Story & photography by Susan McKee
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1842 Inn
353 College Street
Macon, GA 31201
(478) 741-1842
www.1842inn.com
Driving along an American interstate is an exercise in (yawn!) common culture. The gas stations, motels and restaurants are the same, no matter whether you’re in Kansas, Connecticut or California. I was surprised to find an exception in Macon, Georgia called the 1842 Inn.
Yes, the house was built in 1842, and was among those spared on General William 
Tecumseh Sherman’s march through Georgia when the Union Army unexpectedly bypassed Macon. John Gresham, a man who wore many hats in Macon, built the house with nine fireplaces, formal parlors and a collonaded front porch. The grand antebellum mansion near the top of historic College Hill in a neighborhood with many houses built in the 19th century.
Instead of numbers, the rooms are named for subjects important to Georgians. The John Gresham honors the man who built the house. A local industrialist, he also served as mayor of Macon, a state Senator, and Justice of the State's Supreme Court. The Cotton Merchants Room commemorates a later landlord, a successful cotton merchant named B.T. Adams, who owned the house from 1908 to 1927. It’s his initial “A” on the glass front doors. He also added the oak and walnut parquet floors and Victorian tile insets for the fireplaces. The Bartram is named for William Bartram, an American naturalist who spent several years exploring the southeast, including Middle Georgia.
There’s a second house, built in 1900, located behind the original, and its rooms add to the inventory at the 1842 Inn, making it a perfect wedding locale. Both are 
on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated one of the Top Ten Inns of the South by Southern Living magazine.
My husband and I stayed in the Magnolia Room: it was beautiful! Named for the tree with the large flowery blooms, the walls are painted the same vivid green as the leaves. Although (surprisingly) the magnolia is not the Georgia State Flower (the Cherokee rose is) the tree named for 17th century French botanist Pierre Magnol definitely is a symbol of the south.
The second floor room was unexpectedly spacious. The television resided in an absolutely gigantic armoire opposite the high four-poster bed. The room was big enough for three armchairs and a table, plus a couch at the foot of the bed. There was a luggage rack for 
each of our suitcases. In the bathroom was the usual assortment of toiletries, each bearing the Aromae Botanicals label. A gas fireplace took the chill off a cool February night.
We asked Emma, the manager on duty when we checked in, where the locals go for dinner – she’d been with the inn for 18 years. She sent us to Jim Shaw's Seafood Grill, 3040 Vineville Avenue, Macon. Fortunately, she also gave us detailed driving directions to this local landmark because, although it’s on US 41, it’s neither downtown nor in a typical commercial area.
The place was packed, but we had no more than a five minute wait for a table. Service was prompt and friendly. The atmosphere was pure 1950s (right down to the wood-paneled walls), but everything on my plate, from the grilled shrimp and fried crabcake to the hush puppies, were grand. Emma had recommended the spinach salad, which had a great dressing with hints of sweet tomato and pickle relish. Overall, it was definitely not fine dining, but a great taste of local cuisine.
Breakfast was served the next morning not in the formal dining room, but at a two-person table in front of the fireplace in the second parlor of the traditional Greek Revival mansion. Although rather routine – scrambled eggs, a scone, orange juice and coffee – it was tasty enough but not as, well, elegant as would be expected at a Select Registry property. Perhaps the recession has impacted the breakfast menu? Emma mentioned the previous afternoon that business was, well, slow these days.
Nonetheless, staying at the 1842 Inn was far, far better than settling for a cookie-cutter interstate interchange chain property, and the Seafood Grill far, far tastier than any logo’d restaurant on the highway.
© April 2010 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
Issue:
January
2012