Liz Fabian/The Macon Newsroom
The following article was originally published on Sept. 17, 2025 in The Macon Newsroom.
When Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief David Hill recently toured the 1865 home of an early settler of East Macon, he paid almost as much attention to the backyard — the land.
A little more than two centuries ago, his ancestors were forced off it, away from the banks of the Ocmulgee River to resettle out West in what is now Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now, they want to come back and establish offices in Macon on the outskirts of what still is expected to become Georgia’s first national park at the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.
They are looking at building a cultural center in the former home of “East Macon’s first citizen,” DeWitt McCrary, who served 12 terms as an alderman of the City of Macon and three terms on the Bibb County Commission.
While the Nation plans to be integral in managing the cultural aspects of a national park, they also want to tell history from their own perspective.
“You don’t see that in the history books, but this just gives us an opportunity to tell the true history of it,” said Hill, who was in town for the Ocmulgee Mounds Indigenous Celebration. “That’s what we want to do, just educate people who we are, who Muscogee people are. So, I’m very excited.”
His former chief of staff, Tracie Revis, now the Director of Advocacy for the Macon-based Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative, (ONPPI), escorted the visiting delegation that included current Chief of Staff Jeff Fife and the Nation’s Council Speaker, Randall Hicks.
Revis explained that the site at 320 Hydrolia St. is prime real estate for anyone coming to Ocmulgee Mounds off of Interstate 16 as the historic home is near the current back gate to the park, which is expected to become a main entrance in the expansion.
“When you turn in, you would see us, right?” Revis explained. “Imagine our flag flying, our story, we get to control this, do what we want in this space.”
While the view from the vista that once overlooked the river is now blocked by the interstate, Marriott City Center hotel and Lewis B. Wilson Convention Center, Revis noted the park would be visible from the property.
Chief Hill was pondering the possibilities during his recent stay in the homeland.
“Just to see what we can do here, especially with the cultural center that we’re going to have — or that’s the thoughts of doing — just
to bring more tourism here, just to help what we can do in partnership with Macon,” he said.
The house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was threatened by the wrecking ball to make way for a convenience store, and later snatched from the county’s blight demolition list. Historic Macon Foundation fostered it on its Fading Five list of architectural treasures in danger of demolition by neglect.
The Urban Development Authority stepped in to purchase and save it and look for a buyer.
Although the building was partially burned and continually broken into by vagrants, UDA Executive Director Alex Morrison found it to be in “incredible shape” and worthy of rescuing.
“We have definitely redone worse properties,” Morrison told the authority before they agreed to purchase it for $320,000 in 2021. Another cottage on the property had more extensive fire damage, was damaged by a fallen tree and was demolished in 2024.
Removal of that house opened up the back lot for a planned replica of the Native American dwellings that would have been a common site in the area before the early 19th Century.
Architects Shannon and Laurie Fickling drew up the concept sketch that includes a two story addition to allow for handicapped access to the building and its exhibits and artifacts.
It was that design and a lot of local research that helped secure a federal grant to pursue the project with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
In March, Macon-Bibb County announced the long-awaited $310,000 National Park Service grant to help secure the historic home and repair the roof, siding, masonry, doors, windows and improve wiring and HVAC.
“We couldn’t come up with a better or higher use than working with the tribe to find a place for them to be able to tell their own story and develop a site here, right here in Macon, Georgia, as the capital city of the of the Lower Muscogee Creek Confederacy,” said Macon-Bibb County Mayor Pro Tempore Seth Clark, who also is the executive director of ONPPI.
As Clark looked deeper into the history of the house, he discovered parallels with McCrary, who also served as Mayor Pro Tempore while working as a pharmacist and encouraging suburban neighborhoods on the east side of the river.
The Macon Georgia Then and Now page on Facebook, noted McCrary’s care and consideration for the community as it posted photos of McCrary shortly after the grant was announced.
“Please know he could have built his pharmacy on the other side of the river and lived like a king, but he made the choice to serve the Mill Village Community,” stated a post shared in the spring.
ONPPI Director of Strategic Planning Matt Chalfa helped lead the recent site visit that included Muscogee Creek citizens from Kimley-Horn, a development firm that does a lot of work with the National Park Service and is currently working with ONPPI on the strategic plan for the park expansion, and New Fire Native, a design group specializing in working with the tribes.
Morrison thought it was a great fit to get them involved in finalizing the concept for the cultural center, which is across from the new Bicentennial Park that commemorates the rich history of this region and recent efforts at reconciliation among the peoples who lived here.
The new greenspace next to the Mill Hill Community Arts Center features a towering Native American sculpture and a regulation-size stickball field, the tribe’s signature sport.
Clark thinks the new cultural center could root the Muscogee Creeks into Macon-Bibb’s redevelopment goals to boost tourism, including the planned East Bank multi-purpose development down the street on the site of the old Bibb mill.
“This is their ancestral homelands, and so integrating this site here into the civic infrastructure of Fort Hawkins, but also just the tribe into the civic infrastructure that’s helped save and develop downtown, and manage this place that’ll be the gateway community for the next national park, is what we’re we’re doing here,” Clark said.
While he is grateful for the Congressional-directed spending in the initial grant that stabilized the DeWitt McCrary house, more money will be needed to make this cultural center a reality.
“It’ll be up to the civic community and really, ONPPI, the National Park and Preserve Initiative, to work to secure funds for the further development for it,” Clark said.
Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom, her work can be found here, and she can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu.
