The Harwood Cottage

Unexpected delights of the sharing economy.

Macon isn’t exactly known as a tourist destination in Georgia.  It’s an old town an hour south of Atlanta known for its slipping economy, racial tensions, and hot, humid summer weather.  When I worked in the area last spring, I drove through shuttered downtown streets where no one could be seen walking the sidewalk.  “Oh, I’m sorry,” said an Atlanta acquaintance when he heard about my assignment location.

But an errand there required me to search for overnight accommodations, and as always, I checked Air BnB first – without much hope, of course.  The pickings were indeed slim.  Then a place caught my eye, a nice one, and I almost slipped past it on the assumption it would be expensive.  But it wasn’t.  I looked closer.

“The Harwood Cottage is a large, 1920’s golden brick, Georgian style home which we call a ‘Cottage’ but some might say is more of a mansion…”

Oh?  As I read and re-read description and reviews, I became fascinated.  (See the full listing here.  Careful, you may fall in love!)  The eclectic, energetic owner of this 1923 mansion in Macon’s historic district, instead of trying to run an expensive bed and breakfast, showed a fascinating level of adaptability by turning to the more flexible sharing economy to rent the house’s many rooms.  I booked the William Suite.  Quality was not assured – it never is with Air BnB – but curiosity drew me in, and with hundreds of positive guest reviews posted on Air BnB, the Harwood Mansion had a better online reputation than area hotels.

I was enchanted from the start by the back stairway and its papered stairway.  John greeted me – and since I’d warned him I was an introvert, he gave me the briefest of tours and handed me the key.  Renovations are ongoing in any old house, and in the Harwood Cottage, the upstairs level was undergoing a painting and addition of a bathroom.  But I had a beautiful downstairs suite all to myself where all was quiet and elegant, with dark wood floors, soaring ceilings, crown molding, chair railing, glass doorknobs, heavy draperies with tassels… stuff of daydreams.  The expansive bed, with its soft feather coverlet, made me want to curl up immediately.  I had my own closet with velvet-covered hangars.  And the most charming part: a tiny door in the wall beside my bed, leading who-knows-where.   As the sun set past the painted shutters, I curled up in bed with Netflix and watched the fairy lights twinkling outside in the garden.

I lingered a bit over my coffee the next morning, nibbling my host’s granola bars under this chandelier and reading in the breakfast room because the dining room felt too immaculate to touch.  The sunlight streamed in and illuminated the chandeliers with natural brilliance.  I was grateful to John for sharing his home and Macon with me… and next time I think of Macon, it’ll be with a twinge of nostalgia for the Harwood Cottage.

~ The Dauntless Princess ~