GENERAL VIEW (NORTHEAST) – Lawyers’ Row, State & Wall Streets, Natchez, Adams County, MS. James Butters, Photographer, HABS. April 14, 1936.
COURTYARD – Lawyers’ Row, State & Wall Streets, Natchez, Adams County, MS. Lester Jones, Photographer, HABS. Feburary 21, 1940.
LOOKING NORTHWEST FROM LAWYER’S ROW COURTYARD – Lawyers’ Row, State & Wall Streets, Natchez, Adams County, MS. Lester Jones, Photographer, February 21, 1940.
View of this intersection today:
HABS Survey number: HABS MS-10
See also:
- http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ms0002/
- Mississippi Historic Resources Database: “This was a long, low, hip-roofed, stuccoed brick building containing a row of offices, each opening to the street.”
Categories: Antebellum, Architectural Research, Lost Mississippi, Natchez
Preservation in Mississippi 
I wonder when Lawyer’s Row was demolished and its doppelganger constructed? The MDAH HRI has no further information on the Row. Its loss, and the construction of the Adams County Law Building, really change the character of that intersection.
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I was puzzling over that myself last night, but your comment made me look at the National Register district for that area. The office building currently there is in the Natchez-On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District, and that nomination gives a construction date of c.1955. http://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/public/prop.aspx?id=621&view=facts
So, it looks like the lawyers had fled by the early 1950s.
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Please tell me you remember my first cousin, three times removed, Miss Charlie Compton, who in 1924 pled with the mayor and aldermen of Natchez to save the historic Lawyers’ Row, old jail and I believe the old city hall. All her pleas failed. Destruction plans were scheduled but Miss Charlie didn’t give up. She stood defiantly in front of Lawyers’ Row for days, daring the workmen to move her aside! Known as the first preservationist in Natchez, an award is given annually in her honor for the best preservation in Natchez by the Historic Natchez Foundation.
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By the way, I meant to add that there is an old photo by Earl Norman showing Miss Charlie standing defiantly in front of Lawyers’ Row. I believe the Gandys, Joan and Dr. Thomas of Natchez who bought the Norman glass negatives, published the photo of Miss Charlie in one of their several books – maybe “Natchez Revisted”?
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Thank you for pointing this out and reminding me of Miss Compton. I have “Natchez: City Streets Revisited” part of the Images of America series by Arcadia Press. On page 102 is a photograph of Lawyers’ Row. Norman’s photograph is earlier than the HABS photograph, as there are dirt streets. Miss Compton is not in that photograph; the photograph you mention must be another book that is not in my library. However, page 85 has Norman’s 1924 photograph of the City Market/Hall/Jail, with Compton standing among the demolition. The City Market was a big loss for Natchez; it is unfortunate that Compton’s protests were not listened to (which I could say about every historic building demolition protest).
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