Mercer Clinic to Move into Former Georgia Music Hall of Fame Building

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The lyrics of Ray Charles “Georgia on My Mind” are all that remain on the inside of the former Georgia Music Hall of Fame; symbolic for the two years the building sat seemingly forgotten after losing funding from the state.

“We can continue to cherish and take care of the music heritage in the state because we have such great artists here,” said Kris Hattaway with NewTown Macon.

One of the remaining pieces from the museum sits in Hattaway’s office. The rest have been boxed away and returned to donors. The Ray Charles piece is all that’s left of the musical landmark, now the former tunes once played there are being replaced with the sound of bulldozers.

“We had this vacant building sitting in the heart of downtown and Mercer University purchased that building and they will be renovating it to become part of their medical school,” Hattaway said.

Mercer University will house a new clinic as an extension of its medical school in the three-story facility. The school bought the property for $180,091, now just a year since the sell, demolition to remodel the inside if well underway.

“We have several clinics in locations in downtown Macon and the Mercer campus at the moment and this will be consolidation of those several buildings,” said Tera Poole, said Mercer Medicine’s Director of Marketing.

The clinic will be internal and primary care with several different specialties including cardiology. Construction is expected to be complete in April 2014 and Mercer University plans to start seeing patients in July 2014.

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