Sidney Lanier Cottage
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Sidney Lanier Cottage | |
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| Location | 935 High St., Macon, Georgia |
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| Coordinates | 32°50′15″N 83°38′11″W / 32.83753°N 83.63629°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1840, 1880 |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000365[1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 31, 1972 |
The Sidney Lanier Cottage is a historic cottage on High Street in Macon, Georgia, that was the birthplace of poet, musician, and soldier Sidney Lanier. Sidney Lanier Cottage was purchased by the Middle Georgia Historical Society in 1973,[2] and opened to the public in 1975.[3] Until 2021, the Sidney Lanier Cottage served as a museum, event space, and home of the Lanier Center for Literary Arts. The Historic Macon Foundation sold the cottage and it has since been restored as a single family residence.[4]
Sidney Lanier (1842-1881) was born in the High Street home of his grandfather, Sterling Lanier.[5] Lanier is best known for his regional poems, including The Marshes of Glynn, The Song of the Chattahoochee,[6] and Sunrise.[7] Lanier's parents, Sterling Robert Sampson Lanier and Mary Jane Anderson Lanier, were living in nearby Griffin, Georgia, but Mary Jane went to the home of her in-laws in Macon to give birth to her first child.[8]
The white frame Victorian home was built in 1840 as a four-room cottage, though it was altered extensively over the years. In 1879, the building was moved fifty feet and the family added two rooms to the second floor as well as a porch.[2] The home was renovated to its present Gothic Revival style in 1880.[9]
The Sidney Lanier Cottage was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[10] It became a Landmark of American Music in 1976 and in 2004 became a Landmark of American Poetry.[11]
