Natchez 90th Spring Pilgrimage

From as early A.D. 700, when the Native American Natchez began to settle and live along the banks of the Mississippi River and atop its hilly bluff, the members of this sun-worshipping, mound-building tribe lived peacefully as hunters, fishermen, and farmers. In 1682, French explorers arrived and claimed this area for their homeland; and France, thereafter, sent settlers who in 1716 built a fort there, named Fort Rosalie in honor of the Duchess of Pontchartrain.

Possession of this territory by two other European countries, Great Britain and then Spain, and then later by the United States of America in 1798 contributed to the cultural richness of this town perched high on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and has contributed to the depth of stories that makes up what Natchez was and is today

The city survived the struggles of the Yellow Fever epidemics, the slave-trading, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and even the boll weevil blight in 1907 that stymied progress yet preserved many historic buildings which progress may have displaced. With many of their owners reportedly “too poor to paint and too proud to white wash,” many of the buildings remained unchanged. Then, with the setbacks of World War I, the recurring boll weevil, the Depression, and the Great Flood of 1927, progress was non-existent. Against this dreary backdrop, however, the story of the beginning of the second oldest pilgrimage in the South was about to unfold from the resourcefulness of a group of local garden club women.

The Natchez Garden Club was organized in 1927 as an outgrowth of The Women’s Club of Natchez. In her booklet The Natchez Garden Club, A Brief History, author Katherine Boatner Blankenstein discloses the history of the Natchez Spring Pilgrimage: In March 1931, a small but very active

Natchez Garden Club was making plans to host the annual convention of the Mississippi Federation of Garden Clubs. The agenda was vast with planned entertainment, meetings, and other activities for the delegates. One of the highlights was to be a tour of the many established old-fashioned gardens usually bursting into the peak of their bloom at this time.

Unfortunately, a late freeze spoiled the beauty of the gardens; and the members, anxious to showcase their town and impress their visitors, proposed that a tour of several of Natchez’s historic homes would provide a stellar substitute. According to Blankenstein, “Modest homeowners protested there was nothing to see. However, hospitality demanded that their guests be received; and they graciously threw open their doors. Mrs. Etta Henry, State President of Mississippi Federated Garden Clubs declared in her speech to the delegates, ‘These fascinating historic mansions must not remain hidden from the world any longer,’ sentiments which were echoed by the entire convention. As Mrs. Roane Fleming Byrnes wrote some years later, ‘The Natchez Pilgrimage had begun, and nobody knew it.’

The membership of fifty-seven women with $50.00 in their account rode this initial enthusiasm and began to make plans for a Pilgrimage Week the following year. The energy behind their marketing strategy was remarkable as the booklet recounts: “They wrote letters to Federated Garden Clubs and articles for state and national garden club publications, automobile associations, travel bureaus, trade magazines, and newspaper articles since these could get accepted without paying a fee. They created pamphlets, folders, and posters and displayed them everywhere. They set up committees for tours, tickets, transportation (twelve cars in all), and decorations.”

However, the year 1932 was a bad year for the country; the depths of the depression were at their worst. While skeptics touted that it would be impossible to attract many people to a community of which most people had never heard, the ladies continued their preparations. Twenty-five homes were to welcome the public with tour tickets priced at $2.00 for daily tours. A parade was planned, Azalea Queens and Japonica Kings were selected, and historical tableaux were created hoping for a local audience. (The first year there were two sets of royalty, a day king and queen for the parade and an evening king and queen presented at the pageant/tableaux and grand ball.)

Historic homeowners all pitched in to contribute to this first purposed springtime pilgrimage to showcase not just Natchez homes but Natchez hospitality. David McKittrick of Elms Court created an annual affair by

welcoming guests on the first evening to the “Ball of a Thousand Candles” at his home. The Women’s Cooperative Clubs, of which the Natchez Garden Club was a member, had a barbeque on the grounds of Auburn. A cotillion was held in the Natchez Hotel, and a pageant with a ball was presented in Memorial Hall

When pilgrimage week concluded, having entertained 1,500 visitors from 37 states, Blankenstein explains, “The members quickly realized that their future lay in what they knew best, welcoming visitors into their homes. During their next meeting, the club made a motion to make Garden Pilgrimage Week an annual affair and the Natchez Pilgrimage was born.”

Over the years, one garden club evolved into two garden clubs, The Natchez Garden Club and Pilgrimage Garden Club. Since 1946, the two clubs have worked tirelessly together to promote Natchez to the world, to tell their

Natchez story. The clubs have celebrated their 25th and 50th and 75th anniversaries of Spring Pilgrimage throughout the decades with special events and international and national notoriety. Moreover, through their efforts to preserve the historic structures, their work for the beautification of the city through their gardening efforts, and their organization of events for economic growth, these clubs have become a signature cooperative of volunteers recognized for their strength of purpose and their continuing catalog of accomplishments. Across the years in both clubs, the hallowed records and notebooks of the wisdom gained and the lessons learned have been passed down from one generation to the next, as club members embrace an expanding and more eclectic membership, adjust to the expectations of increasing numbers of new visitors, adopt new means and methods of telling the Natchez story, and broaden the scope of the story to include all of Natchez’s people and their contribution to the history of the houses and the town. Alana Coons, Education and Communications Director Natchez Garden Club members who worked on the first Spring Pilgrimage at Save Our Heritage Organisation in San Diego, California, the state’s oldest historic preservation group, in an email to Anne MacNeil of Elms Court, praised the fledgling efforts of those who organized Natchez’s first spring pilgrimages as the “story of a small group of women on the heels of the great depression [who] saw the value of these historic places as a means to help themselves and the economy of their town as it continued to depress. They recognized they had something special to offer the world that might subsidize maintenance of their homes and gardens and in doing so, they saved a city. That many of the same families are still at it 90 years later is remarkable to me. I read about the amazing Natchez homes that are gone, and it makes me think about how much more might surely have been lost if not for the Pilgrimage program.” Today’s tour of homes welcomes guests with Southern hospitality and shares with them the unfolding story of the times—information

about the renowned decorative arts in these homes and the details and lore of the early families, those who built and owned these structures as well as those who lived and worked at these properties. Through years of research, enslaved people are being identified who worked and lived on the properties; and their experiences and contributions have become integral to the integrity of the story.

Natchez’s past has some dark sides to its story, perspectives to be owned, perspectives vital to a shared and sanctioned history. Today’s citizens and visitors want to know and to understand the whole story of Natchez’s history, its history of yesteryears and its history-making moments today—“to learn about ‘lost’ Natchez” as Alana Coons explains, “juxtapositioned with saved Natchez. Saved, due in great part to this early 20th-century female-led preservation movement—one that has grown well beyond, with Historic Natchez Foundation and other entities to become the #1 reason Natchez became and remains a tourist destination today.”

This year’s 90th Anniversary Spring Pilgrimage tour of homes, March 12 through April 12, offers views into a variety of late-eighteenth-century to mid-nineteenthcentury historic homes that include private homes, museum homes, and homes operating as Bed and Breakfast locales and as events venues. These homes include Richmond, The Burn, The Towers, Lansdowne, Auburn, Pleasant Hill, The Gardens, Green Leaves, Longwood, Magnolia Hall, Elms Court, Brandon Hall, Airlie, Choctaw Hall, The House on Ellicott’s Hill, Linden, Stanton Hall, Routhland, Oak Hill, and Rosalie.

For information regarding tickets and tour packages, visit natchezpilgrimage.com or call 601.653.0919. Natchez Pilgrimage Tours is located at 211 Main Street, Suite B, Natchez, Mississippi. For additional information about tours, events, and activities in Natchez during Spring Pilgrimage, see visitnatchez.org. To view the Natchez Visitor’s Guide, check out https://www.visitnatchez.org/p/experience-natchez/visitors-guide.

March 12 through April 12 March 12, 16, 20, 24,28 • April 1, 5, 9 Morning Tour 9:00 to 12:30 • Auburn • Elms Court Afternoon Tour 1:30 to 5:00 • Pleasant Hill • Magnolia Hall • Oak Hill March 13, 17, 21, 25, 29 • April 2, 6, 10 Morning Tour 9:00 to 12:30 • Airlie • The Towers Afternoon Tour 1:30 to 5:00 • Brandon Hall March 14, 18, 22, 26, 30 •April 3, 7, 11 Morning Tour 9:00 to 12:30 • The House on Ellicott’s Hill • Routhland Afternoon Tour: 1:30 to 5:00 • The Gardens • The Burn • Choctaw Hall March 15, 19. 23, 27, 31 • April 4, 8, 12 Morning Tour: 9:00 to 12:30 • Lansdowne • Linden Afternoon Tour 1:30 to 5:00 • Richmond • Greenleaves

ROSALIE

CHOCTAW HALL

LONGWOOD

ROUTHLAND

THE GARDENS BRANDON HALL

STANTON HALL

PLEASANT HILL

OAK HILL

AUBURN LANSDOWNE

MAGNOLIA HALL

THE TOWERS

AIRLIE

THE HOUSE ON ELLICOTT’S HILL RICHMOND

GREENLEAVES

LINDEN

THE BURN

ELMS COURT