Thursday’s first post was the day’s difficult one but after an hour the Iuka/Mineral Springs Hotel was identified by Carunzel, with Suzassippi, ed polk douglas, Belinda2015, and Thomas Rosell receiving one point each for their contributions. The second building to be identified was Issaquena County Courthouse in Mayersville, easily done so by Carunzel for two points with one point for ed polk douglas for identifying the architectural style, one point generously awarded to Beauregard Rippy for identifying (kind-of) when the photograph was taken, and one point for Thomas Rosell for talking about its replacement; surprisingly, considering it was a courthouse, no one else was able to submit any other history about it. Carunzel (are you starting to notice a pattern here?) correctly answered the third post, First Baptist Church in Greenwood; Victoria M Conway, Belinda2015, ed polk douglas, Thomas Rosell, and Mason each received a point. The final building was the Spratt-Herndon (Barrett) House in Aberdeen, the fourth post of the day identified by Carunzel with the final points of the day going to ed polk douglas, Belinda2015, and Thomas Rosell.
Current Standings:
ed polk douglas: 13 points
Carunzel: 11 points
Thomas Rosell: 11 points
Victoria M Conway: 8 points
Belinda2015: 6 points
ELMalvaney: 3 points
sec040121: 3 points
Suzassippi: 3 points
jackdelliottjr: 2 points
Tom Little: 2 points
An Ordinary Person in New Haven: 2 points
donnaballard: 2 points
Helen Ellis: 1 point
lisahowellphotography: 1 point
Lynn Catlette Madden: 1 point
Pibbb: 1 point
Photograham: 1 point
Mississippian in Exile: 1 point
C: 1 point
Beauregard Rippy: 1 point
Mason: 1 point
Today is the final day of Name This Place XII. There will be four posts today. If one of you answers all four of them first, like Carunzel did yesterday, and provides additional information about them, you would receive 8 points, which means that, although it is largely a three-horse race, ed polk douglas, Carunzel, and Thomas Rosell’s positions atop the standings are not carved in stone and anyone could certainly play spoiler. Read The Rules (and follow them), and be the first to Name This Place.
The first photo of this last day:
Categories: Contest
Preservation in Mississippi 
This is the Charles DeFrance tavern in Washington, a.k.a. Assembly Hall. About the time that MDAH was set to purchase it, it burned down in a fire arising from a vagrant who was occupying it.
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Two points. I was wondering whether this was going to stump people or whether a longtime preservationist was going to chime in with the answer.
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I have to confess to some degree of familiarity with this building. With the aid of Jim Barnett, I drew a measured floor plan of both floors and conducted a limited archaeological investigation on the grounds, i.e. we dug a few square holes. If I remember correctly the plan drawings appeared in the field guide to the Vernacular Architecture Forum which met in Natchez in 1993 as the result of the instigation and leadership of the ever able Belinda Stewart with Mimi Miller as a co-author.
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To qualify the term, “Assembly Hall” refers to the building having at one time housed a meeting of the Mississippi Territorial Assembly. The property is now owned by MDAH.
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You people are awesome!
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Believed to be the meeting place of the legislative body of the Mississippi Territory (1798-1817), Assembly Hall served in that capacity from the time of its construction c.1808 until 1811. The building burned to the ground in 1993.
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morning, friends— my pc s very sick them morning from its overuse this week on the quiz–I have just spend almost an hour trying to get it ‘back in working order’— and, while it’s sort-of working, it’s not quite the same—still need a lot of help— have was formerly using chrome ‘to start’ and now can’t find it–have gone back to ‘explorer’—- so, just limping!
wouldn’t have guessed correctly on this image anyway, though I must have seen this building on my childhood trips to natchez area–since, from hburg, one always passed through Washington, etc–
vernacular federal could be the style designation, though this building was pretty simple–just a box with openings— and similar to buildings built all over the east and southeast at the time—
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The building was probably constructed by Ebenezer Rees shortly after 1801 when he purchased the lots on which it sat. It was later sold to Charles DeFrance who apparently rented it to the legislature from 1808 through 1811. During the second and third decades of the century, Richard Fletcher operated it as a tavern.
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Also known as Serio House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated a Mississippi Landmark on March 21, 1995.
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Another point for you. You have kept up with ed polk douglas so far today, but are still two points back.
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Also known as Richard Fletcher’s Tavern when Fletcher owned the building between 1815-1823. During this period the porch rooms were added to the facade to enlarge the tavern. Mr. Fletcher died in 1823.
There is some HABS documentation of the structure https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ms0276.photos?st=gallery
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