
This Beaux-Arts landmark [also known as the Crisco House] was designed by Macon architect Alexander Blair III for Wallace Eugene McCaw, Sr., president of the Macon Manufacturing Company, an oil and soap concern. During his time at Macon Manufacturing Company, Mr. McCaw invented a hydrogenated vegetable-based shortening which he marketed locally as Plantene. The formula was purchased by Procter and Gamble in 1910 and the product name was changed to Crisco. Mr. McCaw sold the house at this time and went on to a career as a vice-president at Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati. He died in 1933 while boating near his summer home at Diamond Point, New York, on Lake George, An autopsy determined that he had a heart attack and fell into the water.
The buyer of the house was W. Jordan Massee, a larger-than-life Macon character known as Big Jordan. Massee was a good friend of playwright Tennessee Williams and the character of Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was purportedly based on Massee. When Massee sold the house it was divided into apartments. After many years of decline, it was purchased and restored in 2013.
Macon Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Definitely a stately mansion.