Well, it took us a while, but here at MissPres, we’ve been working busily behind the scenes to move to the next level in our quest to create a list of 101 Mississippi Places You Should See Before You Die. As you may recall, back in December, MissPresers submitted their suggestions, and while I was worried when I first asked the question that we might not even reach 101, when the suggestion period ended in late December, we had almost 300 places for our list. (As a handy 24/7 reference to the full list, I’ve created a tab for “101 Places” on the top line of the blog.)

That means we have to whittle the list down to its essence, and to do that we’ve created a series of polls, broken down by region. We figured why not start with the Natchez/Woodville/Port Gibson region?

Below, you’ll find the basic list of suggested places in the Natchez region, 37 in all.  Thanks goes to W. White, who has done yeoman’s work in putting together summaries of almost all of these places. These summaries–along with (often) a picture and links to other websites–are easily available simply by clicking the name of the property below. Even if you think you know everything you need to know about these places, I recommend W.’s summaries for their distillation of the history and significance of each property. I can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to produce this level of detail for every region–Natchez has a good amount of material available for summarizing–but this is a start.

Below the basic list is the actual poll. You can choose up to 18 properties in the poll, and choose carefully–Polldaddy gives your computer a cookie (chocolate chip–yummy!) and won’t let you vote again (at least from the same computer). Just because you can only vote for 18 doesn’t mean that the final list will contain 18 properties from the Natchez area. The point here is to narrow down the final list to 101, so even though all of these are worthy of attention, we have to force ourselves to cull. Depending on how this and the other region go, we may end up with a run-off for those properties which are on the edge of being included on the final list.

You are, of course, free to choose by whatever criteria you wish. As for me, I’m choosing with the thought that these are places I would take an educated friend–native Mississippian or not–who’s interested in history but hasn’t really seen much of Mississippi. For me, the properties I vote for are 1) somewhat accessible to the general public, even if only during Pilgrimage, 2) tell an interesting story that sheds light on the character of Mississippi and 3) display fine craftsmanship, design, and make you say “wow!”

I should note that I am not a statistician, nor have I ever played one on TV. More than once over the last few weeks, I’ve wished that I had taken statistics, which for history majors was considered a foreign language credit, rather than German.

I apologize in advance for the extreme spacing in the poll that makes it longer than it should be. I have torn all my hair out trying to fix it, and nothing has worked.

If you know someone from Natchez, make sure to share this poll with them so we can get a good sample. This poll will be open for two weeks, at which time we’ll move on to another region.

Alright, time to vote!

ADAMS COUNTY

• Auburn, Natchez – (1812, c. 1830) (National Historic Landmark)
• Cherokee, Natchez – (c. 1810, c. 1830)
• Choctaw, Natchez – (1836)
• Commercial Bank, Natchez – (1838) (National Historic Landmark)
• D’Evereux, Natchez – (c. 1835-1840) (National Register)
• Dunleith, Natchez – (1856-57) (National Historic Landmark)
• Forks of the Road slave market site, Natchez – (1833)
• Glen Auburn, Natchez – (1875)
• Gloucester, Natchez – (1803, 1807, c. 1830) (National Register)
• Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, Natchez – (c. 1200, c. 1450, 1700-30) (National Historic Landmark)
• Longwood, Natchez – (1860-62) (National Historic Landmark)
• Melrose, Natchez – (1841) (National Historic Landmark)
• Prentiss Club, Natchez – (1905) (National Register)
• Richmond, Natchez – (1784, c. 1800-10, 1832, 1860) (National Register)
• Rosalie, Natchez – (1822-23, 1850s) (National Historic Landmark)
• St. Mary’s Basilica (exterior and interior), Natchez – (1842-86, with later alterations)
• Stanton Hall, Natchez – (1857-58) (National Historic Landmark)
• Texada, Natchez – (1793-1805) (National Register)
• William Johnson House, Natchez – (1840-41) (National Register)
• Emerald Mound, Adams County – (c. 1250-1600) (National Historic Landmark)
• Jefferson College, Washington, Adams County – (1817-19, 1837-39, with later alterations) (National Register)
• Mammy’s Cupboard, south of Natchez – (1940)
• St. Mary’s Chapel at Laurel Hill Plantation, near Natchez – (1837-39) (National Register)

CLAIBORNE COUNTY

• Bethel Presbyterian Church – (1828-30) (National Register)
• Gemiluth Chessed Synagogue, Port Gibson – (1892)
• First Presbyterian Church, Port Gibson
• Oakland Chapel, Alcorn State University, Lorman – (1838-1850) (National Historic Landmark)
• Rocky Springs Methodist Church – (1837)
• Windsor Ruins – (1859-61) (National Register)

JEFFERSON COUNTY

• Christ Church, Episcopal, Church Hill – (1857-58) (National Register)
• Rodney Presbyterian Church, Jefferson County – (c. 1832) (National Register)
• Rodney Baptist Church, Jefferson County – (c. 1850)
• Poplar Hill School, Fayette vicinity – (c. 1923) (National Register)

WILKINSON COUNTY

• Branch Banking House (currently the African American Museum), Woodville – (1818-19, later alterations) (National Register)
• West Feliciana Railroad Office/Bank, Woodville – (1834) (National Register)
• Wilkinson County Courthouse, Woodville – (1903-04, 1973)
• Hampton Hall, near Woodville – (c. 1825-32) (National Register)
• Rosemont, near Woodville – (1810) (National Register)

Categories: 101 MissPres Places, Contest, Historic Preservation