Roxy Theatre, Coddington House added to Historic Macon’s ‘Fading Five’ list

Historic Macon Foundation added two new sites to its 2020 Macon’s Fading Five list, including the former Roxy Theatre on Hazel Street.

The preservation nonprofit also removed two historic buildings — the Train Recreation Center and the Guy E. Paine House — from the list, deeming them no longer under threat.

Ethiel Garlington, Historic Macon’s executive director, made the Fading Five announcement in front of the Roxy building on Hazel Street Thursday morning.

“With the Macon community’s help, we are making progress year by year in saving our historic buildings,” he said. “Preservation promotes progress. We’re grateful for everyone who stands with us.”

The 2020 Macon’s Fading Five list includes: the Roxy Theatre building; the Coddington house, a Neil Reid-designed home at 2510 Vineville Ave.; the Dewitt McCrary house; the Coaling Tower; and the Bobby Jones Performing Arts Center.

Garlington said that another Historic Macon initiative, the Saving Places Index, actually helped identify the Roxy.

Also Thursday, Weston Stroud, who was recently awarded an Emerging Cities Champions grant, discussed his plans to create Roxy Park. The plan calls for using the area near the former theater as a park for food trucks and a pedestrian plaza, generating new opportunities for small businesses.

Historic Macon sifts through nominations each year to craft its Fading Five list. 2020 marks the sixth year of the program, which calls attention to historic sites across Macon-Bibb County that could be lost due to development or neglect.

To date, Historic Macon has listed 15 such properties. In all, nine of them have been saved and protected, while just one property has been lost.

Two sites came off the list this year: the Train Recreation Center and the Guy Paine house. Just last week, Macon-Bibb County commissioners approved spending nearly $900,000 to stabilize the Train building and renovate the exterior. Also last week, Historic Macon announced that it had bought the Guy Paine house, and it’s now on the market.

In 2014, the community lost two historic structures, Tremont Temple Baptist Church and the former Charles H. Douglass home, to commercial development, prompting the Fading Five initiative.

This year, Historic Macon’s Preservation Committee culled through nominations from its members as well as the general public to select the 2020 list. Through the program, Historic Macon crafts strategic preservation plans for each of the listed properties, working creatively with property owners, local leaders and supporters to find solutions.

A property remains on the list until the site is no longer under threat, the Preservation Committee determines that it has been appropriately preserved, or it is lost. A new list is announced annually, with updates for each site.

Thanks to the generosity of the 1772 Foundation and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, HMF has a revolving fund — the Fading Five Fund — dedicated to preserving endangered places in the community. These funds have been used to revitalize houses in the North Highlands neighborhood and acquire the Fire Hall No. 4 on Third Street, which will become Historic Macon’s new headquarters by next summer.

For more than 55 years, HMF has helped preserve hundreds of historic buildings. The Fading Five program is another tool to help promote the community’s rich, diverse heritage.

For more information and to get involved with Macon’s Fading Five, visit www.historicmacon.org or call 478-742-5084.