Macon's Grand Opera House: Horses, Chaplin, and the South's Biggest Stage
Near Macon, Georgia
When the Academy of Music opened here in eighteen eighty-four, it had the largest stage in the entire southeastern United States, big enough to fit nearly a fifth of Macon's population in its seats. Designers built it that way on purpose: in nineteen oh eight, a production of Ben-Hur rolled live horses and chariots across that very stage. During World War One, Charlie Chaplin stood here and led the John Philip Sousa band in a fundraising concert.
The building was renovated in nineteen oh five and reopened as the Grand Opera House, adding the seven-story facade you see today. It landed on the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen seventy, and it now serves as the performing arts center for Mercer University.
