Dr. Patrick Roche was tired of his 40-minute roundtrip commute each day from the North Macon suburbs to teach at the Mercer University School of Medicine. Environmentally conscious, he also wanted to live closer to work and use less fuel. And, he and his wife, Kathy, liked the sense of community that Macon’s Intown neighborhoods offer, finding it similar to the small North Carolina town where they lived prior to moving to Macon.

When their youngest child went off to college, they became serious about a different option. After looking at various Intown neighborhoods, they settled on Huguenin Heights adjacent to the Mercer campus. Dr. Roche could walk to work. Other faculty lived nearby. They got to know everybody on their street and enjoyed porch parties. Kathy Roche imagined she would enjoy living Intown, but found that she liked it even more than she thought she would.

But one of their children quickly put everything in the proper perspective.

“Dad, you’re going where the coolest faculty live,” Roche said he recalled his son exclaiming.

Cool is a word increasingly being used to describe the historic, revitalized neighborhoods surrounding the Mercer campus. Twenty years ago the words dilapidated and dangerous were more likely to come to mind when talking about the neighborhoods at Mercer’s front door.

“The housing was worse than Third World countries,” said Maryel Battin, former director of the Macon Heritage Foundation (now Historic Macon Foundation), which began a complete neighborhood revitalization project in Huguenin Heights in 1994. “Apartments were renting for $50 to $75 a month and there was no maintenance. A nearby bar had “Drink and Drown” nights two nights a week and several crack houses were open.”

“Kirby (Godsey) recognized Mercer could never achieve its potential in the presence of decaying neighborhoods,” said Mercer President William D. Underwood. “He knew Mercer couldn’t put a fence around the campus,” said Battin. “Godsey knew that you can’t have town versus gown and that both can work together to mutually benefit one another.”

During the past 15 years, Mercer has played a central role, along with a number of other public and private partners, in rehabilitating the three neighborhoods surrounding the Mercer campus. The University’s investment in recent years has totaled well over $5 million, including more than $1 million spent during the past three years to redevelop the retail area of Mercer Village, a commercial center adjacent to Huguenin Heights that was underutilized. If Mercer’s investment in Downtown Macon is added, the total is closer to $10 million, according to University officials. And Mercer’s partnership has helped leverage millions more.

One of Mercer’s most important contributions has been its down payment assistance to full-time faculty and staff for the purchase of a home in the historic Intown neighborhoods. Funded jointly by the University and through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the assistance provides up to $20,000 toward a down payment. Since 1997, a total of 41 down payment assistance grants have been made to faculty and staff. A fourth of those have come in the last two years.

Now, building on previous neighborhood revitalization projects, Mercer, in partnership with the City of Macon, is embarking on a major new endeavor to enhance the infrastructure and increase the amenities in the two-mile College Hill Corridor from the campus to downtown. The goal is to create a vibrant “college town” area that is connected to the city’s downtown via tree-lined streets, improved sidewalks and bike lanes, and teeming with attractive entertainment, business and housing choices. The payoff promises to be tremendous for Mercer and Macon.

In interviews with University and community leaders, the words “tipping point” came up repeatedly in reference to the work of the College Hill Corridor Commission and the new College Hill Alliance.

“When Macon Mall opened in 1975, there was a giant sucking sound as businesses moved out of downtown,” said Macon Mayor Robert Reichert, a graduate of Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law. “For the past 20 years we’ve been trying to reverse that process and get people to move back in.”

Reichert said the College Hill Corridor project has the potential to get Macon over the tipping point to where the ball will start rolling on its own. “Yesterday’s young professionals wanted a house on a two-acre lot in suburbia. Today they’re more interested in living in loft apartments within walking distance of shopping, theatre and other amenities.”

The corridor represents “an opportunity to connect the dots and build a culture of reinvestment that honors the past, but looks toward a bright and progressive future,” according to the master plan developed by Philadelphia-based Interface Studios with input from community and university leaders, residents, business owners and other stakeholders. The public was informed and shared their ideas through interviews, a bicycle tour, walking tours, cocktail hours, focus group meetings, public meetings, a community mapping exercise and online web distribution of work in progress.

A $5 million grant from Knight Foundation — announced at a June 22 news conference in Mercer Village — will assist with implementation of the plan. U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, who represents Macon in Congress, also has applied for $5.7 million in federal funds to enhance streetscapes, add bike lanes and improve Tattnall Square Park. Mercer will contribute a match of $1.4 million. A decision about the funding is expected in the fall.

“The College Hill Alliance can help create an exciting, vibrant, central city area with parks and recreation,” Reichert said. “It can encourage commercial structures such as the former Milady’s Cleaners on College Street and the vacant filling station at the corner of College and Forsyth Streets to be reoccupied. I’m excited about the potential and appreciate the Knight Foundation for making a grant available. The challenge is to maximize use of the grant to get the most bang for the buck. We must be wise in the way we leverage investment dollars with it.

“Macon’s success lies in large part with the success of its downtown,” Reichert noted. “The connection between the Mercer campus and downtown is key. Connectivity is not just bricks and mortar. It’s about re-energizing, attracting and invigorating.”

Underwood agrees. “I want to see Macon become the kind of city that is attractive to bright, creative, entrepreneurial young people. It’s important to Mercer because these are the kinds of people we are trying to attract as students and faculty and staff.”

Among the improvements being considered in the College Hill Corridor are loft-style, historically compatible residences to accommodate 400-500 undergraduate students. One option on the table are residential lofts on top of new college-friendly retail space in Mercer Village. Underwood wants to increase the percentage of undergraduates living on campus from the current 70 percent to more than 90 percent. Studies show that students who live on campus perform better academically and graduate sooner, he explained. They’re more involved in student life and derive more from the student experience than commuters.

And Mercer hopes within the next year to attract faculty and staff to build on seven vacant lots it owns in Beall’s Hill, another adjacent historic neighborhood that has been a focus of revitalization efforts in recent years. The University is willing to provide the lots free and offer its down payment assistance incentive for new home construction.

Josh Rogers, a 2005 Mercer College of Liberal Arts graduate and former student body president, was brought on board in 2007 to provide staff support to the College Hill Corridor Commission. Rogers played a key role in development of the College Hill master plan, working closely with urban planners and architects at Interface Studios and the Commission to generate ideas and community input. His graduate studies in historic preservation and his knowledge of the community served him well in that capacity and in his current role as executive director of the Historic Macon Foundation, which buys and restores historic homes in the neighborhoods around the Mercer campus.

“The College Hill Corridor project has the potential to give students the college town experience they are missing and provide economic benefits to Macon businesses,” Rogers said. “It also can help students form a more lasting connection to the city and create the quality of life that will make Mercer graduates want to remain in Macon.”

Revitalizing Macon's Historic Neighborhoods  Continued...