Railroad Stations; Broadway, near river, for Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R.; Union Station, 212 Washington St., for Mississippi Central R.R., Missouri Pacific R.R., and Natchez & Southern R.R.
Bus Stations: Union Station, 515 Main St., for Teche-Greyhound, Tri-State Transit Co., and Interurban Transportation, Inc.; Missouri Pacific Branch Office and Bus Station, 107 N. Commerce St., for Bobs Bus Line and Parsons Bus Line.
Ferry: The Royal Route. Landing on Silver St. and Mississippi River. Fare 10¢ per person, 50¢ and up for car and driver depending on weight of car.
Airport: One mile east of city limits on Liberty Rd., taxi fare 50¢, time 15 min. No scheduled service.
Taxis: Fare 15¢ per passenger within city limits.
Traffic Regulations: Speed limit 15 mph. East and west traffic has right-of-way. All turns on green lights on congested streets. See signs on less important streets. One hour parking in business section. All night parking prohibited.
Street Arrangement: Main St. divides the city into N. and S. sections.
Accommodations: Four hotels; boarding houses; tourist homes and rooming places. Rates higher during Pilgrimage Weeks.
Information Service: Garden Club Headquarters at Ellicott’s Inn, 215 N. Canal St.; Natchez Association of Commerce, 403 Franklin St.; Natchez Democrat, 106-108 S. Pearl St.; all filling stations and hotels.
Swimming: Carpenter School, No. 2; Elks Pool; Crystal Pool, Washington Rd., 5 m. E.; Beverly Beach, 10 m. S. on Lower Woodville Rd.; Cool Coosa, 12 m. across Mississippi River in Lake St. John, La.
Tennis: Duncan Memorial Park, eastern limits of city 1 block N. from Homochitto St.; high school athletic field, Homochitto St.; Cathedral grounds, S. Union St.
Golf: Duncan Memorial Park, all year-round playing reasonable greens fee.
Skeet Club: On US 61, 1 m. N., April 1st to Nov. 1st, Sundays.
Annual Events: Pilgrimages to old estates, in March, 1st wk. in April; American Legion Fall Fair, held on Broadway, facing the Mississippi River, no definite date.
NATCHEZ (202 alt., 13,422 pop.), overlooking the Mississippi River from a series of lofty, alluvial bluffs, conscientiously presents its age in the appearance of its low-roofed, time-worn buildings and in what its people say and do. It is one of the earliest white settlements in the State, and was at one time the center of ante-bellum culture. Its people, its buildings, its aged trees, and its general Old South atmosphere conspire to keep these facts evident. Beginning with three narrow parks that overlook the docks and river front, the city proper spreads fanwise, with the Confederate Memorial Park as its center. The streets are slightly rolling, with restored or carefully preserved mansions rising unexpectedly from the midst of dilapidated, heavy-timbered houses whose flush fronts and steep roofs speak definitely of days past but not dead. Surreys and two-wheeled dump carts driven by white-haired Negroes are seen on the streets.
KEY TO PRECEDING MAP OF NATCHEZ
1. Adams County Courthouse
2. Parish House of San Salvador
3. Mercer House
4. Lawyers’ Row
5. Governor Holmes or Conti House
6. Old Spanish House
7. Britton Home
8. First Presbyterian Church
9. Memorial Hall
10. Old Commercial Bank Building
11. Banker’s Home
12. Metcalfe House
13. Esplanade
14. Rosalie
15. Site of Fort Rosalie
17. Buntura Home
18. Marschalk’s Printing Office
19. Connelly’s Tavern
20. Choctaw
21. Stanton Hall
22. First Lumber Mill
23. Magnolia Vale
24. Wigwam
25. The Towers
26. Cottage Garden
27. Airlie
28. Protestant Orphanage
29. Melmont or Sans Souci
30. King’s Tavern
31. St. Mary’s Cathedral
32. St. Joseph’s Academy
33. Trinity Episcopal Church
34. Ravenna
35. Greenleaves
36. The Elms
37. Arlington
38. Dunleith
39. Routh Cemetery
40. Hope Farm
41. Auburn
42. Hospital Hill
43. Home of Don Estevan Minor
44. The Briars
45. Richmond
So deeply has the patina of the past been impressed on Natchez that it is the modern rather than the aged that stand out as anomalies. The downtown district, with the Gothic spire of St. Mary’s Cathedral rising above the low skyline, and the historic courthouse hemmed in by stucco and brick, or yellowish frame structures, is definitely dated. Here is a marked conflict between careful preservation and decay. Standing flush with the sidewalk are structures whose uncompromising severity tie them to the Spanish period. Interspersed among these ill-preserved buildings, which often are occupied by Negroes, are modern one- and two-story structures that house up-to-date business firms.
The residential districts, emerging with uncertain plan from the downtown area and somewhat softened by the shadows of Spanish moss and magnolias, are marked by restoration rather than by change. Homes that are little more than ruins stand proudly beside mansions whose beauty and lines have been carefully cherished and preserved. Varying features of architecture indicate the survival of French and Spanish influence, while many of the houses were remodeled in the early 1800’s to conform with the classic order dictated by the Greek Revival. Sprinkled among these homes are modern bungalows and cottages; but the sprinkling is so light it produces little discord between the old and the new.
Aloof from the city and yet a part of it are its industries. The cotton mill runs only spasmodically. The cottonseed oil mill is one of the city’s oldest industries. Here are also a box factory and the oldest sawmill in the State. With the shirt factory excepted these industries draw their labor from the 53.3 percent of the population that are Negroes. The textile labor class is not well defined, but is a transitory group of white people who come in from and return to the outlying plantations as the routine of farm, or factory, becomes monotonous.
Natchez is still the trade center for its district and an important shipping point for cotton and for beef cattle. It is from this trade that a majority of its white population derive their income. Many of the older families are still large landholders and, like their grandfathers, live in town on incomes from their plantation operations. As in any plantation town, Saturday is trade day in Natchez, and fall, cotton picking time, is the busy season for growers, ginners, buyers, merchants, and bankers.
The wealth, the rich background, and the intelligence of the Natchez Negro leaders have made Natchez the Negro cultural center of the State. Among them are leading Negro physicians, several outstanding ministers, and a musician who presents “Heaven Bound,” a production with a chorus of fifty voices, each year to a large white audience. The African Methodist Episcopal Church includes cultural and intellectual activities in its religious program, and the Negro Baptists support Natchez College, a coeducational four-year institution with a high school department. The Negroes of Natchez, unlike the Negroes in other Mississippi towns, trade almost exclusively at stores owned by members of their own race. This has created a comparatively wealthy business and professional class, families who send their children out of the State for education. Neither the Negroes’ residential nor business districts are well defined but are scattered about the city in the midst of other residential and business districts. St. Catherine Street, however, may be said to be the focal point. Here, interspersed among the houses left from Spanish days, are many of the commercial and business establishments, and a majority of the churches. It is also to this street that Negroes from out of town gravitate.
The history of Natchez is the variegated story of a frontier town, raw and polished, crude and elegant: a town that absorbed the best and the worst of Mississippi River pioneer days. It has been ruled by the Natchez Indians, France, Spain, England, the Confederacy, and the United States. The town was settled as part of the French colonization development after Iberville landed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1699. Land grants were made as early as 1702, but it was 1716 before Bienville built and garrisoned Fort Rosalie, named in honor of the Duchess of Pontchartrain. Two years later 15 laborers opened the first plantation at Natchez—a farm on St. Catherine’s Creek. The settlement prospered, with ships plying to the Gulf Coast colony and back, carrying tobacco, pelts, and bear’s grease in exchange for staple supplies.
In November 1729, the Natchez Indians (who inhabited the region and whose name is commemorated in the name of the city) attacked the fort and massacred the garrison and settlers. The following year the French colonists of the Gulf area retaliated by exterminating the Natchez Indians. Then they attacked the more warlike Chickasaw and were defeated. This defeat ended the French scheme of uniting the French of the Ohio Valley with the French of the lower Mississippi Valley, thus forming a line of defense against the westward-moving English.
After the French and Indian War, Natchez became a part of the region east of the Mississippi River which France ceded to Great Britain in 1763. The British settlers who followed were hardy veterans of the Colonial wars and established permanent homes on large tracts of land granted by the English king.
Natchez, as an English possession, was in reality a fourteenth colony of Great Britain. However, its people remained neutral during the Revolutionary War, indifferent to the struggle on the Atlantic seaboard a thousand miles away. It was this isolation that enabled Galvez, Spanish Governor of New Orleans, to take Natchez in 1779 in the name of the King of Spain. During the first year of Spanish occupancy, British veterans made an abortive attempt to retake Natchez.
Under the ambitious Dons the town began to prosper again. The Spaniards who occupied Natchez between 1779–98 were efficient and fair. They loved punctilio and all the trappings of lavish living, and they introduced a rigid caste system which prevails to a certain extent today. Until their coming few buildings stood on the bluffs, the settlement having grown up along the water front. So the town, much as it is today, was laid out in a square by Collel, a Spanish engineer. Choice streets were reserved for the residences of Spanish grandees and a church called San Salvador stood on a broad esplanade extending across the front of the city overlooking the river. But of all their magnificent buildings erected during this period not more than 20 remain.
By the treaty of Madrid, 1795, parallel 31 was agreed upon as the boundary between the newly formed United States and Spain’s possessions, with free navigation of the Mississippi guaranteed by the Spaniards who still owned New Orleans. In 1797 Andrew Ellicott, a Pennsylvania surveyor, arrived in Natchez to run the new boundary line, and unofficially raised the American flag. But another year passed before Spain could be forced to evacuate this rich territory according to the terms of the treaty. On March 30, 1798, however, the last Spanish soldier withdrew, leaving the fort to Maj. Isaac Guion, who officially raised the American flag. In that same year, the Territory of Mississippi was organized and Natchez was made the capital.
The opening of the Mississippi River started the turbulent flatboat era that lasted until the steamboat brought it to an end. Down the river came the flatboatmen, swearing, drinking, fighting; bringing on their clumsy rafts, tobacco, grains, fruits, pelts, molasses, hams, butter, flour, and whisky. Many of them stopped at Natchez to sell their goods and their boats; most of them continued to New Orleans; but all returned through Natchez, since it was too difficult to return to the upper country by water. Banding together for protection against prowling savages and murderous outlaws, they returned home, carrying their money in money belts or in saddlebags. They followed the 550-mile road to Nashville, a road that was a mere trace or bridle path. This road became famous as the Natchez Trace (see TRANSPORTATION).
A frontier city, capital of a rich territory, Natchez soon grew important as a supply depot and the gathering place for the intellectuals of the Southwest. It became an opulent, suave, and aristocratic community, maintaining a social and political prestige that influenced the entire Mississippi Valley.
Men of all degrees of wealth and intelligence were drawn to this new region where land was cheap and fortunes were quickly made. Hundreds of families drifted down the river from the upper valleys in fleets of flatboats. These pioneers came to a rich and fertile country that had a mild climate featured by a growing season nine months long. They tried raising indigo but the refuse accumulations, with the poisonous drainage from them, made it unhealthful. They tried raising tobacco and found it unprofitable. After the invention of Whitney’s cotton gin in 1793, they turned to growing cotton. Slave labor, together with natural advantages, enabled them to create in a remarkably short time a system of great plantations and luxurious living. The Mississippi Gazette, first newspaper in the State, began publication in 1800. On April 9, 1803, Natchez was incorporated as an American city. In 1810, when the population of Natchez was 9,000 persons, it was estimated that the aggregate cotton sales exceeded $700,000.
Increasing prosperity made it necessary to establish an overland line of communication with the East. Hitherto, the Mississippi River had been the one route of travel. In 1801 the Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs was made with the Chickasaw Indians whereby the Indians agreed to permit immigrants, the United States mail, and soldiers to pass through their lands. The immediate effect of this agreement was a sudden growth in the population of Natchez and the lower Mississippi Valley. Droves of settlers toiled down the Natchez Trace from the Atlantic seaboard, bringing new blood, new ideas, and new wealth in money and slaves.
In 1802, however, Natchez lost much of its prestige when the Territorial Assembly ordered the seat of government moved from Natchez to Washington, a small, gay, wealthy, inland city situated about six miles to the east.
Because of the growing importance of Natchez as an entrance to the West, Aaron Burr and Harman Blennerhassett selected it as the base from which to operate their mysterious colonization scheme. The plan was broken up when both were arrested, charged with treason.
During the War of 1812 the city was threatened frequently by Indians who lived in the wilderness east of the river. All able-bodied men became soldiers, and when the Battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815, the Natchez Rifles was present. One historian related that nearly all the male citizens of Natchez took part in the battle.
In 1817 the Mississippi Territory was organized as a State. The convention met at Washington and decided to move the seat of government from Washington to Columbia, then to a more central location at Le Fleur’s Bluff (see JACKSON). From this time on, the political eminence of Natchez declined.
The booming steamboat era, however, had just begun with the arrival of the New Orleans, first steamboat to stop at Natchez, and within a few years the city recovered its prominence by becoming one of the great cotton ports of the world. In this period fabulous fortunes were made by cotton planters, and Natchez reached a pinnacle of wealth and culture with liberal, open-handed living prevailing. Planters spent their money building distinctive homes and accumulating libraries and art collections (see ARCHITECTURE). They speculated in land, slaves, cotton, and credit. While much in their lives was gracious, their code demanded exaggerated standards of honor. Duels were fought frequently on the sandbar across the river.
At the outbreak of the War between the States Natchez was still a rich agricultural center. It furnished many soldiers to the Confederate cause, most prominent of whom was Maj.-Gen. William T. Martin. Natchez was bombarded by the U. S. S. Essex in July 1863, and occupied by Ransom’s brigade. Civil government was suspended from November 1863 to August 9, 1865. The war destroyed the fortunes, slaves were freed, and the economic and social structures were overturned completely. Natchez has never regained the river trade that once had helped to make it rich, one of the queen cities of the lower Mississippi.
For three generations the population increased little. The changes made were material improvements that blend with rather than destroy the still cherished past. In 1881 telephone lines were installed, and five years later Judge Thomas Reber built a street railroad from the ferry landing on Main and St. Catherine Streets to the “Forks-of-the-Road.” The Judge also installed the first electric light plant, in 1886, to furnish lights for a casino. In the same year, the Adams Manufacturing Company plant was built to manufacture cottonseed oil.
Natchez does not boast of its material progress, but prefers to keep its industries in the background. Yet the income from the sale of its manufactured products amounted to $2,121,755 in 1935.
The old Spanish portion of Natchez can be seen either on foot or by car. It was centered around an esplanade that faced the river. Many other interesting examples of Spanish architecture survive here and there in all parts of the city.
Tour 1—3m.
W. from Pearl St. on Market St.
1. The ADAMS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Market St. (L), stands in the exact center of Natchez as it was laid out by the Spaniards. Erected in 1819, and constructed of soft cream stucco-covered brick, it has three porticos with large fluted columns. In its vaults are stored records dating back to 1780, compiled in Spanish, French, and English. Its rectangular grounds are the site of the old Spanish market and, presumably, the Church of San Salvador.
2. The PARISH HOUSE OF SAN SALVADOR, 311 Market St. (private), is a three-story frame structure erected by order of the King of Spain in 1786. It was first occupied in 1788 by four Irish priests, brought to Natchez to instruct the English-speaking population in the Roman Catholic religion. Though the house is gray and dilapidated, evidence of its beauty can be seen in its simple, hand-carved doorway and woodwork, and in its severe, plain lines.
L. from Market St. on S. Wall St.
3. The MERCER HOUSE, NW. corner S. Wall and State Sts. (private), is a two-story Georgian Colonial structure built in 1818 and distinguished by dormer windows, spacious floor plan, and a fanlight filled with early, imperfect glass. Constructed of gray stuccoed brick, the lower front portico is supported by arches and the upper by slender columns. On the north side of the house is a garden enclosed by a well-patterned hand-wrought iron fence. Andrew Jackson, on his way to take part in the unveiling of his equestrian statue in New Orleans in January 1840, stayed in this home. He was joined by Gen. Thomas Hinds and other veterans of the Battle of New Orleans, and from the porch addressed a throng of admirers gathered in the courthouse yard.
4. LAWYERS’ ROW, SW. corner S. Wall and State Sts., is a low L-shaped stuccoed brick building with two adjacent wings extending for approximately half a block from the corner. The wings are broken into small, bin-like offices whose front entrances stand flush with the street. The rear entrances open into a court. Erected by the Spaniards before 1796, it is thought that the building was used first as a commissary for the old fort. After Mississippi became a territory the bins, converted into offices, were occupied by bachelor lawyers. Because many of these young men were later famous the building became known as Lawyers’ Row.
5. CONTI HOUSE, 207 S. Wall St. (open daily 10-4; adm. 25¢), is a rectangular, two-story stuccoed brick house, built prior to 1788. Of Spanish Provincial architecture it stands flush with the street, with Spanish slate steps and no eaves to break the line of wall or roof. Two green-shuttered windows and a central door open on the sidewalk. A two-story service wing extending to rear—with four slave rooms upstairs and down—forms a setting for an old-fashioned garden. First used as a home by Don Lewis Favre, surgeon of the King’s galleys, the house was from 1825–35 the home of David Holmes, last Territorial and first State Governor of Mississippi.
6. The OLD SPANISH HOUSE, NW. corner S. Wall and Washington Sts. (private), is a good example of the average home of the Spanish Dominion. Brick and stucco trimmed in green, it is two stories high, with dormer windows, outside stairways, and a kitchen attached by a wooden hyphen. At the rear of the kitchen are the slave quarters, a two-story, rectangular structure built of cedar joined with wooden pegs. The house was built in 1796 or earlier.
L. from S. Wall St. on Washington St.; L. on S. Pearl St.
7. The BRITTON HOME, NW. corner S. Pearl and Washington Sts. (open by appointment), erected in 1858, is an imposing two-story brick house with Corinthian columns and a classic two-story portico. Wrought-iron railings enclose each gallery. The house was struck by a shell during the bombardment of Natchez in 1863.
8. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NE. corner S. Pearl and State Sts., was designed by Levi Weeks of Boston and built in 1829. This simple, cream, stuccoed brick building has a classic portico with large Tuscan columns and pedimented headings over the doors. The interior is plain, with slave galleries, enclosed with handmade banisters, on both sides of the auditorium. Small wooden doors open into the cushioned box pews.
9. MEMORIAL HALL, 111-115 S. Pearl St. (open daily 10-5), flanked on each side by small landscaped grounds and protected by an iron fence eight feet high, is a stuccoed brick structure of modified Spanish architecture. Built in 1852 for public meeting purposes, it was first called Institute Hall. It is two stories in height, with recessed columns made in the masonry. The main floor is at street level. The entrance opens into a central hallway from which twin stairways rise to the second floor auditorium. After the World War, memorial tablets were placed on each side of the entrance and the name of the building was changed to Memorial Hall. Here balls and other social affairs of importance are held each year. The right wing houses the FISK MEMORIAL LIBRARY, separate entrance (open weekdays 8-4).
L. from S. Pearl St. on Main St.
10. The OLD COMMERCIAL BANK BUILDING, 206 Main St., was erected about 1809. It is of brick construction and has a stuccoed front with four graceful Ionic columns supporting a classic pediment. John Hampton White of New Jersey was the architect. Until the founding of this bank all currency used in Natchez was Spanish “hard money” and cotton gin receipts. The bank issued notes but none of them is known to exist.
L. from Main St. on S. Canal St.
11. BANKER’S HOME, 107 S. Canal St. (open by permission), attached to the Commercial Bank, was built in 1809 as the home of the bank’s president. Set in the remains of a garden, the house is of stucco and brick construction and two stories in height. In front is a small portico with two slender fluted columns; a deck to the portico is enclosed with an iron railing. In the garden is a walk of Spanish flagstones brought to America in sailing ships as ballast. The custom of having the banker’s home as part of the bank itself is said to have been a heritage from the Spanish regime.
R. from S. Canal St. on Washington St.; L. on S. Broadway.
12. The JAMES METCALFE HOUSE, facing the river at SE. corner S. Broadway and Washington Sts. (open during Pilgrimage), is a raised brick building with a portico. Built about 1849 by Peter Little, pioneer lumberman in Mississippi, this home is well preserved and contains many of its original furnishings. The story is that Peter Little grew tired of his wife’s continually entertaining preachers in his home, and erected this house and deeded it to a church on condition that entertaining in his home cease.
13. The ESPLANADE, extending along the bluff in front of the James Metcalfe House, was the parade ground attached to Fort Rosalie. It affords a view of the river and the remains of the old river town, Natchez-under-the-Hill.
14. ROSALIE, foot of S. Broadway (open daily 10–4; adm. 25¢), is a square red brick home of the late Georgian (or Post-Colonial) type; its two-story, pedimented portico has four white Tuscan columns. Double doors, with fanlight transoms and side lights, are at each gallery. The windows are five feet wide, their huge wooden shutters held in place by slender wrought-iron hinges 26 inches long. The rooms are 21 feet square with 14-foot ceilings and mantels seven feet high. Double parlors contain hand-carved rosewood furniture. A stairway rises from a recessed hall. The house was built by Peter Little in the early 1800’s and stands partly on the site of old Fort Rosalie, scene of the Indian massacre in 1729. Brick for this home was burned on the place by slaves. The house was used in 1863 as Union headquarters and later General Grant and his family spent several days in it.
15. The SITE OF FORT ROSALIE, an elevation directly back of Rosalie, is marked by a tall iron pole.
Retrace S. Broadway; L. on Silver St.
16. At the foot of Silver St. and below the Natchez bluffs, lies a strip of land called THE BATTURE. This is the only remnant of dissolute Natchez-under-the-Hill, known throughout the Mississippi Valley during flatboat days and the steamboat era. This colorful, ribald old river port with its brothels and gambling dens and its heterogeneous population of flatboatmen, Negroes, Indians, bandits, pirates, scented quadroons, courtesans, and gamblers held sway for many years. There were times when flatboats were tied to its banks 14 deep in a stretch two miles long. Ships from Liverpool and other foreign ports came to its wharfs. All that remains is a single desolate street and a few moldy buildings; year by year the river eats away the soft, rockless land.
The ferry line at the Batture that operates between Natchez and Vidalia, La., has maintained service since 1797.
Retrace Silver St.; L. on S. Broadway St.
17. The BUNTURA HOME, 107 S. Broadway St. (private), midway between State and Main Sts. and facing the river, is a two-story, L-shaped house built in 1832. The galleries on its narrow front are ornamented with delicate lace ironwork. The ell faces on a courtyard garden with an old cistern in the center. A vaulted driveway through the rear of the house permitted the passage of vehicles into the courtyard.
R. from N. Broadway St. on Franklin St.; L. on N. Wall St.
18. MARSCHALK’S PRINTING OFFICE, NE. corner N. Wall and Franklin Sts. (private), is a small two-and-a-half-story brick building where Andrew Marschalk, an officer in the American Army during the Revolutionary War and the pioneer of printing and publishing in Mississippi, issued the third newspaper in the State, on July 26, 1802. This paper, The Mississippi Herald, was in reality the first news sheet of any stability. The Mississippi Gazette, published by Benjamin Stokes, was established in Natchez in 1800 and was followed there in 1801 by The Mississippi Intelligencer. It was Marschalk’s press that turned out both these papers. He conducted the Herald for many years but changed its name often. He was first territorial printer and printed the first territorial laws. Before Marschalk came to Natchez in 1800 he had been stationed at Walnut Hills, now Vicksburg, and while on duty there he printed a ballad on his small press, the first piece of printing done in Mississippi.
L. from N. Wall St. on Jefferson St.; L. on N. Canal St.
19. CONNELLY’S TAVERN or ELLICOTT’S INN, SE. corner N. Canal and Jefferson Sts. (open by permission), is on the top of a steep, terraced hill. This old frame house, restored by the Natchez Garden Club, was built in 1795 during Spanish rule in Natchez. It stands on the old Natchez Trace and is a notable example of Spanish Provincial architecture. Long, narrow, double galleries with slender columns overlook the Esplanade and the river. The lower floor is brick paved. Though the ceilings throughout are low, several rooms are vaulted. It is thought that some of the materials used in its construction were timbers taken from dismantled flatboats, and the vaulted rooms indicate the influence of a ship’s carpenter in the construction of the house.
In 1797 the American flag was first raised on this site by Andrew Ellicott, sent from Washington to survey the line between the United States and Spanish territory. Ellicott kept the flag flying a year in defiance of Spanish objections. It was also on this hill that Maj. Isaac Guion, on March 31, 1798, raised the American flag after the Spaniards had evacuated the fort the night before. Tradition says that Aaron Burr and Harman Blennerhassett met here to plan their defense following their arrest for treason in 1807.
Retrace N. Canal St.; R. on High St.
20. CHOCTAW, SW. corner High and N. Wall Sts. (private), was the home of Alvarez Fisk, wealthy cotton broker and philanthropist in the 1830’s and 1840’s. Though in bad condition, it is a notable example of Greek Revival architecture. It is built of brick with a large Ionic portico. The galleries of the portico are enclosed with a wooden railing. Unlike many of the manor houses of its period, Choctaw rises from the street, its first floor flush with the sidewalk. Double transverse steps lead to the lower gallery. Steamboats tied up at the wharfs to allow passengers time to inspect its gardens. Fisk donated land for the first school in Natchez and erected the first school building.
21. STANTON HALL and its grounds, enclosed by a high iron fence, occupy the entire block on High St. between N. Pearl and N. Commerce Sts. (open daily 9-4; adm. 25¢). This huge brick house, with its Corinthian two-story portico, was built by Frederick Stanton, an Irish gentleman who became rich as a cotton broker. It was completed in 1857 after five years’ work. Some of the ceilings are 22 feet high. Mahogany doors, carved Carrara marble mantels, heavy bronze chandeliers, and gigantic inset mirrors were imported from Europe on a chartered ship. The east side of the house can be opened by sliding doors into one long suite. Tremendous matched mirrors balance each other at front and rear of suite. The frieze in the music hall bears names of old masters.
Tour 2—3.3m.
N. from Main St. on N. Canal St.; L. on Madison St.; R. on Clifton St.
From the corner of Clifton and Oak Sts. is one of the best river views in the city. To the west are the alluvial plains of Louisiana, where many Natchez planters owned cotton lands that made them wealthy. To the left is the canal completed by the Government in 1935 to shorten the Mississippi River 18 miles. When this canal was dug, Army engineers found petrified trees too large to be dredged out; they were pulled to one side of the channel. The great, sweeping curve of the Mississippi as it turns west above Natchez to flow east again will soon become another river-bed lake. The canal is depositing a sand bar across the river in front of Natchez and it is estimated that the stream eventually will be completely dammed up. (The canal is expected to send the river past Natchez on a straight course that will eliminate much of the eroding done by the river).
The two points following can be reached by an unpaved street extending down the bluff from the foot of Madison Street.
22. From this corner is also the best view of the FIRST LUMBER MILL in Mississippi, situated at the foot of the cliffs. The mill was started in 1809 by Peter Little. Its operating capacity is 40,000 feet a day. On the Louisiana shore opposite the mill is an old sandbar where many famous duels were fought. Here George Poindexter killed Abijah Hunt in 1811.
23. North of the lumber mill is MAGNOLIA VALE (private), a two-story brick and stucco house with gardens that have been a Natchez attraction for more than 100 years. In steamboat days river travelers could see the gardens from the decks, but often the period allowed on shore was extended so passengers could hire a hack and drive through the gardens. It was built in 1831 by Andrew Brown, a Scotsman who came to Natchez in 1821. The land had in turn belonged to Stephen Minor and Peter Little.
R. from Clifton St. on Oak St.
24. The WIGWAM, 307 Oak St. (private), back from the street on a lot elevated 10 or 12 feet, is enclosed by a brick wall. The walk from the entrance is shaded by a double row of live-oak trees. In the center of the walk is a fountain, a silent reminder of the days when the home was the center of culture and gay social life. The date the house was built is not known but it is shown on a map made in 1819 by Col. John Steel, first secretary of the Mississippi Territory and later Governor. It is a story-and-a-half, “H-shaped” frame structure to which several additions have been made. The eaves of the projecting wings are trimmed with graceful iron work that is given emphasis by iron columns, ornamented with four-leaf clover designs, which support the recessed gallery. The interior is planned with a large central hall and with spacious chambers.
L. from Oak St. on Myrtle Ave.
Myrtle Avenue was once the most elegant neighborhood in Natchez. On it lived five governors: Vidal and Minor during Spanish sovereignty; John Steel, George Poindexter, and Robert Williams during the time Mississippi was a Territory. Harman Blennerhasset, Aaron Burr’s co-conspirator, also lived here.
25. THE TOWERS, 803 Myrtle Ave. (private), in a dense grove, is an old home pictured in Stark Young’s So Red the Rose. The house, built about 1818 by Wm. C. Chamberlain, was first called Gardenia. The Towers is a two-story frame dwelling built on a brick foundation. It has recessed upper and lower galleries in the center, and a square tower on each side. At the time of Federal occupancy of Natchez during the War between the States the house was used as headquarters by Colonel Peter B. Hays, Union engineer in charge of fortifications. Several years ago it was badly damaged by fire.
26. COTTAGE GARDEN, 816 Myrtle Ave. (private), is a frame structure of Southern Planter architecture. It is one-and-one-half stories high with a low, sloping roof extending across the front to form a long gallery. The gallery has slender square columns. The central columns support a pediment. Cottage Garden was erected in 1793 by Don Jose Vidal. It stands on lands first granted him when he was acting Spanish Governor of Natchez in 1798. The chief features of the house are its curving mahogany stairway and a fanlighted entrance door. Huge brick chimneys rise at each end, and there is a frame and brick gallery in the rear. A large, underground reservoir or cistern, used to furnish water and to cool wine and milk, is under the main part of the building.
27. AIRLIE, N. end of Myrtle Ave. (open during Pilgrimage), is a simple frame home of Spanish Provincial design to which wings have been added. It was built in 1793 and was once a home of Don Estevan Minor, Civil Governor under Spain in 1798. The interior of the house is filled with heirlooms: silver, china, paintings and furniture. The grounds are laid out with old-fashioned flower gardens.
R. from Myrtle Ave. on Elm St.; R. on N. Union St.
28. The PROTESTANT ORPHANAGE, N. Union St. (R) between Oak and B Sts., is the last of three buildings bought by the “Female Charitable Society of Natchez.” The building, erected as a country home in 1820, was bought from Ann Dunbar Postlewaite for $10,000. It is a large building with long galleries across front and rear.
L. from N. Union St. on B. St.; L. on Rankin St.
29. MELMONT (SANS SOUCI), N. Rankin St. (R) between B and Oak Sts. (open during Pilgrimage), built in 1854, is an unpretentious brick home having double-decked porticos with fluted columns, and a steep-gabled roof. The brick was burned of Natchez clay, but the hardware and mahogany woodwork were imported. At present Melmont is owned by descendants of John Henderson, first great commission merchant in Natchez. Many of the Henderson heirlooms are in the house. In 1863 this home was used as a residence for Union officers and breastworks were thrown up on its grounds.
Retrace N. Rankin St.; R. on Jefferson St.
30. KING’S TAVERN, Jefferson St. (R) between N. Rankin and N. Union Sts. (open daily 9-5; adm. 25¢), is conceded to be the oldest house in Natchez. It abuts the sidewalk and is thought to have been a blockhouse on the old Natchez Trace. Built of ship’s timbers, its huge sleepers and beams filled with holes and rounded pegs indicate they were part of a flatboat. For many years the inn was the mail and stage coach station on the Trace.
Tour 3—4.7m
E. from Pearl St. on Main St.; R. on S. Union St.
31. ST. MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SE. corner S. Union and Main Sts., was built during the years 1841–51. Of Gothic Revival design, it is constructed of red brick with a tall spire surmounted by an illuminated cross. The altars are of Carrara marble, and behind the main altar is a copy of Powell’s picture of Christ. The bell, weighing 3,000 pounds and made by Giovanni Lucenti, was given to St. Mary’s by Prince Alex Torlonia of Rome in 1849. The Princess Torlonia threw her wedding ring into the molten metal as the bell was cast. The early history of Natchez was connected closely with the Roman Catholic Church. Missionary priests, both Capuchin and Jesuit, came and went. The edifice is now the Cathedral for the Catholic Diocese of Mississippi, and improvements costing more than $100,000 recently were made. The CEMETERY adjoining the church, and now called Memorial Park, is a portion of the old cemetery that was attached to the Spanish church of San Salvador. Until the 1890’s it stood in the center of town, dilapidated, with crumbling tombs overgrown with weeds. At that time, it was decided to level the cemetery. All remains were carefully gathered and placed in one vault in the center of the grounds. Tombstones and markers were placed around it, and a monument to the Confederacy was erected. It was then that the name was changed to Memorial Park. The vault contains the dust of seamen, scouts, adventurers, distinguished Revolutionary War veterans, and two of the wives of Spanish Governor Manuel Gayoso de Lemos.
R. from S. Union St. on State St.
32. ST. JOSEPH’S ACADEMY, NE. corner State and S. Commerce Sts., was organized in 1867 by the Sisters of Charity. In that year the nuns purchased a large house with extensive grounds from a Dr. Chase, Presbyterian minister, and moved their school to these quarters. Later the other buildings were added.
L. from State St. on S. Commerce St.
33. The TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SE. corner of S. Commerce and Washington Sts., was erected in 1822. It is a rectangular brick building with a gallery extending across the front. Tall Corinthian columns are a part of the wide portico, and two heavy shuttered doors open into the beautiful interior. Here is a small slave gallery built over the entrance.
L. from S. Commerce St. on Orleans St.; R. on S. Union St.
34. RAVENNA, 601 S. Union St. (open during Pilgrimage), is a simple, two-story frame building erected in 1835 by William Harris. Approached through a large iron gate, it has long, colonnaded galleries both front and rear. The interior woodwork is carved in geometric designs of squares, angles, and wedges. From the back hall a graceful stairway with mahogany hand rails curves upward. The furniture is of rosewood.
Retrace S. Union St.; R. on Washigton St.
35. GREENLEAVES, SE. corner of Washington and S. Union Sts. (open during Pilgrimage), is a raised, brick and frame house built before 1812. Of Greek Revival architecture, it has a narrow, classic portico with Corinthian columns. In the rear is a detached brick kitchen erected in the Spanish era. In the patio is a giant live-oak beneath which the Natchez Indians are believed to have held their pow-wows. The 14 rooms of Greenleaves are furnished as they were in the 1840’s with carved rosewood, gilt frame mirrors, and china said to have been painted by Audubon.
36. THE ELMS, NE. corner Washington and S. Pine Sts. (open during Pilgrimage), is thought to have been built by the Spanish Governor, Don Pedro Piernas, in 1785. Low ceilings, narrow window facings with deep reveals, large chimneys, and heavy, hand-made iron hinges indicate its Spanish origin. Galleries with slender columns extend across the front and north sides. An iron stairway, once on the outside of the building, is enclosed in the north hallway. A feature of the interior is the set of old slave bells, each different in tone. Each house slave had his own bell with its particular tone to call him to his duties. The garden contains a lattice work eagle house and a brick archway thought to have been part of an early Spanish mission, for the mission was usually part of the official group of buildings in a Spanish settlement.
L. from Washington St. on St. Charles St.; R. on Main St.
37. ARLINGTON, E. end of Main St. (open during Pilgrimage), reached through a large gate and down a long driveway, is considered an excellent example of Greek Revival architecture. A square red brick mansion, it has four tall, white columns supporting a classic pediment, and a double portico. The upper gallery is enclosed with delicate banisters, and the lower gallery is paved with marble mosaic. Delicate fanlights both front and rear open into a long central hall. The interior contains many of the original furnishings: gold brocades, carved rosewood, large mirrors, paintings by Vernet, Sully, and Audubon, and a library. Arlington was built by Mrs. James Surget White, daughter of Pierre Surget, who settled in Natchez during Indian days. The architect was James Hampton White, of New Jersey.
Retrace Main St.; L. on Arlington St.; L. on Homochitto St.
38. DUNLEITH, Homochitto St. (R) at S. end of Arlington St. (open during Pilgrimage), is a stately, white-columned, Greek Revival mansion. It is a square building with tall Greek Doric columns surrounded by galleries enclosed with wrought-iron railings. At the rear is a kitchen wing attached to the house, and farther back are brick carriage houses and stables. Dunleith was built by Gen. Charles Dahlgren in 1847. The grouping of the buildings is typical of the period.
39. The ROUTH CEMETERY (L), on Homochitto St. (not open), is the private burial ground for the Routh family.
L. from Homochitto St. on Auburn Rd.
40. HOPE FARM, intersection of Auburn Rd. and Homochitto St., is a notable example of the hybrid English-Spanish style of architecture. The rear wing, built in 1775, is one of the few architectural relics of the English period. The front portion was built in 1790 by Carlos de Grandpré, Spanish Governor from 1790 to 1794, and shows in its severe lines the influence of Spanish Provincial architecture. Wooden pegs and tongue and groove method of construction were used in building both sections. The garden has a collection of flowering bulbs and camellia japonica.
R. on Auburn Rd.
41. AUBURN, Auburn Rd. (R) at Park Ave. (open to public), was built in 1812 by Judge Lyman G. Harding, first attorney general of Mississippi Territory and of the State. Levi Weeks of Boston was the architect. The plainness of Auburn’s red brick walls is broken by long triple hung windows with green shutters and the four heavy Ionic columns of the two-story pedimented portico. The entrance door is imposing, with side lights and a canopied fanlight transom. The lower floor contains a front hall opening at right angles into a long vaulted back hall, a drawing room, a banquet room and office, and a ladies’ tea room. The outstanding feature of the interior is the spiral stairway. A detached brick kitchen faces a courtyard in the rear. A brick carriage house and a billiard hall are still standing. Auburn and its grounds were deeded to the city of Natchez in 1911 by the Duncan heirs as a memorial to Dr. Stephen Duncan, who purchased the estate in 1820. The grounds were converted by the city into DUNCAN PARK. The park contains swings, tennis courts, and an excellent 18-hole public golf course.
Tour 4—1m.
E. from Wall St. on Main St.; L. on N. Pine St.; R. on St. Catherine St.
42. HOSPITAL HILL, 70 St. Catherine St., is the site of the first charity hospital in America. The hospital was incorporated in 1805, and five acres of land surrounding it were deeded to the trustees by Don Estevan Minor in 1813. The site is now occupied by the electric light company.
43. HOME OF DON ESTEVAN MINOR, 42-44 St. Catherine St. (private), a small, dilapidated, two-story, stuccoed brick house, retains its severe Spanish line. Don Minor, a captain in the Spanish Army, came to Natchez in 1783 as a subordinate under Governors Miro and Gayoso. Later, he was Commandant at Natchez and, for a year preceding the Spanish evacuation in 1798, Civil Governor. Minor was well liked by the American settlers and, after the evacuation, remained at Natchez, became an opulent planter, and died in 1815.
Tour 5—2m.
S. from Main St. on S. Canal St.; R. on Irvine Ave. (an unpaved, winding alley-like street).
44. THE BRIARS, W. end Irvine Ave. (open daily 9-4; adm. 50¢), is the best example of Southern Planter type of architecture in the Natchez district. A white frame structure with green blinds, its sloping roof, forming a 90-foot gallery, is supported by slender columns. Dormer windows light the upper floor. Three doors with fanlight transoms open on the front gallery. The rear gallery is upheld by an arcade and has a mahogany stairway at each end. Slave rooms are in the basement. The Briars was built between 1812–15, and was later owned by William Burr Howell, whose daughter, Varina, married Jefferson Davis here in 1845. The Briars commands a view of the Mississippi River.
Retrace Irvine Ave.; R. on S. Canal St. 0.5 m. to private drive (L).
45. RICHMOND, end of long circular driveway (open daily 9-4; adm. 25¢), represents three distinct periods in architectural development. The frame and brick central portion was built in 1786 by Juan San Germaine, interpreter for the Spanish King. It is Spanish Provincial. The timbers are hand-hewn, and the gutters are made of hollowed logs. The lower or ground floors are bricked. The front, built in 1832, is Greek Revival, with a pediment and four tall columns. The brick wing of modified Empire design was added in 1850. Legend says that in the Spanish regime the central portion of the house was a rendezvous for river pirates.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Longwood, 2.9 m., Homewood, 2.7 m., Lansdowne, 3.2 m., Monteigne, 1.5 m., Oakland, 1.7 m., Windy Hill Manor, 7.2 m., Monmouth, 1.4 m., Melrose, 2 m., D’Evereux, 1.5 m., Washington, 6.5 m., Site of Elizabeth Female Academy, 8 m., Foster Mound, 9 m., Pine Ridge Church, 11.5 m., Mount Repose, 11.9 m., Peach-land, 13 m. (see Tour 3, Sec. b).
