Intersection of Jefferson and North Pearl streets

Intersection of Jefferson and North Pearl streets. Natchez Trails. John Smith, a partner in the contracting firm of Neibert and Gemmell, built this brick cottage in 1838. The John Smith House is named for two owners with this same common name. In this 1866 photograph, evergreen trees obscure the front of the house. The landscape of the house also once featured symmetrical gardens bordered by upturned ceramic ale bottles, which were replaced by bricks when the antique bottles became a target for thieves. In 1976, a tour bus plowed through the side wall of the house, a dramatic image of the impact of heritage tourism! , Contractor Peter Gemmell built this wood cottage about 1837. The trees with painted trunks in the photograph are chinaberry trees, the universal street tree of Natchez in the 1800s. The estate papers of Gemmell and partner Joseph Neibert provide important details about Natchez buildings and the building trades in the 1830s. Both men died in 1837. , The Prentiss Club (behind you) was home to a men's social and literary group. Built in 1904, it was named for Seargent S. Prentiss, a respected lawyer and member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in the 1830s. Club members were the leading white businessmen, half of whom were Jewish. The facility featured multiple meeting and card rooms, billiard room, ballroom, shooting gallery, bowling alley, and one of the first swimming pools in Natchez.