activity among charming vernacular cottages.

If Historic Macon’s efforts succeed, as they have in Beall’s Hill and in Huguenin Heights, neighborhoods also contiguous to Mercer, there will be more Open Streets events — which should include dancing in the streets to celebrate!

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Dancing in the streets."