In last week’s series, “Cataloguing HABS in Mississippi,” Virginia Price introduced us to the Historic American Buildings Survey, begun in the 1930s, and explained how the federal program worked in Mississippi. Architect A. Hays Town, later known for his creative interpretations of colonial and creole residential architectural, cut his teeth on Greek Revival while serving as the District Officer for Mississippi, overseeing a group of younger architects in the measuring and drawing of antebellum mansions.
We’ll start off our HABS series with a familiar face, Rosalie in Natchez. With only light editorial comments, each post in the series will be present the photos, drawings, and notes available for a particular building in the HABS collection at the Library of Congress. The LOC collection is amazing, but I think it’s not as easy to navigate as a post dedicated to one building at a time. Not all of the information in the notes from this period is accurate, but they provide a valuable record of the earliest attempts at architectural research in Mississippi and help us realize that our understanding of these properties has grown dramatically over time as new sources of information have become available. At the bottom of each post, I’ll have links to the HABS record on the Library of Congress site where the “original” digitized images reside, and to the MDAH Historic Resources Database record for the property, where updated information can usually be found.
NORTH ELEVATION – Rosalie, 100 Orleans Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. Ralph Clynne, Photographer, March 29, 1934.
SOUTH ELEVATION – Rosalie, 100 Orleans Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. Ralph Clynne, Photographer, March 29, 1934.(Note: This negative has been flipped in the digitized series at LOC.)
SOUTH ELEVATION – Rosalie, 100 Orleans Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. Ralph Clynne, Photographer, March 29, 1934.
See HABS Data Page to read more.
Construction Date: 1823
HABS Survey number: HABS MS-17-1
See also:
- HABS webpage
- Mississippi Historic Resources Database
- Cataloguing HABS in Mississippi
Categories: Antebellum, Architectural Research, Historic American Building Survey (HABS), Natchez
Preservation in Mississippi 
I wasn’t aware of the typed data pages. I see some, like Rosalie, are more detailed than others.
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Yes, Rosalie’s data set is the gold standard relative to the rest of the Mississippi HABS documentation from the 1930s. Those few that do have typed data sheets are often limited to address, current property owner, and other such limited information.
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How interesting and we, the Mississippi Daughters of American Revolution, are now the proud owners. Aren’t we fortunate!!!!
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