St. Catherine Street and Fourth Street
Natchez Trails
Seamstress Laura Davis made the lavish dress and train worn by Cassell Carpenter when she was Pilgrimage Garden Club Queen in 1966.
Carpenter posed in the parlor of her home Dunleith for local photographer Mabel Lane, the city's most popular photographer from the late 1940s through the 1980s.
After her reign Carpenter became a Civil Rights activist and a target of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a state-funded spy agency whose purpose was to preserve racial segregation.
Laura Davis and husband Joe, a blacksmith, lived at 80 St. Catherine Street. She was one of the city's most accomplished clothing designers and seamstresses in the 20th century. She created outstanding wedding dresses and historic costumes for the Spring Pilgrimage tour of houses for families who could have afforded New York couture.
Photographer Mabel Lane created this hand- tinted portrait of Laura Davis at the request of Davis's clients who presented Davis with the portrait and an album of her creations.
The picture on the right shows two brick houses built by Henry Frassle that stood east of the Piggly Wiggly No. 2. Note the St. Catherine Street
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The Mississippi Power and Light Company stood on the hill across from the Fourth Street intersection. A 1946 Sanborn map (far left) provides a footprint of the plant, which evolved from the Natchez Light, Power, and Traction Company in 1901 and the Southern Railway and Light Company in 1910.
An Illinois Central Railroad turntable once stood just to the east of the power plant and is mapped on the 1947 Sanborn Insurance Map (right).
Henry Frassle (below) immigrated to Natchez from Baden, Germany in the late 1800s. He opened a store (above and below) on the corner of St. Catherine and Fourth streets that he later operated as the Piggly Wiggly No. 2 in the 1920s.
Frassle lived behind the store in a house at 3 Fourth Street, now incorporated into Bernie Pyron's furniture complex.
The picture on the right shows two brick houses built by Henry Frassle that stood east of the Piggly Wiggly No. 2. Note the St. Catherine Street trolley tracks that ran to the Forks of the Road.
Bernie Pyron opened his furniture store at Fourth and St. Catherine streets on September 10, 1963.
Erected by City of Natchez.
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Roads & Vehicles • Settlements & Settlers
Location. 31° 33.48′ N, 91° 23.638′ W. Marker is in Natchez, Mississippi, in Adams County. Marker is on St. Catherine Street near Fourth Street, on the left when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 68 St Catherine St, Natchez MS 39120, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. The Barlands - A Study in Black and White (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); African American Public Education (about 500 feet away); The Stallone Family (about 600 feet away); Davis-Miller-Dumas House - 69 St. Catherine Street (about 600 feet away); Louis J. Winston - St. Catherine Entrepreneur (about 600 feet away); Natchez Civil Rights and Old D'Evereux Street (about 600 feet away); Good Neighbors - Alexanders and Gonnellinis (about 600 feet away); John R. Lynch - St. Catherine Street Land Speculator (about 600 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Natchez.
More about this marker. A relative of the person identified as Cassell Carpenter on this historical marker, her half-sister and herself a Carpenter, wrote to the Historical Marker Database on January 5, 2019, to say that the person here identified as Cassell Carpenter is in fact named Cassell Cain Gross. She was born Cassell Cain. —Ed.
Credits. This page was last revised on January 10, 2019. It was originally submitted on April 5, 2018, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana. This page has been viewed 371 times since then and 70 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on April 5, 2018.
