MACON, Ga. — Before North Highlands Park there was Baconsfield Park. The owner, Augustus Bacon, wrote in his will the park was for "white women and children of the City of Macon." He died in 1914.
According to Mercer history, Bacon wrote in his will that the City of Macon will be one of the trustees for the park. The owner's heirs and the city, couldn't decide what to do with the land after a segregation and desegregation dispute.
So the park was abandoned in the 1970s.
Decades later, kids would play basketball in the street, which worried neighbors.
Historic Macon, and a $180,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, invested in a new place where children and families could gather.
Miki Fluker, former Neighborhood Association president, grew up two miles from the new park. She says North Highlands was an active community back then and she's happy to see it come back to life.
"The addition of this park is going to be a real boom to our neighborhood. It's going to be a focal point, a place where people can socialize and get together, so we're very excited about that," Fluker said.
Another resident who grew up in the area is Louise Watson. She told 13WMAZ she is thrilled to see the new park when she drives by it.
She is happy the kids don't have to play basketball in the street anymore.
"They would have a basketball goal set up right on the edge of the street and we were very worried that some little child was going to get hurt," Watson said.
The 28-acre space has swings, a half basketball court, picnic tables, and a walking and biking trail. Watson says the area has changed a lot from then to now.
"The neighborhood is more diverse than it was when my family moved here in 1954 and that's a wonderful part of living here," Watson said.
Fluker says the park is wheelchair-accessible and that's something "people don't think about when they create a park."
Other contributors to the completion of the park were Macon-Bibb County Parks and Recreation Department, Evergreen Lawn & Garden, The Sign Store, and DeMichiel Construction.