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Macon Residents, Planners Reclaim Beall’s Hill Neighborhood

Macon Residents, Planners Reclaim Beall’s Hill Neighborhood

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Today, you'll see a comeback community with freshly painted wood-frame houses, new sidewalks, flowering landscaping, strolling families.

Beverly Blake
Program Director for Georgia, Knight Foundation

Six years ago, Beall’s Hill was blighted, totally disconnected from nearby Mercer University and Macon’s historic downtown (see 2001 KF Annual Report ). Today, you’ll see a comeback community with freshly painted wood-frame houses, new sidewalks, flowering landscaping, strolling families.

In 2001, the Knight Program in Community Building, a fellowship program based at the University of Miami, helped Beall’s Hill begin the process of resurrecting itself. A public gathering of the Knight fellows, plus architects and community leaders of all stripes, developed a plan for redeveloping the neighborhood. The work has been slow, steady and hard, but under the coordinated expertise of all the partners, including the City of Macon and Mercer University, Beall’s Hill is in the early stages of reconnecting to its neighbors with new mixed-income housing, renovated older homes, friendly common areas and new hope.