Meet the painter behind some of Macon’s greatest buildings

MACON (AP) — Walking through some of Macon’s most prominent structures, the history flows through the halls, but few people hear the story of the man responsible for those buildings and the beauty they still possess.

Tony Long has been involved with painting and maintaining buildings since the 1950s, and he has won many awards for his preservation efforts including the Excellence in Preservation award at the annual Georgia Trust Preservation Awards ceremony in 2017.

“Once they’re gone, they can’t ever come back,” Long said. “I know there’s some fantastic new stuff, but when I go somewhere, I go to museums, old churches, historic buildings. I don’t go into new skyscrapers.”

Long’s painting business, A.T. Long & Son Inc., was started by his father A.T. Long after the end of World War II.

“I must’ve had a gene that I enjoyed being around construction,” he said. “The most fun that I had was just getting in the truck and going with my dad everywhere.”

Long said he didn’t really start painting houses until he graduated high school in 1957. “I must have painted a thousand closets learning how,” he said with a laugh.

Long said he graduated from Mercer in 1964 with a degree in math and economics, and his dad made him a partner in the business.

Long has since been involved with painting multiple buildings in Macon including the Grand Opera House and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. He said he loves decorative painting.

Maryann Bates, a freelance photographer and artist who has worked with Long, said he has more energy than anyone she knows. “Tony is the first one up the ladder, the first one up the scaffolding, and my God, you better be able to keep up with him,” she said.

The recently closed Contemporary Arts Exchange was another one of Long’s endeavors. He allowed artists to have studio space, and the only cost they had to pay was the electricity bill.

“He’s like an old-fashioned, huge, beautiful steam engine that is not locked to one track,” said Eric O’Dell, a professor of fine arts at Mercer and one of the artists who had a studio at the Exchange. “I’ve always appreciated knowing that behind the scenes, his strong and sturdy shoulders were always creating space and room for us to do art.”