features >> Hidden Treasure: Cherokee Heights Harbors History and Good Neighbors

When Brian Causey walked into the Payne-Wellborn house in Cherokee Heights, three years ago, he knew he had to buy it.  He said, “I’d never seen a house like it.” Built around 1911, the house has an unusual combination of Spanish and Japanese design elements. The rooms are grouped around an interior atrium that’s filled with trees, including a 25-foot avocado tree.

“I’ll bet I’m the only one that has to rake leaves on the inside of his house,” Causey joked.

Causey’s architectural gem is not alone in that neighborhood. Cherokee Heights has an abundance of outstanding residences. Like the hidden avocado tree in the Payne-Wellborn house, Cherokee Heights is nearly invisible behind the commercial corridor of Pio Nono Avenue.

Encompassing a 12-block area, Cherokee Heights Historic District is bounded by Napier, Suwanee, Inverness and Pio Nono Avenues. While driving down Pio Nono, you can get glimpses of bungalows on the corners of Hillcrest and Cherokee Avenues, but the most impressive homes are in the middle of the neighborhood.

Cherokee Heights was planned and developed by the Vineville Improvement Company in 1909 on land that was formerly the Ullman Dairy farm and the Ullman Brewery. It was the first planned suburban development in Macon and one of the first in Georgia, a significance that helped it obtain a listing on the National Register of Historic Places on July 8, 1982.

“It was also the first development that was based on the automobile. It was designed for people with a car to drive into town each day for work,” noted historian Jim Barfield.

The importance of the automobile is evident when the citizens of Cherokee Heights petitioned in 1918 for the city to pave and widen Pio Nono. From the Macon Daily Telegraph, December 4, 1918, “… Pio Nono Avenue is now no more than an alley and not a fit approach to Cherokee Heights.”

In the early 20^th century, only the upper and middle classes could afford the luxury of a car, which means that the early residents of Cherokee Heights were fairly affluent. Some of the city’s most prominent financiers, merchants, civic leaders and government officials lived there. 

The residents weren’t the only notable people associated with Cherokee Heights. Several of Macon’s most renowned architects were involved in the development including Neel Reid, Alexander Blair Jr., W. Elliott Dunwody, Jr., and John C. Dennis. Blair was a devout Episcopalian and he drew up plans for St. James Episcopal Church. Although his original plans were for a Tudor Gothic Revival building with a two-story bell tower, only part of his design was realized when a modest single story church with Tudor window treatments was constructed in 1915.

Neel Reid, perhaps one of the south’s most influential architects, designed several houses in Cherokee Heights. One of the earliest, ca. 1912, the Stetson-Richardson-Hill house (2749 Cherokee Avenue) is an elegant Colonial Revival. In the “Architecture of Neel Reid in Georgia”, author James Grady used this description, “… built of brick with a carefully detailed pedimented and columned entrance in white wood.” Current owners, Jack Schellenberg and Sterling Everett, a well-known artist, have lived there since 1990.        

Another Neel Reid house, known simply as “the Pink House” can be found at 2715 Cherokee Avenue. More accurately known as the Hillyer-Kinney-Kernaghan-Smith house, it is a combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission and it was constructed ca. 1914 for L.P. Hillyer, a very prominent and successful banker.

Smokey and Eugenia Simmons have lived at the Barnes-Beall house (ca. 1924) at 2733 Cherokee Avenue for 30 years. The Federal Revival-style brick house was originally attributed to W. Elliott Dunwody, Jr. but has since been authenticated as a Neel Reid design. When they were house hunting 30 years ago, the Simmons were looking for a house with an outbuilding that could be used as a studio. Instead, they found and became infatuated with the Barnes-Beall house in lovely Cherokee Heights. Eugenia uses the third floor as her art studio where she says the lighting is perfect.

The Federal Revival style of architecture was popular in Cherokee Heights. Two other wonderful examples of it have been attributed to the architect John C. Dennis. The Williams-Randall house at 2770 Hillcrest Ave. and the Reid (not Neel Reid) house at 2739 Hillcrest Ave. both ca. 1924. Willy and LaConstance Smith were planning on building a new home until they saw the stately Federal Revival on Hillcrest. LaConstance recalled their decision to purchase it.

“Besides the construction being much better than modern houses, it was more conveniently located and it was a better price.” After 15 years, the Smiths still love their house and neighborhood.

“We wouldn’t live anywhere else,” says LaConstance.

Besides the classic forms of residential architecture, there are also some very unique styles found in Cherokee Heights. The Payne-Wellborn house at 2733 Hillcrest Ave. is one of the most unusual with its interior atrium. Another is the Crump-Shisn house at 2796 Hillcrest Ave. ca. 1922.  It has Japanese design elements on what is fundamentally a Prairie-style bungalow. Charlie Stubbs has resided in the Crump-Shisn house for over 25 years and she still enjoys its extra large rooms, high ceilings and abundance of windows.

In 1923, the Suwanee annex was opened for development. However, the majority of houses were built in the 1940s and 1950s.  By then, the housing styles had changed to the simple ranches that were common in the post-World War II era.

While Cherokee Heights was very affluent in the early years, it became more economically diverse during that second phase of development, reflecting the changes in society. In another 20 years, that diversity expanded to include ethnicity. Idonia and Leonard Jackson moved to Suwanee Avenue in 1976, becoming one of the first African-American families in the neighborhood.  At that time Cherokee Heights had an active neighborhood association and Idonia became very involved with it. She remembers being impressed with the community feeling.

“We all got along just fine,” she said.

Almost unanimously, Cherokee Heights’ residents cite its convenience, outstanding architecture and loyal, friendly neighbors as reasons to stay.  Mayor Jack Ellis resided on Hillcrest Ave. from 1989 to 1998.

“I liked the character of the architecture and the diversity. It’s also very convenient to everything in Macon. It’s truly Mid-Town,” he said.

As traffic becomes increasingly snarled in the perimeter of the city, being close to town is an attractive quality for homebuyers.  And bodes well for this particular neighborhood.

 “It won’t be long before people discover what we have in here,” said Schellenberg. “Cherokee Heights is on the precipice of a rebirth.”