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HABS in Mississippi: Hope Farm, Natchez

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According to the MDAH Historic Resources Database:

“Hope Farm is thought to have been constructed in the late 18th century, making it one of the oldest buildings remaining in the state. It is believed that the house was constructed by Don Carlos de Grand Pre, the Spanish Commandant of the Natchez District. Through nearly two centuries of remodellings by subsequent owners, Hope Farm has retained its general character as a structure of the Spanish Provincial period in Mississippi. In the 20th century, the house was owned by Mr. and Mrs. J. Balfour Miller. Mrs. Miller was the well-known founder of the annual Natchez Pilgrimage.”

FRONT VIEW (WEST ELEVATION) - Hope Farm (Villa), Auburn Avenue & Homochitto Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer, April 8, 1936

FRONT VIEW (WEST ELEVATION) – Hope Farm (Villa), Auburn Avenue & Homochitto Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer, April 8, 1936

GENERAL REAR VIEW (SOUTHWEST ELEVATION) - Hope Farm (Villa), Auburn Avenue & Homochitto Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer April 8, 1936.

GENERAL REAR VIEW (SOUTHWEST ELEVATION) – Hope Farm (Villa), Auburn Avenue & Homochitto Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer April 8, 1936.

FRONT VIEW REAR WING (NORTH ELEVATION) - Hope Farm (Villa), Auburn Avenue & Homochitto Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer April 8, 1936.

FRONT VIEW REAR WING (NORTH ELEVATION) – Hope Farm (Villa), Auburn Avenue & Homochitto Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer April 8, 1936.

Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”
Hope Villa Farm. Measured 1936, Drawn 1936. Signed Emmett J. Hull, HABS District Officer. “Field Party Not Recorded”

HopeFarmData-1 HopeFarmData-2

HABS Survey Number: HABS MS-46

Hope Farm still stands at the intersection of Homochitto St. and Duncan Ave. and is just up the street from Auburn.

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Categories: Antebellum, Architectural Research, Historic American Building Survey (HABS), Natchez

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3 replies

  1. Tom Howorth
    June 3, 2016 • 12:04 pm

    This is a fascinating house. I see there is an ell in the photos not shown on the drawings. Were the two parts of the original house (as shown in the drawings) built separately? The rear photo shows a vertical joint at the breezeway separation marking different siding patterns, and the columns, doors, and upstairs mantles are different.

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  2. ELMalvaney
    June 3, 2016 • 8:28 pm

    The drawings only show the el, not the front one-story section. However, I don’t see the vertical joint in the drawings that clearly shows in the photos.

    I’m sure more research has been done on this house since the 1975 National Register nomination, but it has this to say about the rear el:

    “Like the main portion of Hope Farm, the two-story rear wing which extends eastward from the south end of the house bears evidence of having been constructed in two sections. The one-room-deep frame structure, its full-length galleries supported by chamfered column is divided into two obvious segments at the first floor level by an open passage separating the westernmost room from the two-room length of the east section. The level of the first floor of the west portion is higher than that of the east section, the roof is hipped on
    the west end and gabled on the east, the weatherboarding of the west section does not match that of the east section, and the plans of the two wing segments differ substantially. The brick floor and large open fireplace in the easternmost room on the first floor indicate its probable use as a kitchen at one time. The single window in this room is glazed in a twelve-over-twelve pattern which may have originally been used
    throughout the east portion of the wing structure, indicating that it may predate the west section,

    “As a whole, the two-story wing at Hope Farm has traditionally been thought to antedate
    what is now the main portion of the house, but its character and detail (most embellishments
    apparently dating from the early Greek Revival period of the 1820s and 1830s)
    do not unequivocally support this contention.

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  3. Princella Nowell
    June 24, 2016 • 9:29 am

    For almost 90 years the Montgomery family lived at Hope farm.
    A humorous story I’ve heard was that many in Natchez thought Mrs. Miller cheated the Montgomery sister’s out of their home with a trade to a smaller home. Natchez friends were so upset they came under cover of night and pulled up all the azaleas.
    I, Princella W. Nowell, and Daye Dearing, of Natchez, are Montgomery descendants.

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