Historic Macon hosts annual flea market

On Saturday, Nov. 3, Historic Macon hosted its half-price flea market. This is the second flea market that Historic Macon has had this year. The first flea market was their main sale and was held on Oct. 20. The first flea market was much larger and had a larger selection of items for sale. The second sale gave people a chance to look through the remaining items to see if there was anything that interested them.
The proceeds from the sale went toward Historic Macon. All of the items at the flea market were donations from people from around the area.
Jennifer Mayer, the Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator at Historic Macon, said that this was the 35th annual flea market fundraiser. Mayer also reports that this year’s turnout was the biggest yet.
The proceeds from the sale will go to meet the various needs of Historic Macon. The majority of the funds raised will be used for revitalizing the Beall’s Hill neighborhood near Mercer University.
The flea market has a permanent location year round so that they can take donations and spend the year sorting and pricing items. Mayer estimated that this year they had thousands of items in several different departments. Historic Macon received more furniture this year than they had the space for. Fortunately, the person who gave them a permanent location also provided them with a separate space for furniture.
At Saturday’s sale, Mayer was pleased with this year’s flea market and said, “I think we’ve done really well this year as a whole. This is our biggest sale yet and we had a lot of it go a few weeks ago at the sale, but we have some good things left and I think people are taking them.”
The flea market was quite busy Saturday with people browsing the various tables for wares. Historic Macon staff and volunteers assisted the customers with whatever help they needed.
Pat Donnelly has been working at the flea market sales for 20 years and enjoys the group experience. Donnelly said, “It is great teamwork. Everyone just sort of falls in and knows what they are supposed to do.” She agreed that this year probably had the largest turnout to date.
Donnelly admitted that organizing all of the people involved can be difficult at times. “Everyone has their own way of doing things and you just have to get used to it,” she said.
Janice Haley, another Historic Macon employee, has been involved with Historic Macon for 30 years and has been an employee for the past six. She was pleased to see all of the people involved with the sale return each year and felt this year was a success.
Haley was especially happy that much of the proceeds will go towards Beall’s Hill neighborhood. As a local resident, she appreciated the work that Historic Macon and Mercer University have put into restoring older neighborhoods and making them safe places to live.
According to Historic Macon, the 35th annual sale was a success. Historic Macon hopes to continue to grow and sell more items each year. Anyone interested in donating items or volunteering should contact Historic Macon at the Sydney Lanier Cottage, or call at 478-742-5084 for more information.