MACON, Ga. — After its entrance gates stood for more than 100 years, the only thing left at the entrance to Carolyn Crayton Park is a pile of bricks.
Digging deep through the archives, you'll find Muriel Jackson. She's the head of the historical room at Washington Memorial Library, and this week, she's looking at pictures.
She's not looking for just any pictures, though. This week, she's interested in Macon's Carolyn Crayton Park -- previously known as Central City Park.
"[There were] several tracks for horse racing and so forth, horticultural things and so forth; and most of that burned down in the late 1800s, early 1900s," Jackson said.
After the fire, the new gates built in 1913 stood for over 100 years, until last week, when a construction crew tore them down as part of an ongoing renovation effort.
"We knew they were in decay, and with the number of people down there, we didn't want to take a chance of them falling over or doing anything like that, so we decided to take them down," said Macon-Bibb County Manager Keith Moffett.
Some, like Historic Macon Executive Director Ethiel Garlington, were surprised the county did not announce the demolition.
"It just caught us totally off guard, and so over the weekend, we got lots of calls from people who were really upset, had a lot of questions," he said.
Moffett said that's because since the gate structures were not considered historic.
Once the bricks are cleared, they'll be used in a new entrance. As for Muriel Jackson, she looks forward to the next chapter of this park's history.
The overall park renovation is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $3 million.