On The Map: Inside The Allman Brothers Band’s ‘Big House’ In Macon, GA

Welcome to my new column, On The Map, where I (Leslie Michelle Derrough) will highlight famous and less well-known musical sites that you can visit for Glide. We’re starting off with one of the finest music museums in the country: The Big House in Macon, Georgia, home of all things Allman Brothers. Let’s explore!

THE SITE

The Big House Museum is located in a residential area of Macon, Georgia. Duane Allman and bandmate Berry Oakley rented this Tudor home from 1970 until early 1973. In 2009, it was made into a museum to honor the musical legacy of the Allman Brothers Band. It is located at 2321 Vineville Avenue.

THE BAND

Morphing from the Escorts to the Allman Joys to The Hour Glass before finally settling into the Allman Brothers Band, Duane and his younger brother Gregg were born to be musicians. Between Duane’s prowess on guitar and Gregg’s bluesy hymnal voice, they had the foundation to become legends. With Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, and Jaimoe Johanson, they recorded their first album (self-titled) in 1969, which contained “Whipping Post,” followed the next year by Idlewild South, featuring “Midnight Rider,” “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed,” “Please Call Home” and “Hoochie Coochie Man.” This original core band would record four albums together, including the legendary live album At Fillmore East, before the deaths of Duane in 1971 and Berry in 1972. 

ABB would continue, with a few breaks along the way, until 2014, their final studio recording, Hittin’ The Note, having been released in 2003. “It had to end,” Jaimoe stated in the Alan Paul 2014 ABB biography One Way Out. “We went through two deaths, and the only thing that kept us from going crazy was the fact that we had something to do, something very intense to fill our time … When you go through stuff like that, you need time to sit and think about things clearheaded, and we never had that. We just plowed forward.”

They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1995 and received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 2012. Jaimoe is the only original band member still with us; Gregg and Butch passed in 2017, and Dickey most recently this past April. All these musicians were excellent at their craft and created music that will go on forever.

THE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE

According to John Lynskey, ABB historian and former editor-in-chief of Hittin’ The Note Magazine, “The Big House was built in 1903 by Nathaniel Harris, who had been governor of Georgia and the founder of Georgia Tech. As a Maconite, he wanted to construct the nicest new home in Macon, and he succeeded. The three-story Grand Tudor house was magnificent and stood out on Vineville Avenue. After the governor died in 1929, the house changed hands many times, and it was in a state of disrepair by 1970. I don’t know who owned it when the Oakleys rented it, but the neighbors did not like the band living there. The Church across [the street] was cool about it, but no one else was. Five white hippie boys and a black dude was an unusual sight in Macon at that time.”

Continued Lynskey, “Duane, Donna, and Galadrielle were living in a house on Bond Street, not far from the original Hippie Crash Pad the band lived in when they first got to Macon. Berry, Linda, and Brittany were sharing a home with Butch and his family on Orange Street; the band played corkball in the little park in front of that house.” In Gregg’s 2012 memoir, My Cross To Bear, he wrote about the Big House, “It was a big place – I remember thinking that we could put the whole band in there – but we didn’t want to be on top of each other all the time, since we traveled like that.” He also said that “the vibe at the Big House was always good. We had a real sense of camaraderie, of family.” 

It was actually the ladies who found the house back in early 1970. Berry’s wife Linda, his sister Candace, and Duane’s de facto wife Donna noticed a newspaper listing it for rent at $225 (the Higgins family was renting it out through Day Realty). The Oakleys and Allmans moved in, along with Gregg and Candace, who were dating. Other band members and roadies would come and go, and the Big House became their communal home. “The guys spent a lot of time in the rehearsal room, which was in the front parlor of the house, and in the dining room; the women of the Big House believed in communal meals,” Lynskey explained to me in a recent email. “As for hanging out, that would be in the Casbah Room on the second floor. It was originally a sitting room for women to hold tea parties and such, but the band turned it into their listening room. It was a place to stretch out, listen to Miles Davis or the Dead, and party. It’s a gorgeous room, and the vibe is incredible.”

However, following the deaths of Duane and Berry, that vibrant vibe inside the home seemed to evaporate, and everyone eventually moved out. But photographer and former ABB tour manager Kirk West was drawn back to it, buying the house in 1993 and turning it into a museum filled with historical artifacts from the band’s career. “A lot of work went into renovating the house,” explained Big House Executive Director Richard Brent before it could become what we see today. 

VISITING

The Big House sits in a quiet residential neighborhood at 2321 Vineville Avenue. They have a parking lot onsite but if that is full, visitors are allowed to use the church parking lot across the street. ABB fans will love posing for pictures in front of the And The Road Goes On Forever gate with the mushroom logo. Most of the rooms are open for viewing, and photography is allowed inside the house. The Big House is open Thursday-Saturday, 11:00 am-6:00 pm, and on Sunday, 11:00 am-4:00 pm. Regular admission price is $20, for children ten and under it’s $10, and senior/military/student price is $15. Brent, who first discovered ABB as a teen via their Seven Turns album and has been working with the Big House since 2011, advises everyone to come early and enjoy taking their time through each room, the visit time usually averaging around 45 minutes. 

A walk-through of the house is invigorating with all the memorabilia on display. You can see Duane’s blue bedroom, the Casbah Room where the band liked to hang out, Brittany Oakley’s colorful bedroom, the walk-in closet featuring magazine covers through the years, and numerous display case walls filled with guitars, amps, clothes, handwritten lyrics and so much more – including Berry’s “Tractor” Fender bass, Dickey’s 1972 Gibson, Gregg’s “Melissa” guitar and Duane’s infamous Goldtop guitar, which surprisingly wasn’t among the original items at the museum. “We were introduced to the owner of the guitar in 2010,” said Brent, “and were able to work out a unique loan agreement. The unique part is that he wanted the guitar played and not just stuck behind glass.”

The Goldtop has indeed made it’s way out of the glass to be played on numerous occasions by band members and other guitarists over the years. In 2023, former ABB guitarist Warren Haynes shared this “beautiful guitar moment” with me during an interview: “When the Allman Brothers played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads at Madison Square Garden, someone brought Duane Allman’s Les Paul that he played on Layla to the show and Derek Trucks and I were playing it and decided to go show it to Eric Clapton. So we walked back into Eric’s dressing room, and across the room, Eric’s eyes lit up, and he said, ‘Is that a copy of Duane’s old guitar?’ And we’re like, ‘No, that’s Duane’s guitar.’ And he became silent and said, ‘I haven’t seen that guitar since we recorded Layla.’ But he recognized it from across the room. It was tuned to open E so he played it for a minute and then handed it back to Derek cause Derek plays in open E all the time. But it was a beautiful moment, and of course, Derek and I both played that guitar onstage, but that stands out. I’ve thankfully seen a lot of wonderful instruments, but that was a cool moment.”

You will also find memorabilia from the mid to late ’70s era and latter-day members such as Trucks, Haynes, Chuck Leavell, Lamar Williams, Allen Woody, and Marc Quinones, as well as special exhibits on other artists. “We currently have a Southern Rock-themed display focusing on the Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam events,” Brent informed me via email last week. “We have a display case that we use to showcase bands that are in the Southern Rock family. Once we are done with the Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam display, we will do one dedicated to Tom Petty.”

The Big House Foundation, started by West and his wife Kirsten, bought the Big House in 2003 and the road to being a museum was begun. “We do all kinds of things,” said Brent about what the Foundation does. “We have concerts in the backyard, host private events, and have a music outreach program that we are currently revamping. It’s called The Reach For The Sky music program.”

In 2008, West directed Please Call Home: The Big House Years, an excellent film about ABB during the time they were living in Macon with recollections from band members, roadies, and other people who were around them during these years. 

FIVE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE BIG HOUSE FROM JOHN LYNSKEY

1. The stained glass in the “Casbah Room” is original, dating back to 1903.

2. The third floor was originally a ball room; the governor held cotillions there. When the band moved in, some of the roadies lived on the third floor and the guys actually managed to get a pool table up there!! 

3. Songs written, started, or finished in the Big House include “Blue Sky,” “Ramblin’ Man,” “Hot ‘Lanta,” “Please Call Home,” and “Queen of Hearts.”

4. Duane left from the Big House before his accident on October 29, 1971, and Berry Oakley was returning to the BH when he had his accident on November 11, 1972.

5. Gov’t Mule got its start at the Big House; in 1994, they spent ten days in the old rehearsal room, where they worked up most of the material for their debut album.

THE LEGACY

Over the years, I have interviewed many musicians who have called the Allman Brothers Band legends, innovators, trailblazers, and icons of Southern rock. Below are a few memories that have been shared with me.

Don Felder, former Eagles guitar player:

The first time I went over and really met Duane, in Daytona Beach where I spent some time with him there, we both got off work, my band and Bernie [Leadon}, and Duane and Gregg, and we went over to have breakfast at this coffee shop at like two in the morning or something. Then we went over to their mother’s house and Duane was sitting down on the floor playing slide guitar and I’d never seen anybody play electric slide guitar like he did. I said, “You have to show me how to do that.” So over the course of a couple of hours, he sat and showed me really the fundamentals and basically what I know about slide today and how that started my slide career. We all stole from each other there. Petty from me and me from Duane. Everybody in that area would just hear somebody do something and copy it and learn how to do it. I think that’s why so much of that music isn’t necessarily southern rock but it’s all very kind of incestuous in sound because we all came from the same area.

Scott Sharrard, former guitar player for Gregg Allman Band, currently with Little Feat:

When I joined Gregg’s band, it was sort of a continuation of that education that began for me when I was a kid. I remember vividly when I was ten, eleven, twelve and listening over and over again to Allman Brothers records and practicing with them over and over and over and over again, learning every lick, every song, every chord, every lyric, just memorizing it. In fact, the first time I ever heard of King Curtis was from an Allman Brothers record. When the Dreams box set came out when I was a young kid, I got it as a gift and there’s that track where they play “Soul Serenade” into “You Don’t Love Me” and I remember there was that whole speech that Duane gives on it about King Curtis being killed and talking about how much King Curtis meant to them. As a young kid, that just sent me running to the record bins to educate myself. You know, who is King Curtis? I find him and then the rabbit hole just deepens. So I had always been educated by the band and the style of music from the earliest age. So when I joined Gregg’s band, it was almost like playing in my bedroom as a kid again when I was playing some of the songs.

Warren Haynes, Gov’t Mule:

He was one of my favorite singers since I first heard him when I was nine years old. Hearing Gregg sing one of my songs, it’s like Ray Charles or BB King or Otis Redding or somebody singing your song; it’s the ultimate fruition, I think, which leads me to when we recorded “Soulshine” with the Allman Brothers. That was Gregg’s idea. We had finished recording all the songs that we had rehearsed for the album, and we had some time left over, and Tom Dowd, the producer, said, “Why don’t you guys record another song? Anybody got any songs?” And Gregg said, “Hey man, let’s do your song ‘Soulshine.’’’ And he had never brought it up before as being an Allman Brothers song so I had never thought of it that way. But we started playing it and then hearing him sing it, I’m like, well, it’s an Allman Brothers song now after listening to that.

Cyril Neville, Neville Brothers/Royal Southern Brotherhood (for Hittin’ The Note Magazine):

“I was in Macon, Georgia, doing the first recording I ever did, with the Meters, and it was produced by Allen Toussaint. We were doing it in this studio in Macon, Georgia, that Phil Walden and Otis Redding had done a lot of their stuff in. On this particular day we had wound up the project early so we had some time to burn off. So Phil Walden said that there was this function going on in the park not far from the studio and there was a band playing that he thought we probably would dig. I was like, maybe twenty or twenty-one years old at the time. So when I’m on my way to the park, the picture I got in my mind is, I’m about to see a band full of these older black cats that were laying it down like it was supposed to be laid down. When I get closer to the park and I’m hearing the music, that’s exactly what I hear, the blues. And I hear it being played correct and it’s hitting me like it’s supposed to hit. 

Then we turn the corner and walk into the park and there’s this rainbow audience; different shades of people. And then I look up on stage and the first thing I see is this cat behind a B3 organ, blonde hair flying all over the place (laughs) and the next thing I see is they got two drummers. And I see Jaimoe and he got an earring in his ear. Trust me, the next day I had an earring in my ear (laughs). And looking at the look on Phil Walden’s face, it was a look of satisfaction, like, didn’t I tell you? That must have been like 1970 or 1971; it might have even been 1969. But that was one of the hippest experiences of my life and that’s how long this connection between the two families has been going on.

Berry Oakley Jr:

I named my firstborn daughter after [a friend who died]. It’s funny because growing up she always assumed, once she learned about her grandpa’s history, she assumed it was the other song named “Jessica.” (laughs) But she knows she’s named after her “Aunt Jessica.” But a side-story that I think is cute, Dickey Betts came and sat in with us a couple of times and one time I had all my kids there and my daughter Jessica, I was having her talk to Dickey, like, “You know Sweetie, this is the guy who wrote ‘Jessica’ for his daughter, cause his daughter was named Jessica.” And he looked over at my daughter and goes, “You know what, Sweetie, it can be your song too now.” That made her day. Now her name has two big meanings cause the guy himself told her it could be her song too.

Devon Allman, on playing Duane’s guitar:

It was unreal. There is a definitive energy that is emanating off of that guitar. I can feel it. I know that sounds real hocus pocus new wave bullshit but it’s true. It has a vibe and I got to play it at the Beacon Theatre last year, or two years ago maybe, and that was incredible but the other night I got to play it for the whole show and that was amazing.

WHILE IN MACON

Macon, Georgia is synonymous with the Allman Brothers Band. It seems every corner you turn there is something associated with the band. Below are a few recommended places to stop by. 

H&H Restaurant – located at 807 Forsyth Street. It is a well-known fact that Mama Louise Hudson loved the boys in the band and fed them during their lean years in Macon. Although she passed in 2014 – she started H&H back in 1959 with Inez Hill – the restaurant is still a favorite place to grab something to eat.

Rose Hill Cemetery – located at 1071 Riverside Drive. The band spent many nights hanging out in this fifty acre cemetery that opened in 1840 near the Ocmulgee River. Band members Duane and Gregg, Berry and Butch are interred there, as well as Phil Walden, founder of Capricorn Records. You can also find “Little Martha” Ellis and “Elizabeth Reed” among those buried there.

Capricorn Records – the museum is located at 540 Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard.

The Bell House, home of the McDuffie Center For Strings – located at 315 College Street. It was built in 1855 and is where the band posed for their debut album’s cover.

586 Orange Street – Berry and Butch lived here in 1969.

Grant’s Lounge – located at 576 Poplar Street. Calling itself the “Original home of Southern Rock,” it opened in 1971 and ABB played here many times.

Snow’s Memorial Chapel – located at 746 Cherry Street. The site of Duane’s funeral in 1971 and Gregg’s funeral service in 2017.

Hart’s Mortuary – located at 765 Cherry Street. The site of Berry’s memorial service in 1972.

Capitol Theatre – located at 382 Second Street. The site of Butch’s memorial service in 2017.

There is a Raymond Berry Oakley III Bridge & Duane Allman Memorial Boulevard; the intersection of Hillcrest and Bartlett is where Duane’s motorcycle crash happened while Berry’s crash was a few blocks away at Napier and Inverness.

RECOMMENDED READING

Gregg Allman: My Cross To Bear; Galadrielle Allman: Please Be With Me; Alan Paul: One Way Out and Brothers & Sisters; Les Brers: Kirk West’s Photographic Journey With The Brothers; Randy Poe: Skydog.

WEBSITE

WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR US

If you have been to the Big House, go to Glide’s social media pages & in the comments to this article’s link, post a photo of yourself in front of the house or the gate. Be sure to tag Glide and the Big House. We want to see you!

Photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough

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2 Responses

  1. Terrific article. One correction – the “Bernie” mentioned in Don Felder’s comments is surely Bernie Leadon (the future Eagle) and not Bernie Taupin (Elton John lyricist / collaborator).

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