Macon Style
The 1842 Inn: Seeing Macon in Style

Nazario Filipponi has worked in hotels around the world – from his native Italy to England, Switzerland, Spain, Jamaica and other locales – but he found his “dream of a small, luxury hotel” in the heart of Macon’s Historic District.

Filipponi is the general manager and co-owner of the 1842 Inn, a 19-room inn that is “just the right size” for the hands-on attention he wants to give to “make our customers out friends.” With guest rooms in two historic buildings, the inn retains the charm of a country inn while offering amenities you’d expect in a larger hotel.

The rooms and public areas of the inn are in the original 1842 Greek Revival antebellum house and an adjoining Victorian house, built in 1900 and moved to the property in 1983. The two buildings share a courtyard and gardens, a favorite spot of guests during good weather.

Rooms vary in size and design, but all feature antiques and numerous special touches, and many have canopied four-poster beds, working fireplaces and whirlpool tubs. The inn features a complimentary in-room breakfast served with morning newspaper, dining tables that double as desks, overnight shoeshines, and access to a private dining and health club.

Appropriate to its own place in the city’s history, and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the 1842 Inn offers a history lesson for its guests. All the guest rooms are named for people, places or things that are part of Macon’s and Georgia’s history. There’s a room named for Lyman Hall, a Georgian who signed the Declaration of Independence; one for Sidney Lanier, Macon’s famous poet; and, of course, a room named for John Gresham, the business leader and former mayor who originally built the inn as a private home.

The property remained a private home until 1930, then was an apartment property until 1983. Since then, it has been operated as a bed-and-breakfast. The present owners – Edmund Olson, the retired publisher of The Macon Telegraph, and Filipponi – bought the inn in 1999, and evidently Filipponi’s plans are on track. The 1842 Inn is a AAA Four-Diamond and Mobile Four-Star property that has been named one of the Top 10 “most romantic inns in America” by American Historic Inns.

The 1842 Inn is in an ideal location to see the sights of Macon. Many are within walking distance; others are just a short drive away. With more acreage listed on the National Register of Historic Places than any other city in Georgia, Macon has many historic buildings to see, including: The Cannonball House, and antebellum Greek Revival home built in 1853 that now houses relics of Macon and the Civil War; the 1860 Hay House, a 24-room Italian Renaissance Revival-style mansion that took five years to build; and the Sidney Lanier Cottage, the 1840 Victorian cottage that was the birthplace of Sidney Clopton Lanier.

Two of Macon’s most popular attractions are located right across the street from each other near the downtown Terminal Station. The Georgia Music Hall of Fame is a fascinating interactive facility that explores Georgia’s rich musical heritage, while the state’s sports history is chronicled in the 43,000-square-foot Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

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