2022 Fall Pilgrimage

Fall

Pilgrimage A special publication of The Natchez Democrat

2 FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022

Spider lillies on the grounds of historic Rosalie welcome the return of fall to Natchez (The Natchez Democrat | Ben Hillyer)

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 3

Index OF HOMES

Auburn...............................................................................................12 Bankers House................................................................................................16 Brandon Hall...................................................................................................18 Choctaw............................................................................................19 Concord Quarters............................................................................................13 Elms Court......................................................................................................19 Frogmore......................................................................................................25 Glenfield......................................................................................................20 Gloucester......................................................................................................23 Green Leaves..................................................................................................12 House on Ellicott Hill.......................................................................................19 J.N. Stone House..............................................................................................22 Lansdowne.....................................................................................................11 Linden............................................................................................................26 Longwood......................................................................................................17 Magnolia Hall.................................................................................................17 Melrose..........................................................................................................27 Monmouth...................................................................................................27 Myrtle Terrace.................................................................................................23 Oak Hill...........................................................................................................21 Pleasant Hill...................................................................................................13 Rosalie Mansion..............................................................................................26 Stanton Hall...................................................................................................20 Sweet Auburn.................................................................................................22 4 SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022 The Burn.........................................................................................................11

SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022 5

A table is set with antebellum period China at Choctaw Hall during Spring Pilgrimage in 2018. (File photo)

Welcome N

ATCHEZ – As temperatures dip and surprise lilies make their colorful debut, Natchez readies to welcome thousands of visitors for Fall Pilgrimage. The fall is the most magical time to visit Natchez. As the trees change color they create a stunning backdrop for our historic Natchez architecture and garden tours. This city is home to more historic homes than any other city of its size in the country. These incredible examples of architecture play a huge role in both the city’s character and charm.

From September 24 through October 21, more than 20 historic homes will open their doors to visitors, sharing the intimacies of the history, antiques, art and gardens to interested visitors.

While individual tours of all houses are available, Natchez Pilgrimage Tours also offers several packages for multi-house options, includ-

6 SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022

yall!

ing full day packages; morning tour packages; and afternoon packages.

Special ticketed events offered through Natchez Pilgrimage Tours include: • “A Very Natchez Revue” at Concord Quarters, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. This unique look of the Natchez experience and history is told from the perspective of free African Americans through a series of skits, songs and dance.

• Elms Court: Traditional Natchez Coffee Party, Oct. 22 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Enjoy coffee and locally. Made sweets in the elegant dining room at Elms Court under the punkah and meet the owners while you explore the

house and grounds informally and at your own pace.

Tickets for both events are available through Natchez Pilgrimage Tours.

And while the houses are the star of the show during Pilgrimage, a number of special events are also taking place during the Pilgrimage season, including: • The 37th Annual Natchez Balloon Festival on Oct. 14-16. One of the most popular ballooning events in the country, the festival features a weekend of balloon flights; balloon glows; concerts; festival events; and fun.

• Live at Five free family, friendly outdoor concerts on the Natchez Bluff on October 1, 8, 14, 22 and 29.

• Y’All Means All Natchez – The Weekend on Oct. 21-23. This raucous LGTBQ+ festival celebrates the diversity of Natchez’ community while raising funds for NAMI Four Rivers, a non-profit state advocacy organization dedicated to suicide prevention and mental health counseling.

• Longwood Afternoon Music Fest is Oct. 30. In its seventh year, the festival is full of family fun, groovy tunes, creative crafts and delicious food and drinks. This year’s event also includes a Halloween Carnival.

For more information about purchasing tickets for tours or events, go to natchezpilgrimagetours.com FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 7

SAME GREAT STORE | NEW OWNER

WWW.AGALLERIE.COM

601.304.2115 400 MAIN STREET NATCHEZ, MS 39120 HOME DECOR | CLOTHING | ACCESSORIES | GIFTS | NATCHEZ MERCH

SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022 9

10 FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022

The Burn

712 N. Union St.. • Built: 1834 • Owned by Dr. Terrel Williams

T

he Burn, built in 1834 is a beautifully detailed and proportioned suburban structure, and is the oldest documented Greek Revival residence in Natchez.

It was built as the residence of John P. Walworth, a wealthy planter, merchant, banker, and politician.

Walworth, a Scotsman, commissioned T.J. Hoyt of New York as the architect and named his home The Burn, for the brook that ran through the property- the Scottish word for brook is “burn.” Originally built on 100 acres today she sits on approximately two acres of beautiful maintained grounds.

The Walworth family lived in The Burn for three generations until the 1930s when it was sold to the Laub family, who did much to restore the home and the gardens.

From the front, The Burn appears

Lansdowne

to be a one-and-a-half story home, but the rear view reveals a full three stories. The main house has approximately 9,000 square feet. It has been said that the house was built in such a manner that it did not appear ostentatious.

One of the outstanding architec-

tural features of The Burn is the staircase, which rises in a short straight flight along the southerly hall wall before making a graceful half-circular turn through space to terminate in the upstairs hall. The newel is composed of a series of turned balusters, and the stair is adorned with orna-

17 Marshall Road • Built: 1853 • Home of the George M. Marshall Family

O

ne of the most important and historically intact homes in Natchez., still owned and occupied by the descendants of the original builder. It contains most of the original furnishings and its decorative finishes including the original French scenic Zuber wallpaper are intact. The rare interior has been carefully preserved for over 160 years.

Designed in the Georgian Revival. The exterior is deceiving, given the scale of the rooms once inside, you enter into a 65-foot long center hall. The great size gives it a more extravagant feel than is found even in many of the larger Natchez mansions.

To the left of the hallway is a spacious drawing room with an exquisite white marble mantel carved in a calla lily design. Behind the mantel is a large mirror in an Adams frame;

mental brackets.

The home is furnished in period antiques by the current owners, who have a high sense of style and 19th century interior design. The only original furniture that remains in the house is the dining room table. John Walworth came to Natchez by way of Ohio. He acquired three plantations, served as president of Planters Bank and served as an alderman and mayor of Natchez. By the year 1860, his real estate holdings totaled $300,000 and his personal property was valued at $26,000, making him one of the wealthiest men in Natchez.

In 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg, Natchez was occupied by Union troops. The family was given 24 hours to vacate their home. The Union army took The Burn and used it for a hospital. The family was not allowed back into their home until 1866.

resting on the mantel is a Sevres clock and two matching urn-like ornaments, all under glass domes. The front parlor contains one of the most complete and well-preserved Rococo Revival style interiors in Mississippi from the era.

Over the windows are gold leaf cornices from which hang replicas of

the original lambrequin window coverings. The original rare and delicate artifacts were donated to the decorative arts collections of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, a branch of the Smithsonian. The walls still display the original handblocked French Zuber wallpaper. The house contains Cornelius and Baker

of Philadelphia bronze chandelier gasoliers, originally fitted and supplied by a gas plant built on the grounds of Lansdowne.

Being in the same family since 1853, the house has many layers of heirlooms and furnishings. The bedrooms of Lansdowne are quite large.

The front bedroom is furnished with an original set of large, hand-carved rosewood furniture made by Prudent Mallard of New Orleans.

At the rear of the house is a large brick courtyard. On opposite sides of this courtyard are two brick dependencies, each two-story, which originally contained the kitchen, washroom and enslaved servants’ rooms in one, and a large billiard room, office, schoolroom and governess’ quarters in the other.

Lansdowne is truly a must-see property, a private home it also offers Bed & Breakfast accommodations.

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 11

Auburn

400 Duncan Ave. • Built: 1812 • Owned by The City of Natchez

A

uburn is located in Duncan Park in a setting of huge moss-draped oaks, magnolias and pines. The magnificent red brick mansion is owned by the City of Natchez and operated by the Auburn Antebellum Home, an all-volunteer group who operate and manage Auburn for the city, and have done extensive work in restoring the beautiful interior of the house and in bringing back some of the home’s original furnishings. In 2016 extensive work to repair damage to the roof, floor and interior of the independent kitchen and slave quarter building was completed. These type of “dependency” or support buildings are rare significant architectural buildings visitors will want to see.

As the home of the first Mississippi Attorney General, Lyman Harding, this National Historic Landmark is famous for establishing the style of the columned portico in the South and

boasts an exquisitely designed freestanding spiral staircase. Auburns architect, was the talented Levi G. Weeks, who as a young man in the year 1800, made headlines in New York as the accused in the first court recorded murder trial in the United States. Weeks was acquitted, but now infamous he left NY for Natchez and became a well-respected architect and builder of fine homes. Auburn is con-

Green Leaves

sidered a master work of Weeks, and is believed to be the first house in the Mississippi territory to utilize the orders of architecture. Upon Harding’s death, the home was sold and greatly expanded in 1820 by Steven Duncan who added wings to Auburn and furnished the home exquisitely, where the family entertained national celebrities.

In 1911, Dr. Duncan’s descendants,

303 S. Rankin St. at Washington • Built: 1838 • Home of the Beltzhoover Family

G

reen Leaves is best rec nized as one of the most valuable national documents of mid-nineteenth century taste in the South, with its remarkable and extensive preserved memorabilia and furnishings. The interior is notable for both its original integrity and includes many period architectural features, along with period decorative arts and contents which together make it one of the most significant historic interiors in Natchez.

The carpet, wallpaper and rosewood and mahogany furniture have not been changed since the early 1850s. Of particular note, throughout the home sports Cornelius, Baker, and Company light fixtures and chandeliers, original gasoliers from one of the most prestigious lighting companies of the era, they remain intact and electrified.

Perhaps no house in Natchez is more suitably named than Green 12 FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022

deeded Auburn and its surrounding grounds to the City of Natchez as a memorial to the family. Its grounds which form Duncan Park were put to good use as a city park, and are used for golf, tennis, baseball, nature trails, picnicking and other recreational activities. Historic preservation in America was still in its infancy in this early period of the 20th century and the idea of keeping an historic sites period furnishing intact was rare, and so the city not knowing better, thought an empty house might more easily be maintained and sold all of the historic furnishings off. The house was not as easy to manage and only opened periodically to the public, when in 1972 the city entered into a lease with the Auburn Antebellum Home group to operate and restore the home and to be opened to the public where they welcome visitors from across the globe now.

Leaves, it has been occupied since 1849 by six generations of the Koontz-Beltzhoover family since George Washington Koontz came to Natchez from Washington, Pa., in 1836 at the age of 20.

The name was inspired by Lyle Saxon, author of several books about the Deep South. In the 1920s, when the late Ruth Audley Beltzhoover was president of the local garden club, Saxon was in Natchez getting material for his book, “Old Louisiana.” He asked to see Mrs. Beltzhoover’s gardens. When she said, “It is only a garden of green leaves,” his reply was so

eloquent that she named the home Green Leaves.

Appropriately, the house is set in the midst of live oaks, magnolia, cypress, azaleas and camellias. The 400-year-old oak in the rear courtyard spreads a canopy of living green over the grounds.

This National Register home was built by E.P. Fourniquet in 1838 at the then exorbitant cost of $25,000 and further embellished by George W. Koontz in the mid-19th century. A raised cottage, it is approached from Rankin Street by two flights of steep steps.

On each side of the front columned porch are wings with lacy iron balconies, added by Koontz. The stately front door of cypress is set in a monumental frame with Corinthian pilasters on each side.

The sidelights are of alternating circular and diamond-shaped panels.

Across the rear of Green Leaves is a wide gallery with large columns and banisters. The rooms on the back all open by jib windows onto the gallery.

Forming the rear courtyard are the bedroom wing added by Koontz and the two-story brick kitchen building, which in the 19th century was joined to the house by a covered passageway.

Soon after George Koontz arrived in Natchez he became affiliated with William Britton and, in time, he became president of the Britton & Koontz Bank. In 1845, he married Mary Roane Beltzhoover who became parents to eight children, whose descendants still live at Green Leaves.

Pleasant Hill

310 S. Pearl St. • Built: Prior to 1835 • Home of Mr. Mrs. John C. Bergeron

P

leasant Hill, nestled in downtown Natchez, is on the National Register of Historic Places and was originally built by John Henderson, a prosperous merchant.

Henderson was the publisher of the local newspaper, and a founder of Natchez’ First Presbyterian Church. Henderson, a native of Scotland, settled in Natchez in 1787, and constructed Pleasant Hill prior to 1835.

The well-built house served as the home of Henderson and his wife, Selah Mitchell, a native Natchezian and his family. It was originally built on property where Magnolia Hall now sits, but over a one-year period during the 1850s, son Thomas Henderson moved Pleasant Hill one block south on log rollers by oxen

teams. The house with its mahogany staircase, pocket doors and architrave between the double parlors was moved as a structure rather than

Concord Quarters

disassembled. Henderson was a successful merchant and planter. He was also the author of the only known literary work, “Paine Detect-

301 Gayosa Ave. • Built: 1820s • Home of Gregory & Deborah Cosey

C

oncord Quarters is one of the two matching brick buildings that originally flanked the rear courtyard of Concord, which was arguably the grandest building of the colonial period (1716-1798).

Concord’s history is clouded with conflicting dates and ownership.

Spanish legal records, 1790s correspondence, and an 1850 United States Supreme Court case confirm that Concord was built 1794-95 for Spanish Governor Manuel Gayoso de Lemos.

In 1794, Gayoso bought a tract of land about a mile and a half from Fort Rosalie “to build thereupon a house” and “to raise the commodities” to support a family. Desiring additional land for pasture, he successfully petitioned for a Spanish grant to enlarge his property to one thousand acres.

The land purchased and granted in 1794 constituted the original Con-

ed” or “The Unreasonableness of Paine’s Age of Reason,” written and published in Natchez prior to the American Period, in 1799 and published by Andrew Marschalk of Natchez. Prior to building Pleasant Hill, Henderson built and resided in several other homes in Natchez including The Elms and The Cliffs, but the family kept Pleasant Hill through many generations continuing to occupy the home until 1971.

Remarkably, the home has changed owners only four times since that time and is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Bergeron who in 1999 purchased and undertook an extensive renovation, that included saving and moving a small c 1820s former kitchen and dependency building onto the property from a property just south of Pleasant Hill.

cord property.

In February 1795, Gayoso transferred ownership of the Concord property to Margaret Watts, the sister of his deceased second wife. He wrote a letter explaining his “connection” with Margaret Watts and related that they had signed a marriage contract and he had deeded her “an elegant country house.”

Gayoso’s contributions to Natchez have been lasting. He completed the platting of the grid plan of the town

and drew a line at Front Street (now Canal) and refused to grant land on the western side. Instead, he created a public commons, or park, overlooking the Mississippi River. Until the late 1830s, the park extended from Canal Street to the edge of the bluff.

Manuel Gayoso’s widow sold Concord a month after his death, and it changed ownership twice before Stephen Minor acquired the property in 1800 for $10,000.

Fifty years after the Minor family

bought Concord in 1800, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Minor family’s title to Concord.

Dr. Stephen Kelly bought Concord in 1890 from the Minor family and the house, which had become rental property, burned in 1901. Kelly’s son, George Malin Davis Kelly of Melrose, was still lamenting its loss in the 1940s.

And what remains of Concord today? Still on the site and dating to the Minor occupancy are a small building whose original use is unknown and a two-story brick building with giant-order columns that originally served as quarters for enslaved servants. Enlarged and remodeled as a residence earlier in the 20th century, the two-story brick building was recently bought and renovated by Gregory and Deborah Cosey.

The house is also operated as a bed and breakfast.

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 13

14 SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 15

Bankers House

107 S. Canal Street • C. 1833 • Home of Mark Diamond and Kevin Scott Stone

N

ew to the Fall Pilgrimage this year is The Banker’s House. This remarkable example of Greek Revival architecture is a combination of a commercial bank and the principal banker’s home. The Banker’s House was built as a Greek Revival home between 1835 and 1838 by Levin Marshall, president of the Commercial Bank at 206 Main St. The front façade was capped by limestone and the interior moldings were hand-carved from wood. Around the same time, Marshall built a front addition on Richmond, his family home, in the same style. Some historians have attributed both projects to a northeastern archi-

16 SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022

tect because they reject some of the typical Natchezian architectural and climatic influences. Banker’s House is adjoined by its north wall to the former bank, and in an oddity of the

deed, Diamond and Stone’s closet sits directly above the former vault. The Bank closed soon after opening because of the Panic of 1837, Stone said.

The Banker’s House became a board-

ing house and then a girls’ school.

After it was vacated during the depression, it returned to being a boarding house, and then was rented before another period of vacancy between the 1940s and ’70s. The bank, between periods of vacancy, was used as a post office, an armory for the National Guard, a cotton office, a church for the Christ Scientists, and an antiques store. The home was purchased in 2021 by Mark Diamond and Kevin Stone, who have owned and restored more than 30 homes. They have furnished with their personal collection of period antiques and restored the grounds as well.

Magnolia Hall

215 S. Pearl St. • Built: 1858 • Owned by the Natchez Garden Club

M

agnolia Hall is an imposing home in the Greek Revival style. It has been restored in recent years to a historically accurate exterior. One of the most beautiful ceiling medallion designs in all of Natchez, with arabesques of magnolia leaves and blossoms incorporated into their design. Magnolia Hall derives its name from these spectacular decorative works of art, and they are not to be missed.

As one of the finest examples of Greek Revival style in Natchez, the house features a hooded doorway and a well-proportioned portico with massive Ionic columns.

The upper deck of the portico is enclosed with wrought-iron banisters. Henderson had his new brick house stuccoed, painted brown and scored to imitate the brownstone so popular in the northeast at the time. The lower floor of the main structure contains six rooms, including a library, double drawing rooms, a banquet hall, a private sitting room and a bedroom. The wide hall is lofty and has a mahogany-railed stair leading to the upper floor, where there are six more large rooms.

Longwood

Built in 1858 by Thomas Henderson, a 60-year-old widower at the time and a wealthy planter, merchant and cotton broker. The Henderson’s were a prominent pioneer family. Thomas Henderson’s father, John, had left his native Scotland in 1770. He owned numerous plantations in the Natchez region, wrote the first book published in the Natchez Territory and helped found the Presbyterian Church in Natchez in 1807.

Magnolia Hall is the last grand Natchez house completed before the American Civil War. In 1853 Thomas Henderson had been elected vice-president of the American Colonization Society, though Thomas’ two sons fought for the Confederacy.

During the Civil War, Magnolia Hall was

damaged by the Union gunboat Essex, which bombarded the town from the Mississippi River several blocks west. A shell from the boat struck the service wing of the house. The damage was slight, and no one in the home was injured.

Thomas Henderson died before the war ended and shortly thereafter the house was sold to the Britton family, who occupied it for many years. Fortunately, an inventory of the furnishings of the Henderson family had been made to settle Thomas’ estate, giving future owners an exact idea of what it contained.

Unfortunately, the house became a rooming house and private Episcopal school in later years, and it was during this time all of the original partition walls were

removed, all but two of the original mantelpieces were sold, the ceilings were lowered, the original chandeliers were sold and the home became institutional in character. Then in 1976 the house was saved by the deeding it as a gift to the Preservation Society of Ellicott Hill, the preservation arm of the Natchez Garden Club, by Mrs. George Armstrong of Fort Worth, Texas, and Woodstock Plantation in Adams County.

During the years following its acquisition, the Natchez Garden Club completed a restoration of the house under the direction of New Orleans architectural firm Koch and Wilson and of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Magnolia Hall is owned and maintained by the Natchez Garden Club, which in the 1930s began a movement to restore, preserve and promote the historic homes of Natchez. The club has acquired many of the original Henderson furnishings and artifacts. The mansion also houses a costumes collection of past Pilgrimage dresses, and a doll collection.

140 Lower Woodville Road • Built 1860-1861 • Owned by the Pilgrimage Garden Club

O

n the outskirts of Natchez, deep among forest trees heavy with Spanish moss, stands the largest and most captivating octagonal house in America, the “Oriental Villa” called Longwood.

Planned in 1859 for cotton nabob Haller Nutt and his wife, Julia, by Philadelphia’s distinguished architect Samuel Sloan, the mansion was begun in 1860.

Using the octagon form with four main floors, a fifth-story solarium and a sixth-story observatory, the structure was designed to have 32 rooms, each with its own entrance onto a balcony.

Inside, as a core to provide ventilation and light, was a great rotunda open to the clerestory six floors above.

On the main or principal floor were to be eight rooms, including a drawing room, banquet hall, library, reception room and a special apartment for Mrs. Nutt. Connecting the levels was to be a grand spiral staircase.

Crowning the whole was a Byzantine-Moorish dome with a 24-foot fini-

aly reaching heavenward. The lavish exterior was to be only a hint of the magnificence foreseen in the interior.

Work progressed rapidly, and when the gigantic shell was up, the exultant Mr. Nutt wrote to Sloan, “It is creating much admiration,” and proudly predicted that “after this the Octagon will be the style!” In April 1861, all his hopes and dreams were smashed by the declaration of the war. Sloan’s Philadelphia craftsmen dropped their saws and hammers and fled North to pick up rifles and

bayonets, never to return.

Dejectedly, Nutt and a few local workers completed the basement level.

This area, where a wine cellar, school room, recreation room and office were to have been, was converted into living quarters for the Nutts and their eight children. Here they lived in nine rooms as war swirled across the South.

On June 15, 1864, Haller Nutt died in the basement of his unfinished mansion.

The diagnosis was pneumonia, but

legend insists that he died of a broken heart over his dream house.

Julia and the children lived on in the cellar doing only a minimum to maintain the great hulk looming over them.

She died in 1897 and was buried beside her husband in the Longwood family cemetery.

Grandchildren owned Longwood until 1968.

Today it is maintained, yet unfinished, by the Pilgrimage Garden Club.

The average visitor will ask, “Why not finish it now?”

The answer comes, “No, leave it as a monument to the heart-rending break of the War Between the States. Let it mark the end of an era.”

Longwood, located on Lower Woodville Road, was described as “a remembrancer of Eastern magnificence” by its architect in 1861.

Longwood has been designated a National Historic Landmark, a Mississippi Landmark and a historic site on the Civil War Discovery Trail.

SPRING PILGRIMAGE 2022 17

Elms Court

542 John R. Junkin Dr. • Built 1837 • Home of the Macneil Family

E

lms Court, located off John R. Junkin Drive not far from downtown Natchez, has the appearance of a Mediterranean Villa.

The cast iron grill work across the entire front of the house gives it an Italianate look. The house and four nineteenth- century outbuildings are on a 150 acre wooded tract. The driveway winds through woods planted with seasonal flowering bulbs. The approach is reminiscent of landscape parks surrounding European country houses.

In 1837, Katherine and Eliza Evans, daughters of Lewis Evans, a prominent planter, began construction of the central section of the house in the Greek Revival style. Four columns supported a two-story portico over the main entrance. In 1842 George W. Turner purchased the property as a family home and sold it in 1852 to Francis (Frank) Surget Sr., a wealthy planter and businessman.

Surget allowed his daughter Jane and her husband Ayres Merrill to live at Elms Court. In 1856 she inherited the property, including nine enslaved

individuals whose names and values appear in the probate records. The Merrills remodeled the house by removing the portico, adding the two wings and the cast iron grillwork Merrill was a Union sympathizer.

Following the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, Merrill requested and received permission from the Union authorities to leave Natchez with his family for the North once his cotton crop had been harvested. In September 1863, the Union Navy provided a gunboat, The Forest Rose, for the Merrills and their

Brandon Hall

cousins, the Duncans of Auburn, to travel from Natchez to Memphis. Both families moved on to New York. Merrill briefly served as the United States Minister (Ambassador) to Belgium under President Grant. There is little information on Elms Court between 1863 and Merrill’s death in 1883. His heirs owned Elms Court until 1895 when James Surget, a first cousin of Jane Merrill, acquired the property.

Surget’s descendants now live at Elms Court.

Elms Court is foremost a family

1213 U.S. 61 N., off the Natchez Trace • Built: 1856 • Owned by Gloria James and Al Torstenson

B

randon Hall sits on 40 acres of by far one the most picturesque landscapes in the entire region, just off the Natchez Trace. With walking paths in the forest, a private cemetery, and great live oaks. This beautiful Greek Revival home, called one of the finest antebellum homes in the south is nestled into a secluded park like setting with rolling hills, native plants, beautiful gardens and a stocked pond.

The land first passed into private ownership as a royal grant from Spanish King Carlos III to Frederick Calvit, an American, in 1788, it was then sold to William Lock Chew, in 1809, who probably built the first structure on the site.

The rare early Spanish structure still exists as the basement area of the present Brandon Hall. In 1833 it was sold to the Hoggart family, and in 1853 deeded to daughter Charlotte and her husband Gerard

18 FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022

home. As the needs of the family change, the use of rooms changes. The dining room is a clear example of the 1850’s remodeling in which an existing room and portion of the back gallery were tied together. The center arch from which a large hollow frame wood punkah hangs, unifies the two sections of the room. There are fragments of what is believed to be 1850’s wallpaper on one side of the chimney. The small parlor was the family schoolroom in the early twentieth century and the bedroom was a library until the family converted the billiard room in the east wing to a formal library in the 1950’s.

In the 1850’s and 60’s, Elms Court manufactured methane gas from coal to use for interior lighting, as did several other suburban estates. The lighting fixtures in the central hall, the office and the library were originally gasoliers. The metal lined tank, used to store the gas, is to the rear of the three room brick dependency. Other outbuildings, visible from the formal garden, include the stable and carriage house, the two room cabin and a cow barn.

Brandon III, son of an early governor of Mississippi upon her father’s death. Gerard and Charlotte appear to have lived in the Spanish house built by William Chew until they inherited the property when they began construction of Brandon Hall, completing the house in 1856. The Brandon home sits ele-

vated about four feet above the surrounding ground, which required moving of about 6,000 cubic yards of earth, a tremendous project, practically engulfing the original Chew house, which became a basement floor. The Brandon family fortunes began to fall after the American Civil War, once

one of the wealthiest families, as a result of being one of the largest slaveholders in the South, their ownership of the grand mansion and its vast acreage ended in 1914 as a result of mortgage default.

From that time until 1983, it passed through nine other owners and fell into great disrepair when the Diefenthal family of New Orleans came to its rescue in 1983 and undertook a major restoration, saving it for future generations to enjoy and learn from its stories.

The Diefenthal family later donated the house and property —in excellent condition — to the Historic Natchez Foundation who sold the home and today its present owners are adding to and continuing the high level of care and stewardship this spectacular home and grounds require where they welcome visitors from around the world as an events venue.

Choctaw Hall

Corner of Wall and High Streets • Built: 1836 • Owned by David Gardner and R. Lee Glover

C

hoctaw Hall is the only mansion-style Natchez house built out to the street. The details of the interior are predominately Greek Revival, the massing of this monumental house is Federal and the giant Roman orders on the exterior, a Jeffersonian reference. This urban mansion transitions from Federal to Greek Revival, and showcases one of the finest collections of William IV and Early American Empire furniture, silver, and signed Jacob Petit Porcelain.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Neibert-Fisk House, it was constructed in 1836 as the residence of the real estate speculator and developer Joseph Neibert.

According to local tradition, Choctaw was designed and built by Natchez builder, James Hardie, a Scottish immigrant. Hardie and his three

Ellicott Hill

brothers, Alexander, John and William, were all employed in the building trade here. In 1844, Choctaw was sold to Alvarez Fisk, a commission merchant and philanthropist. Fisk was instrumental in the establishment of the first public school in Natchez in 1845. And by 1855, the house changed hands again, becom-

ing the residence of George Malin Davis, who would eventually own Melrose, Cherokee and Concord as well. For a brief period at the turn of the 20th century, Choctaw even housed the all-female Stanton College. The mansion then came into ownership of the City of Natchez.

The city purchased the property in

211 N. Canal St. • Built: 1798 • Owned by the Natchez Garden Club

A

rare vestige of the 18th century, it is the last remaining Merchant House in the region. With its West Indies architecture Ellicott Hill is a landmark home in Natchez as the site where in 1797 Major Andrew Ellicott claimed Natchez and all former Spanish lands east of the Mississippi above the 31st parallel for the United States.

Thanks to the Natchez Garden Club, it represents one of the earliest historic preservation efforts in the nation and the first restoration of a historic property by a civic organization in the State of Mississippi when in 1934 members voted to purchase and to restore it as headquarters of the club. The house, research and forensics revealed was built about 1798, by James Moore, a prominent merchant. During the Spanish administration, only people of “importance” such as doctors and wealthy merchants were granted lots

1937, when the house was meticulously restored between 1939 and 1942 by the Works Progress Administration, (WPA) The city built the City Auditorium on part of the site in 1940. In 1978, fire damaged the first floors, and it sat unrestored for many years until in 1989 businessman Don dePriest purchased the mansion from the city in 1989 and did another full restoration. Today, the house is owned by business partners David Garner and R. Lee Glover who have completed the homes restoration and preservation journey and have appointed the home with the highest end elegant and luxurious 19th century furnishings and decorative art, and enhancing the site further with beautiful gardens making it by far one of the most opulent and must-see homes in the entire South.

fronting on Canal Street, the “front” street of the new town. In 1797 when George Washington appointed Ellicott he was a very important person indeed, as a noted mathematician and surveyor, Washington a brilliant leader was known for appointing only the most competent of men.

Ellicott describes in his journal the significant and history altering event when he arrived in Natchez on Feb.

24, 1797, and set up camp near the site chosen by James Moore for his house, raising the American flag over the Mississippi Territory for the first time and The U.S. Flag of 1797 flown on Ellicott’s Hill today commemorates this encampment in defiance of the Spanish government, which refused to withdraw its garrison from Natchez until March 30, 1798. The home remained in the

Moore’s family with various members ownership for years and then a series of other owners ensued, by 1850, the house became the Natchez High School, a school for boys that closed almost 30 years later in 1878.

When the Natchez Garden Club purchased the house, it had been used as tenant housing for the workers in local cotton mills for many years. While this integral piece of American History had fallen into great disrepair, the Club thoughtfully hired New Orleans architect Richard Koch, who helped them to restore the building into the rare architectural gem that it is. Incredibly there is also an extant inventory of James Moore’s furnishings as of 1829 and it is on the basis of this and two other Federal-period inventories that the club has furnished the house. Do not miss this important home.

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 19

Stanton Hall

401 High St. • Built: 1857 • Owned by the Pilgrimage Garden Club

S

tanton Hall, one of the most magnificent houses of antebellum America, stands on a rise on High Street, bordered by Pearl Street on the west and Commerce Street on the east.

The magnificent Greek Revival-style house is surrounded by huge live oak trees more than a century old and is approached by entrances on each side leading to the front of the house.

Stanton Hall was built by Frederick Stanton, one of three brothers who came to America from Belfast, Ireland, in 1815. He settled in the Natchez area and married Hulda Helm.

Stanton became immensely wealthy as a cotton planter and cotton commission broker.

In 1849, Stanton bought the square on which he was to build his dream house; construction was completed in 1857. Building the mansion to the designs of Natchez architect- builder Thomas Rose, Stanton spared no expense.

Though Stanton did seek some of the furnishings for his mansion from outside Natchez, his confidence in the skills of local artisans was so high that all the

Glenfield

work on the edifice was done by Natchez architects, builders, artists and finishers.

The main hall is of impressive dimensions, with ceilings almost 17-feet high. An exquisitely carved overhead arch breaks the extreme length of the hall.

Circular arabesques embellish the ceilings, which are also bordered by narrow geometrical friezes. Furnishings in the hall include matching bronze chandeliers, which, like those in other rooms of the house, are attributed to the Cornelius firm of Philadelphia, Pa.

To the right of the hall are a large front parlor and smaller back parlor, sometimes called a music room. Together, these rooms are 72-feet long.

The length of the front parlor is broken by an elaborately carved and unsupported arch similar to the arch in the hall. Mantels in the parlors are of finest white Carrara marble, richly carved with fruits and flowers.

Silver-plated hardware is used on door knobs, hinges, key escutcheons, lock plates and call bells. Mirrors are original to the house, specially made in France. The parlor includes a matched set of highly carved Victorian furniture

and a pair of pier tables with marble columns.

The beautiful carpet in both parlors is a reproduction of an 1850 Natchez design. It was made for Stanton Hall at the Ax Minster Carpet Mills in Greenville.

The small parlor contains an antique piano and an ornately carved window seat or meridienne made by John Belter of New York.

On the other side of the main hall is a library, containing an elaborately carved bookcase, two side chairs, a desk and desk chair belonging to Frederick Stanton and returned to Stanton Hall by his heirs.

Also on this side of the hall is a formal 35-foot dining room, centered with a Natchez-made dining table. Other furnishings include a set of early Empire chairs and a breakfront containing a large set of Old Paris china. Probably the most stunning items in the dining room are the many pieces of antique silver hollowware.

Some of the original Stanton Hall furnishings on display at the house include a highly carved American Gothic hat rack and two matching tall chairs.

6 Providence Rd • C. 1812-1840 • Home of Mr. & Mrs. Lester Meng Jr.

A

picturesque cottage-villa, quaint Glenfield nestles on a low hillside in Natchez, with approximately 150 acres of land surrounding it.

The building, like many other old Natchez homes, consists of two distinct sections each dating to a different era. Investigation into the construction of the house has revealed that, without doubt, the rear wing is the original house erected about 1812 by Charles B. Green for his wife, Helen Andres Girrault.

This portion bears all the earmarks of age and the construction techniques that would have been used during that early period. The walls are thick and built entirely to the ground.

The ceilings are low and the windows small and heavily shuttered to ward off prowling forest animals so prevalent in the early days of the Natchez settlement when much of the land continued to be undeveloped.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this old portion is the back gallery

floored with bricks and enclosed with thick handmade blinds.

An old floor cistern and hickory pins used in its construction are other evidences of the age of the house and the period of its construction. The front portion of Glenfield is built at right angles with the original wing.

Like other homes of its period, Glenfield is deceivingly large.

A tour through the house reveals it contains more rooms than some of the showier mansions in Natchez built during the Greek Revival era. The architectural style of the house is dis-

tinctly Gothic, a style that became popular in Natchez in the 1850s and is evident in the mansion Edgewood, not on tour for the Pilgrimage and located in the Pine Ridge community, and in St. Mary Basilica in downtown Natchez. Glenfield has a unique floor plan — a large central living room flanked on each side by twin halls.

Thus two doors open onto a narrow front porch featuring slender pillars.

Between the doors is an ornate Gothic window with heavy, handmade blinds.

This section contains high-ceiling

rooms centered by impressive marble mantels.

The dining room at Glenfield occupies the left side of the building and contains a number of interesting antiques.

The home is near the site of a skirmish that took place during the Civil War, and bullet holes made by contending forces can still be seen in the front door of the house.

Glenfield was featured on early Natchez pilgrimages, including the first in 1932.

The handsome house is located at 6 Providence Road and not far from the high bluffs that characterize the east banks of the Mississippi River at Natchez.

Owners and residents of Glenfield are Mr. and Mrs. Lester Meng Jr. The house has been in Mrs. Meng’s family, the Field family, since shortly after the Civil War. Glenfield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Oak Hill

S

409 S. Rankin St. • Built in 1835 • Home of Donald McGlynn and Douglas Mauro

ituated on a hill in downtown Natchez, Oak Hill is a blend of two significant architectural

styles.

The home was built in 1835 when the classic Federal style was beginning to give way to Greek Revival architecture. The house, built in the style of a planter’s cottage, features a front gallery with turned wood columns indicative of Federal-style architecture as well as interior details that were popular with Greek Revival style.

The home, designed by Jacob Byers, who also designed Melrose in Natchez, was built for William A. and Elizabeth Beatty. A survey of the vacant lot coupled with records of the sale of construction materials found in the antebellum papers of Andrew Brown’s sawmill were used to authenticate the date of construction. The total cost to build the two-story structure was recorded to be $3,874.57.

Because of amount of architectural

integrity maintained at Oak Hill, it has become one of downtown’s most significant properties. All the original millwork, including substantial mantel pieces, paneled doors and window and door trim, remain.

Doors in the main house still have their original Carpenter and Co. locks dating from the 1830s.

Also unique to Oak Hill is the well-

planned placement of windows. Sliding windows in the board partitions between the hallway on the second floor provided cross ventilation and a sort of natural air conditioning.

In 1970, the house underwent a delicate restoration process that included the construction of new rear wing. This new wing incorporated an original detached building. The new

construction blends well with the original main house.

The floors of the main house are the original cypress floors while the addition features old pine flooring.

The interior of the house is beautifully appointed with significant New York Empire pieces and a French mechanical bird that dates to 1832. A signed Carrara marble lamp that dates to the 1850s is also displayed.

The home’s collection also features an elaborate silk embroidery made by the Ursuline nuns of New Orleans in the 1860s.

The large lot on which Oak Hill is located also helps set this home apart from others. A recent emphasis has been placed on the restoration of the gardens of Oak Hill.

The home, purchased by Donald McGlynn and Douglas Mauro in 2004, won the Historic Natchez Foundation Award for Restoration in 2005.

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 21

J.N. Stone House

804 Washington St. • C. 1850 • Home of Joseph B. Stone

O

nce a home to one of the most socially influential families in Natchez, J.N. Stone House stands apart because of its origins as a private billiard hall.

The oldest part of J.N. Stone House was built in 1850 by David Stanton, brother of Frederic Stanton, who built Stanton Hall. The billiard hall was erected on the grounds of The Elms.

Prior to being expanded into a private residence, the structure served as a luxurious social gathering place for many Stanton family events.

David Stanton felt it necessary to expand the billiard hall and transform it into a house to accommodate his two sons, Samuel and Aaron.

The billiard hall, in its original form, was a single room, 22 feet long and 18 feet wide, built in the style of a Greek temple.

Once the conversion from billiard

hall to private residence began, the galleries in the front and down one side of the edifice were enclosed.

Those areas became hallways which now include the original Greek revival entry.

Also retained during the transformation was the plaster on cypress lathing on the interior and exterior walls of the home.

Sweet Auburn

The plaster on the exterior walls is scored to resemble quarried stones.

Original plaster ceiling medallions are also located throughout the house.

One of the ceiling medallions is accented by a period three-light gasolier with shades etched with a Greek key motif.

Added during the renovation were two fenestrated pocket doors that are

34 Old Highway 84 • Built: 1833 • Home of The Copeland Family

S

weet Auburn, a simple, but elegant, federal style antebellum house tucked off Old Highway 84 in Washington, is situated among lush rolling lawns, a reflective pond and expressive oak trees.

Dr. John Wesley Monette and his wife Cornelia Jane Newman — French Hugenots who immigrated to America — built the house in 1833. Monette is renowned for his work in preventing the spread of Yellow Fever through quarantine. He is also known for his published works on Mississippi’s geographical society.

Monette acquired a 50-acre tract of land in Washington where the house was built. The brick was made on the property. Original millwork, including columns, archways, window casings, mantels and door frames, which were produced in Cincinnati and shipped down the Mississippi River, still enhance the space.

Monette’s doctor’s office and li22 FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022

ornamented with stained, etched and painted glasswork.

The doors, still present today, were used to divide the front addition from the back portion of the house, where the billiard hall had been.

In 1877, two Natchez natives, Joseph Newman Stone and his wife Theodora Britton, bought the house.

The house has been owned and occupied by descendants of the Stone family since its purchase in 1877. It is currently owned by Joseph B. Stone, great-grandson of Joseph Newman Stone. The J.N. Stone House is also home to a collection of antique maps and rare books. Included in the collection of family mementos is a personalized copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and a family photo of Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

It received the Foundation Award for Restoration in 2005.

brary, which are still intact, sit separately on the left and right of Sweet Auburn, connected by an original red brick walkway. Original shelving and mantels still hang in the library and doctor’s office. Modern lighting has been added. Monette, a revered member of the Washington community, died at the age of 47. At the time of Monette’s existence, Washington was a place of importance — as the territorial capital of the Southwest region and the literary center of the

state. A graveyard exists just yards from Sweet Auburn’s back door, where Dr. and Mrs. Monette are buried with several family members.

The first floor of the three-story house is made of brick and contains six rooms — three on either side of a broad hall. The hall is entered by double doors, with fan-shaped windows over the doors to light the hall.

The third floor was the most striking feature of the house, and was removed by owners after it passed

from the ownership of the Monette family. The original third story had a continuous row of glass windows protected by latticed blinds on all four sides.

In front is a large portico, which was also removed by previous owners.

Marlon and Charlotte Copeland of Natchez bought and own the house, which was overgrown and in disrepair 17 years ago. With the help of old photographs, the Copelands were able to reconstruct the original appearance of Sweet Auburn, though the origin of the house’s name is a mystery. The third story and portico were reconstructed to closely resemble the original house.

The basement that was equipped with a tunnel to a cistern away from the house was used for the escape of Newman’s uncle during the Civil War. The Copelands received the George and Ethel Kelly restoration award for Sweet Auburn from the Historic Natchez Foundation in 2010.

Gloucester

201 Lower Woodville Road • C. 1803 • Home of Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Walters

G

loucester, originally known as Bellevue, was built for Samuel C. Young in 1803. He sold the house only four years later to Major Winthrop Sargent, first Governor of the Mississippi Territory. At that time the house sat on 490 acres and was renamed after the Governor’s hometown in Massachusetts.

The Governor was a Harvard graduate, Class of 1771, and a Revolutionary War officer, serving eight years with the Continental Army including many major battles such as Long Island and White Plains, New York; Trenton and Monmouth, New Jersey; and Brandywine, Pennsylvania. He also wintered at Valley Forge with George Washington. After he helped the United States win her independence, Sargent moved West to Ohio, and was promoted to Colonel in the U.S. Army to join in the fight against the Indians there. He was struck by three gunshots and carried two bullets in his hips for the rest of

his life. He was appointed Governor of the Northwest Territory (as the land west of the Ohio River was known at the time). In 1798 he was named the first Governor of the Mississippi Territory and moved to Natchez. The Governor lived at Gloucester Natchez from 1807 until his death in 1820. He enlarged the size of the house by one-third, adding the sec-

Myrtle Terrace

ond of the now double front entrances and also the dry moat. In 1824 Sargent’s widow sold the house to James Campbell Wilkins and his wife, who was the daughter of the Yellow Duchess of Concord. They added the massive columns across the front and back of the house, likely mimicking her mother’s house, Concord (which is no longer standing).

310 N. Pearl St.. • Built: 1844-1851 • Home of James C. Johnson and Geoffrey Butcher

T

his welcoming home was built by Nathaniel L. Carpenter beginning in 1844 and completed in 1851 when purchased by steamboat captain, Thomas P. Leathers. Today the home showcases a gorgeous collection of Empire and Victorian furnishings within the walls of its spacious yet homey rooms. The mid-nineteenth century furnishings that you see are appropriate for the early life of the home.

Although Nathaniel L. Carpenter came to Natchez as a builder, no building other than Myrtle Terrace has been documented as having been built by him. The house is a good example of transitional architecture with the earlier Federal Style surviving in the delicately runed columns and the later Greek Revival Style employed in the entrance and interior millwork. The interior plan is. A double-pile plan, two rooms deep, with a center hallway. The second story was originally accessed through an enclosed stairway entered from the rear

This brought the architecture of the house from Federal (symmetrical) to Neo-Classical (columned) style.

Twenty years later, in 1844, Governor Sargent’s son, George Washington Sargent, bought Gloucester back from the Wilkinses. And twenty years after that, in 1864, Natchez was occupied by Union soldiers. It was during this time that members of the U.S. Colored Troops came one night to rob Gloucester, and shot George mortally through both lungs. He died in the house an excruciating four days later. Gloucester now sits on 6 acres of park-like land, and for the first time in over a decade, will welcome visitors for Fall Pilgrimage 2022. Enjoy the house and formal gardens, plus the intact Summer Kitchen and Billiard Room. Directly across Lower Woodville Road, visit Gloucester Cemetery, with its monument to the Governor and graves of his family, and also Seargeant S. Prentiss and family.

gallery. Mr. and Mrs. Butler who owned the home beginning in 1942 installed the present stairway. The second story of the house contains four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

A small basement room is located beneath the rear sitting room of the first story. Modern additions to the home were added by the Durkin family I n approximately 1979. Camille Durkin inherited the home from her parents, the Butlers, and the home was purchased by James C. Johnson and Geoffrey Butcher in 2018.

Myrtle Terrace is historically known as the home of Captain

Thomas P. Leathers, who was internationally known as a famous steamboat captain. He was born in Kentucky in 1816 and began his river career on the Yazoo River in 1836. He had great financial success in the lower river cotton trade and built many steamboats, among them seven named “Natchez.” A frequently told story is the legendary steamboat race in 1870 between the Natchez, captained by Leathers, and the Robert E. Lee, whose captain was John W. Cannon. After retiring to New Orleans, Leathers died at the age of 80 after having been r un over by a

hit-and-run bicyclist, thus ending one of the most successful careers in steamboat history. Another important person in the Natchez community who lived in this home was John Hunter, who was mayor in 1962 when the naval forces of the U.S. demanded the surrender of the city.

The home has a beautiful garden with fountains surrounded by an ornate iron fence. Behind the house is a carriage house built in the 1850s that is now used as an Airbnb. The house on the other side of the driveway was once on the property and housed the help. It was moved to its present location sometime between 1910 and 1925. The three-car garage was built sometime between 1925 and 1943.

Harnett T. Kane once described Myrtle Terrace as “a smell gem in the town of Natchez, almost a baby-scaled version of the plantation time … (it) has the charm of the diminutive and the restrained – everything the. Captain was not.”

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 23

Frogmore

11656 US 84 in Frogmore, LA • Home of Buddy and Lynette Tanner

J

ust across the river at Frogmore Plantation, Louisiana, individuals and groups visiting Natchez and Vidalia can see first-hand “Cotton, Then and Now,” and see how John Gillespie and many other Natchez planters became millionaires from “King Cotton.”

Lynette Tanner, along with Lynn Mann and Kathy Forman, greet Ameri- can and international tourists as part of the tour of the Tanners’ 200-year-old plantation complete with authentically furnished slave quarters, rare, Smithso- nian quality, steam cotton gin, plantation church, overseer’s home, antique farm equipment, general store, and even a three-hole privy.

Frogmore Plantation, on U.S. High- way 84 just west of Ferriday, on the Na- tional Register of Historic Places, was the recipient of Louisiana’s state tour-ism award in 1999, was selected by Rand McNally in 2009 as a “MUST SEE” site, and according to the owners’ extensive research is the only such offering of realistic history of the progression of the South’s cotton industry, including slave ownership, cotton’s pre-Civil War boom, benefits and

flaws of sharecrop- ping, and later mechanization & com- puterization of the industry.

The Illinois born, but Louisiana raised owner (former teacher) stays in the learning mode with research well beyond tourism pamphlets and school text books.

Her love for history and its influence on today’s society comes naturally from her parents, the late Don and LaVonne Ater.

Her parents and ancestors were all farming families, and Lynette grew up on a plantation.

After marriage, the Tanners,

along with constructing and operating their modern plantation, have restored 19 buildings and spent hours in research. Suddenly Lynette took on the role of tour guide, historian, and once again ed- ucator, while Buddy (previously named outstanding cotton ginner in the United States) became tour guide and advocate for United States agriculture.

Frogmore Plantation is an 1,800 acre working plantation, where cotton is planted, picked and ginned for the pub- lic each year.

The historical buildings are a col-

lec- tion of dependency buildings that date from 1790 to 1900, some of which were on Frogmore, and some originally on area plantations, now all carefully re- stored.

The restoration includes the Tanner’s plantation home, a complete village of slave quarters, an overseer’s cabin, a church, rare 1880’s steam gin, dozens of pieces of antique farm equipment and general store that serves as part muse- um, part gift shop with unique cotton & plantation specialties, and library of reference books for sale on slave culture, and all aspects of Delta life.

Two reconstructed buildings are also included in the tour, a smokehouse and pigeonnier. Modern tours of Frogmore include visiting the completely com- puterized cotton gin and viewing a vid- eo and display that illustrates modern seed, fertilizer, planting, and harvesting techniques.

Unusual products from the seed, world ag statistics, and cotton trivia are also part of the tour.

Frogmore is 20 minutes west of Natchez located at 11656 U. S. Highway 84, Frogmore, Louisiana.

Rosalie

100 Orleans St. • Built: 1820 • Owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution

T

he mansion Rosalie, 100 Orleans St., occupies one of the most interesting historical tracts of land in Natchez.

In 1716, just south of the present mansion, the Frenchman Bienville erected Fort Rosalie on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, making Natchez the oldest continu ous settlement on the river — two years older than New Orleans.

When Natchez became a part of the new Mississippi Territory in 1798, the American flag was raised over the old fort. However, the fort was used a very short time after that and fell into ruins.

The land passed to Col. Henry Willis, an officer in the American Revolution, then to his daughter and son-in-law and, finally, to Peter Little, who built the mansion Rosalie in 1820.

Rosalie likely was designed by Little’s brother-in-law, James Griffin.

Gardens enhance the beauty of the house, especially a marvel ous restored garden on the western side of

Linden

the house overlooking the Mississippi River and the lowlands of Louisiana.

The beautiful Federal- style mansion was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew L. Wilson in the 1850s, following the deaths of Little and his wife, Eliza.

During the Civil War, Mrs. Wilson was untiring in her services to the Confederacy and fell under suspicion during the federal occupation of Natchez. She was arrested and banished

to Atlanta.

Rosalie, her home, became headquarters for the Union officers in Natchez and was the house where Ulysses S. Grant stopped on a trip through Natchez. In 1938, the Mississippi State Society of Daughters of the American Revolu tion bought Rosalie. Open daily year-round, the mansion houses many of it original furnishings.

The lower hall of Rosalie introduc-

es the magnificence of the house. It contains a grandfather clock, several fine paintings and French porcelain vases. To the left are spacious double drawing rooms with original Belter parlor sets, antique pianos and white marble mantels with hand- carved roses and seashells. Over each mantel hangs a magnificent mirror.

Connected with these mirrors is a story of war and harrowing experiences. Family tradition is that the mirrors went unscathed through the shelling of Natchez in 1862, only to get buried at the fort site when news spread that Union troops were approaching. For several years the mirrors remained buried but when they were resurrected, they were unblemished.

The library contains many old books and John James Audubon prints. The dining room is opposite the second drawing room. A large gilt-framed oval mirror hangs above the white marble mantel, which was stained by roaring fires maintained by Union soldiers.

One of the earliest homes in Natchez, between 1818 and 1849 the house was doubled in size, and additional land was acquired, making Linden a sizeable estate. It was during this period that additions to the house were built, including the one-story extensions on both sides of the original building, the 98-foot

front gallery and the front doorway, an architectural triumph of inlay and alternating diamond and oval panes for which Linden is especially noted. The smaller gallery added to the central portion of the second story has four columns supporting a light and graceful pediment complete with oval window. The front door opens into a hallway with a simple stair to the second story. The downstairs floor plan is simple, with large rooms opening one into another. Fine antique lovers will not want to miss seeing this home as Linden is furnished with an important and remarkable collection of American furniture of the Federal period. Sheraton, Hepplewhite, and Chippendale furnishings fill the home. Truly a museum quality collection, visitors will enjoy close up and personal and see firsthand how furnishings of the era were meant to be used and displayed.

1 Conner Cir. • C. 1780

T

he tranquility of the seven-acre park-like setting at Linden is captivating the grounds on which Linden stands were originally part of a Spanish land grant.

Linden Plantation was built by James Moore as a four-room cottage on land he inherited from his father, Alexander Moore. Thomas A. Reed, one of the first U.S. Senators from Mississippi acquired the property in 1818 through his wife, Margaret Ross, who inherited it from her father, Isaac Ross. Thomas Reed changed the name to Reedland.

Dr. John Ker bought Reedland Plantation from Margaret Ross Reed after Thomas Reed’s death. Dr. Ker changed the name of the plantation to Linden naming it after the national tree of Germany, his family’s native country and it has been known by this name ever since.

Mrs. Jane Gustine Conner, bought

26 FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022

Linden from Dr. Kerr in 1849.

During the Civil War, Mrs. Conner became known as the “Little War Mother,” as she sent seven sons and five sons-in-law to war fighting for the Confederacy. The present owner’s children make the sixth generation of Conner descendants to reside in the home.

Melrose

1 Melrose-Montebello Parkway • Built: 1842-1848 • Owned by the National Parks Service

M

elrose, one of the outstanding classic Greek Revival homes in Natchez, stands just more than a mile from the heart of the city on Melrose-Montebello Parkway.

Today it is the centerpiece of the Natchez National Historical Park, established by Congress in 1988 and dedicated in 1990.

Beautiful Melrose stands in a spacious park-like setting.

The grounds are open, free of charge from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. every day except Christmas, Thanks-giving and New Year’s. For more information contact the Natchez National Historical Park, 601446-5790, or 601-442-7047.

Melrose stands today virtually as it did more than 138 years ago when it was constructed from a design by builder Jacob Byers of Hagerstown, Md. The house was built in 1842-1848

by Mary Louisa and John T. McMurran. John T. McMurran came to Natchez in 1824 or 1825 and soon became the law partner of

Monmouth

John A Quitman, later governor of Mississippi, congressman and general.

Mary Louisa McMurran was the daughter of well- known Judge Edward Turner and Eliza Turner.

The McMurrans sold Mel-rose in 1865 to Elizabeth Davis, wife of Natchez attorney and planter George Malin Davis and moved to nearby Woodland, home of Mrs. McMurran’s parents. George Malin Davis, a graduate of Yale Law School, moved his family to Nat-

chez from Pennsylvania. Davis practiced law in Natchez with Judge S.J. Boyd. In addition to Melrose, the Davis family owned other Natchez mansions, Cherokee, Concord and Choctaw.

Davis and his wife, Elizabeth Shunk of Louisiana, had two children, Julia and Frances. Julia married Dr. Stephen Kelly of New York.

Their son, George Malin Davis Kelly, inherited Melrose in 1883. He and his wife, Ethel Moore Kelly, moved from New York and into

Melrose in 1910.

After Mrs. Kelly’s death in 1975, the property was purchased in 1976

by Mr. and Mrs. John S. Callon.

The Callons retained the integrity of the house and the grounds while continuing to perfect details of both to their original state.

The Grecian purity of the architectural setting contrasts sharply with the ornate Rococco Revival and Empire furniture, bronze chandeliers, gold-framed mirrors and heavy draperies.

Melrose is most remarkable for the preservation and maintenance of the house, outbuildings and grounds. Melrose’s details begin with Doric columns and delicate railings at the front entrance and continue inside with 36 sol- id cypress original doors, which, having been hand painted to look like white oak, are called “faux bois” or “false wood,” 10 Italian marble fireplaces, French zuber wallpaper made from wood blocks carved in 1843 and rare French gilt mirrors.

1358 John A. Quitman Blvd. • C. 1818

M

onmouth Historic Inn and Gardens reflects all that is charming about the South. With 26 acres of manicured gardens, the most prominent owner/occupant of this home was General John A. Quitman, who served as governor of Mississippi and in the U.S. Congress.

The home, which now operates as a historic inn, features beautiful original Quitman furnishings; 26 acres of manicured grounds and a world-class restaurant on the premises.

FALL PILGRIMAGE 2022 27

9/24 9/24 9/24 9/25 9/25 9/25 9/28 9/29 9/30 9/30 9/30 9/30 9/30 9/30 9/30 9/30 10/01 10/01 10/01 10/01 10/01 10/01 10/01 10/01 10/02 10/02 10/02 10/06 10/06 10/07 10/07

Calendar OF EVENTS

........................................................................... Fall Pilgrimage starts ........................................................................... Natchez Farmers Market ........................................................................... Improve Night @ Natchez Little Theatre ........................................................................... Sunday Funday Brunch @ Natchez Manor ........................................................................... Jazzy Brunch @ Kitchen Bistro & Piano Bar ........................................................................... Improve Night @ Natchez Little Theatre ........................................................................... Sip n’ Paint @ Locust Ally ........................................................................... Andy Whatley @ Locust Ally ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ Natchez Brewing Company ........................................................................... 4th Annual Biker Weekend on The Blu ........................................................................... Live at Five - Karma & The Killjoys @ The Bandstand ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ Smoot’s ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ Locust Ally ........................................................................... Barbiecore for a Cure @ The Carriage House ........................................................................... Haunted Night @ Natchez Little Theatre ........................................................................... Real Men Wear Pink Kicko Breakfast @ Hampton Inn & Suites ........................................................................... Monica’s Hope 8th Annual Cancer Walk @ Blu Park ........................................................................... 4th Annual Biker Weekend on The Blu ........................................................................... Oktoberfest @ Natchez Brewing Company ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ 100 Main ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ Locust Ally ........................................................................... First Saturday Market @ The MLK Triangle ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ Biscuits & Blues ........................................................................... Haunted Night @ Natchez Little Theatre ........................................................................... Sunday Funday Brunch @ Natchez Manor ........................................................................... Jazzy Brunch @ Kitchen Bistro & Piano Bar ........................................................................... Natchez Songwriter Sessions @ Locust Ally ........................................................................... Live at Five - Big Al & The Heavyweights @ The Bandstand Festival of Music - Rossini, Rampal, & Red Wine ........................................................................... Natchez @ The Carriage House & Soul Super Bowl (Kool & The Gang, Patti LaBelle, Ceelo ........................................................................... Blues Green) @ Blu Park ........................................................................... Mack Daddy @ Under The Hill Saloon

10/08 ........................................................................... Blues & Soul Super Bowl (Kool & The Gang, Patti LaBelle, Ceelo Green) @ Bluff Park

10/09 ........................................................................... Sunday Funday Brunch @ Natchez Manor 10/09 ........................................................................... Jazzy Brunch @ Kitchen Bistro & Piano Bar 10/13 ........................................................................... Live at Five - Chad Wesley @ The Bandstand

10/13 ........................................................................... Modern Mimes & Reign of Z: Down and Dead Tour @ Locust Ally 10/14 ........................................................................... Merry Market @ The Natchez Convention Center 10/14 ........................................................................... Natchez Balloon Festival @ Rosalie 10/15 ........................................................................... Fitness on the Bluff @ Bluff Park 10/15 ........................................................................... Merry Market @ The Natchez Convention Center 10/15 ........................................................................... Natchez Balloon Festival @ Rosalie 10/16 ........................................................................... Sunday Funday Baruch @ Natchez Manor 10/16 ........................................................................... Jazzy Brunch @ Kitchen Bistro & Piano Bar

10/16 ........................................................................... Natchez Balloon Festival @ Rosalie

10/21 ........................................................................... Live at Five - Black Cabbage @ The Bandstand 10/21 ........................................................................... Fall Pilgrimage ends

Parting Shot

BEN HILLYER | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT The sun sets with brilliant flare across the Mississippi River at Natchez. The stunning sunsets and sweeping views of the river are part of the allure for both residents and visitors to Natchez.

a s ’ c Most Afor i r e m A n I e r dable o M y City o j n E .

Bring A Big Suitcase! ( You just may not want to leave. )

Set against a centuries-old backdrop of storied history, “The Little Easy” has always captured the hearts of visitors.

Today, while embracing the uniqueness and diversity—of our past and present—we march toward a bright future. New Businesses and Jobs. Hot Real Estate.

Investment in Parks, Healthcare, and Infrastructure. Workforce Training. New Cruise Line docks. A blooming Movie industry. Year-round Festivals.

And a Social Calendar that never sleeps. So whether it’s a short trip or a permanent stay, we’re ready to welcome you to Natchez!

Make the

Dan M.Gibson Mayor of Natchez

“The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit” - Smithsonian Magazine • “The South’s Best Small Towns 2022” - Southern Living • “10 Best Christmas Towns in America” - Fox News “27 Best Fall Festivals to Experience Across the U.S.” - PureWow • “50 Underrated U.S. Cities for Your Must-Visit List” - MSN • “10 Best Historic Small Towns” - USA Today

SMART MOVE! National Public Radio • 2022