Intersection of Washington and South Martin Luther King streets

Intersection of Washington and South Martin Luther King streets. Natchez Trails. , An 1866 photograph shows that the porch on the house at 705 Washington Street (behind you) was a later addition. Those who built houses without porches often soon added them. Travel writer Joseph Holt Ingraham noted in 1835 that the area's hot climate made“galleries, as they are termed here ... as necessary to every house in this country as fire-places to a northern dwelling."

T. K. Wharton, an English architect, drew this pencil sketch of The Elms in 1859. Merchant John Henderson built the earliest section of The Elms in 1804. In the late 1850s, David Stanton enlarged and remodeled the house to create its unique, rambling appearance. He also added a curving cast-iron staircase in the entry hall.

The Joseph Stone House was created by the enlargement of the existing original billiard hall of The Elms. The wealthy Natchez upper class could afford to dedicate time and space to leisure activities, and billiards was a popular sport before the Civil War. Some grand homes had special rooms for billiards, while others, like The Elms, had separate buildings identifies as“ten- pin" or bowling alleys.

Several generations of the Carpenter family made large donations for the welfare of the Natchez community. They funded two public schools for white children (Carpenter I on North Union Street, pictured above, and Carpenter II) and Prince Street for black children. Built in 1913, Carpenter II had an indoor swimming pool and a combination gymnasium and auditorium surrounded by a raised running track. It won an award from the American School Board as a model public school building, and now serves as a community senior center.