1 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — 156-166 St. Catherine Street — Natchez Trails —

The 1928 Natchez City Directory lists Italian immigrant Sam Anzalone as operating a grocery store at 158-160 St. Catherine Street where he sold gasoline for 21 cents a gallon. Many of the late- nineteenth-century Italian immigrants farmed and sold . . . — — Map (db m114509) HM

2 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — 20-30 St. Catherine Street and Eduation — Natchez Trails —

. Eliza Smith, an antebellum "free woman of color," purchased property on St. Catherine Street in the 1850s. Her daughters and their families built new houses on the property in the 1880s.28 St. Catherine Street (above) was the ca. 1885 home of . . . — — Map (db m108276) HM

3 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — 300 Block of Martin Luther King Street — formerly North Pine Street — Natchez Trails —

300 North Martin Luther King Street (above) is home to the city's oldest funeral business.Robert D. Mackel (below) opened Bluff City Undertaking in 1898 at the corner of Jefferson and North Rankin Streets. About 1911 he relocated the business to . . . — — Map (db m108600) HM

4 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — African American Public Education — Natchez Trails —

The Union School (above) was the first public school built by the City of Natchez for African American students. Built in 1871 by contractor P. E. Willman, the Union School was a grand brick edifice which stood at the southeast corner of North . . . — — Map (db m115615) HM

5 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Bluff Park - Memorials and Louisiana Connections — Natchez Trails —

The Richard Wright historic marker recognizes the city’s most famous 20th-century writer. Born in 1908 on a cotton plantation near Natchez, Wright spent his early childhood in town in the home of his grandparents at 20 East Woodlawn . . . — — Map (db m87176) HM

6 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Bluff Park - Playground for the City — Natchez Trails —

When the Spanish laid out the town of Natchez about 1790, they set aside land on the bluff for use as a public park. In 1839, after the city had sold off most of the park and built Broadway Street, writer Joseph Holt Ingraham complained . . . — — Map (db m87177) HM

7 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Bluff Park and North Broadway Street — Natchez Trails —

The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad built the passenger station on the bluff shortly after 1910, and the Illinois Central Railroad was the last railroad to own it. Like many smal towns across America, Natchez lost passenger . . . — — Map (db m118303) HM

8 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Bluff Park and South Broadway Street — Natchez Trails —

Bontura, built in 1851, was the home of Robert Smith, a free African American who ran the city’s most successful carriage business in the 1850s. The house stands at the head of Silver Street, which leads to Natchez Under-the-Hill. Smith . . . — — Map (db m87179) HM

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9 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Churches in the St. Catherine Street Neighborhood — Natchez Trails —

The original appearance of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church is visible in a ca. 1930 historic photograph. The church featured corner towers crowned with domes.Mt. Sinai organized in 1913 and built the church soon afterwards. Like most historic African . . . — — Map (db m108636) HM

10 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Davis-Miller-Dumas House - 69 St. Catherine Street — Natchez Trails —

Henry Dumas poses on the front steps of 69 St. Catherine Street. Henry managed the Dumas Pharmacy at 707-09 Franklin Street, a building that also housed the medical practice and sanitarium of his brother Dr. Albert W. Dumas, Sr. In 1940 Dr. Dumas . . . — — Map (db m115637) HM

11 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Dr. John Banks House - 9 St. Catherine Street — Natchez Trails —

The Dr. John Banks House was built in the Queen Anne style about 1890 and was slightly remodeled in the Colonial Style after about 1905. Frank Robinson, grandson of Dr. John Banks, retired part time to Natchez and restored the house in the . . . — — Map (db m106297) HM

12 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Good Neighbors - Alexanders and Gonnellinis — Natchez Trails —

Louis and Anna Alexander resided in the craftsman style cottage (above) at 17 St. Catherine Street.Until his death in the late 1940s, Louis Alexander worked at the historic mansion Melrose for George and Ethel Kelly. He died during a trip to . . . — — Map (db m115953) HM

13 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — History of St. Catherine Street — Natchez Trails —

Pre-Civil War St. Catherine Street The road, for the first mile, after leaving town, passed through a charming country, seen at intervals, and between long lines of unpainted, wretched looking dwellings, occupied as 'groggeries' by free . . . — — Map (db m106918) HM

14 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Holy Family Church and School — Natchez Trails —

In 1889 Bishop Thomas Heslin started the first parish for Roman Catholic African Americans in Mississippi. He first oversaw construction of a small frame church (above left) on Beaumont Street and brought Father A.N.J. Peters to Natchez to become . . . — — Map (db m104502) HM

15 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Hospital Hill Neighborhood — Natchez Trails —

The portion of St. Catherine Street that extends from the site of the Rhythm Night Club to D'Evereux Street was originally part of the property of the city's first public hospital (above).The hospital fronted St. Catherine and stood on a hill on . . . — — Map (db m108586) HM

16 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of High and North Pearl streets — Natchez Trails —

Myrtle Terrace (behind you) was the home of steamboat captain Thomas P. Leathers, who commanded the steamboat Natchez in a race with the Robert E. Lee in 1870. An internationally known riverboat pilot, Leathers worked for . . . — — Map (db m127107) HM

17 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of High and North Rankin streets — Natchez Trails —

This 1866 view of High Street shows two houses, but one is no longer standing. The surviving house in the foreground has porches with the kind of sawn wooden railing that is called “gingerbread,” because it looks like the . . . — — Map (db m127099) HM

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18 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of High and North Wall Streets — Natchez Trails —

Joseph Neibert built Choctaw in 1836 as his mansion townhouse. Neibert was a cotton planter. In the 1830s he and his partner Peter Gemmel, operated the city's most successful building firm, which employed both white and enslaved . . . — — Map (db m104476) HM

19 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — 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 . . . — — Map (db m127078) HM

20 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Jefferson and North Rankin streets — Natchez Trails —

Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church was built in 1858 as the Second Presbyterian Church, a mission of First Presbyterian Church. Zion Chapel acquired the building in 1866, when Hiram R. Revels served as pastor. The . . . — — Map (db m127093) HM

21 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Jefferson and North Union streets — Natchez Trails —

Ethel Clagett and Mabel Porter were among the first women in America to own a car dealership that was not inherited from a male spouse or relative. They opened their dealership in 1914 on Main Street and moved to a larger new facility on . . . — — Map (db m108610) HM

22 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Main and Canal Streets — Natchez Trails —

The Protection Steam Fire Company No. 3 built a grand firehouse in 1902 at the corner of Main and Canal streets (no longer standing). During the 1800s and early 1900s, volunteers provided fire protection in Natchez as in most American . . . — — Map (db m127086) HM

23 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Main and North Pearl streets — Natchez Trails —

The 1927 Eola Hotel is the tallest building in downtown Natchez. Named for Eola Levy, the daughter of developer Isadore Levy, it became a center for social activity for the city. Celebrities who visited the hotel in the mid-1900s . . . — — Map (db m114303) HM

24 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Main and South Commerce streets — Natchez Trails —

The Natchez Institute, built in 1901, replaced an 1845 school building. The Natchez Institute was the first public school in Mississippi to offer a full course of free education for white children. The first public school . . . — — Map (db m127142) HM

25 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Main and South Union Streets — Natchez Trails —

An 1890 view of Memorial Park shows the Confederate soldier monument draped for unveiling. Like many others across the south, it faces north towards the opposing army.The park's creation was part of the Lost Cause Movement that expressed . . . — — Map (db m104480) HM

26 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Main and Wall streets — Natchez Trails —

The Old Natchez Post Office was built in 1904 on the site of William Johnson's Main Street barbershop. Before his 1851 death, Johnson also owned two other barbershops in town. He used both freed and enslaved black workers who served only . . . — — Map (db m127074) HM

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27 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of North Canal and Jefferson streets — Natchez Trails —

On this hill, Andrew Ellicott raised the American flag in 1797. This act claimed the Natchez Territory for the United States and helped hasten the departure of the Spanish. A few years later, James Moore built a home on the site, known today as the . . . — — Map (db m114446) HM

28 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of North Pearl and Franklin streets — Natchez Trails —

The dramatic looking Natchez Hotel (no longer standing) was built in 1891. Within a few years, parts of the building began to disappear in stages. The tent-like dome went first in a storm, and a 1926 fire destroyed most of the structure. . . . — — Map (db m127090) HM

29 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of North Union and Franklin streets —

In the 1800s, Franklin Street was headquarters for plantation supply houses, and the street was filled with wagons. Main Street merchants offered house wares and dry goods, and it attracted more carriages. Many of the downtown . . . — — Map (db m199493) HM

30 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of South Broadway and Washington streets — Natchez Trails —

Edelweiss is a Swiss Chalet-style building which dates to 1883. The house offered both a great view of the Mississippi River and a convenient location for the family of its first owner, Joseph O'Brien, a coal-dealer at Natchez . . . — — Map (db m108807) HM

31 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of State and South Canal streets — Natchez Trails —

William Johnson, a freed person of color, was a barber, entrepreneur, and slave owner. He built this house in 1841 using materials salvaged after the 1840 tornado that damaged much of downtown. His diary details its construction and . . . — — Map (db m115610) HM

32 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of State and South Pearl streets — Natchez Trails —

Institute Hall was built in 1852-1853 as a public auditorium and a companion building to the Natchez Institute. The contractors were the Weldon Brothers, who used over 100 enslaved craftsmen and whose head draftsman was a slave named . . . — — Map (db m115628) HM

33 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of State and South Wall streets — Natchez Trails —

The domed Federal-style Adams County Courthouse appears in Audubon's 1822-1823 painted landscape of Natchez. Built in 1817, this courthouse is the oldest in Mississippi. It was remodeled in 1925. Actions at the courthouse impacted all of . . . — — Map (db m114502) HM

34 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Washington and South Commerce streets — Natchez Trails —

The present Temple B'nai Israel, built in 1904, replaced an 1870s temple that burned (pictured above). Both reflect the success of Jewish merchants after the Civil War. Jews lived in Natchez as early as the late 1700s, but their numbers . . . — — Map (db m114299) HM

35 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — 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 . . . — — Map (db m115604) HM

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36 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Washington and South Pearl streets — Natchez Trails —

The two matching brick houses at the corner (behind you) date to 1901 and stand on the site of a brick chapel (no longer standing) built in 1849 by the First Presbyterian Church. The chapel held Wednesday evening prayer services, . . . — — Map (db m107249) HM

37 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Washington and South Rankin streets — Natchez Trails —

Gathered on the front steps of Green Leaves are the founders of the Natchez Garden Club, the women who started the local historic house tours in 1932. The vision of these women created the city's heritage tourism industry, today a major . . . — — Map (db m115605) HM

38 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Washington and South Union streets — Natchez Trails —

All four of the houses at this intersection were built before the Civil War, and three are associated with the family of Joseph Quegles, a Spaniard who settled in Natchez during the Spanish period (1779-1798).Four houses near the . . . — — Map (db m114301) HM

39 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Intersection of Washington and South Wall Streets — Natchez Trails —

Known as the Spanish Quarter in the early 1800s, this neighborhood is one of the oldest in Natchez. Each corner house dates to before the Civil War. A Spaniard, Manuel Texada, built the house called Texada . . . — — Map (db m127092) HM

40 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — John R. Lynch - St. Catherine Street Land Speculator — Natchez Trails —

John R. Lynch turned to writing in his later years and wrote the Facts of Reconstruction in 1913. He completed his autobiography Reminiscences of an Active Life when he was 90, two years before his death in 1939.Lynch invested . . . — — Map (db m115927) HM

41 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Louis J. Winston - St. Catherine Entrepreneur — Natchez Trails —

The photograph of the 1946 Brumfield High School Choral. Club, taken in the front yard of Brumfield, provides the best image of the Louis Winston House on the left. The house unfortunately burned in the 1990s. The house on the right, which still . . . — — Map (db m114661) HM

42 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Music on St. Catherine Street — Natchez Trails —

Alexander Lightfoot "Papa George" Papa George Lightfoot [1924-1971], he lived down the street from the alley I came up in, down on St. Catherine Street....He was a hustler, he had a snowball wagon, he sold peanuts. He would blow his harp . . . — — Map (db m108160) HM

43 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Natchez Bluffs and River Views — Natchez Trails —

The Harper family mansion had a spectacular view of the river from the bluff. The construction of the railroad and related development made its land valuable for commerce, and the house and its garden were destroyed to build a large warehouse (no . . . — — Map (db m104673) HM

44 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Natchez Civil Rights and Old D'Evereux Street — Natchez Trails —

The Deacons for Defense and Justice armed themselves in self-defense as a response to the attempted murder of local NAACP president George Metcalfe, whose car was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965. The first meeting of the Natchez Deacons was . . . — — Map (db m116326) HM

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45 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Natchez Civil Rights Movement - 1965 - Pivotal Year — Natchez Trails —

The National Guard patrolled St. Catherine Street on September 3, 1965, not long after the August 27 bombing that nearly killed George Metcalfe, president of the local chapter of the Natchez Association for the Advancement of Colored People . . . — — Map (db m115639) HM

46 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Natchez Under-the-Hill - Life on the Riverfront — Natchez Trails —

On May 8, 1840, one of the deadliest tornadoes in American history struck Natchez and killed about 300 people. Most of the dead were boatmen and passengers on steamboats docked at the waterfront. The city was already suffering from the economic . . . — — Map (db m143132) HM

47 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Natchez Under-the-Hill and the Steamboat Era — Natchez Trails —

For most of the 1800s, the prime mover of commerce and passengers on the Mississippi River was the steamboat, which was invented by Robert Fulton in 1807. The combination of the steamboat, the cotton gin, and improved strains of cotton . . . — — Map (db m143122) HM

48 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Silver Street and Natchez Under-the-Hill — Natchez Trails —

The Spanish built Silver Street about 1790 to connect the town to the riverfront below. In the 1800s, Natchez Under-the-Hill was a major port on the Mississippi River. Natchez exported and imported agricultural goods, with cotton being . . . — — Map (db m127108) HM

49 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Smart-Griffin-Angelety House - 180 St. Catherine Street —

Ida McGuire Gillespie (left) and Odille Angelety grew up across the street from each other on St. Catherine Street and were lifelong friends. Odille never married and had a long distinguished career as a teacher at nearby Brumfield High School. An . . . — — Map (db m114291) HM

50 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Snakes — Natchez Nature Trails —

Venomous Snakes of Adams County Venomous Snakes of Adams County Watch where you walk! Adams County is home to five species of venomous snakes: the Copperhead, Eastern Cottonmouth, Eastern Coral Snake, and the Canebrake and Pygmy Rattlesnakes. . . . — — Map (db m114651)

51 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — St. Catherine Street - John Nosser and Nosser City — Natchez Trails —

John J. Nosser, Mayor of Natchez from 1962 to 1968, was born in Lebanon in 1899 and immigrated to the United States in 1919. Mississippi welcomed a number of Lebanese immigrants who became some of the most successful businessmen in their . . . — — Map (db m114458) HM

52 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — 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 . . . — — Map (db m115935) HM

53 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — The Barlands - A Study in Black and White — Natchez Trails —

The will of William Barland, a wealthy planter and downtown property owner, disclosed an interesting domestic relationship that has long intrigued historians. Proven in 1816, the will legally acknowledged Barland's relationship with "friend and . . . — — Map (db m115928) HM

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54 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — The Stallone Family — Natchez Trails —

Pictured (left to right) are the Stallone sons, Hugo, Serviglio, Premo, and Meno. All of the sons worked on St. Catherine Street. Hugo operated a grocery store, where his brother Serviglio also worked. Premo opened a plumbing and electrical . . . — — Map (db m115624) HM

55 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Views of St. Catherine Street - Western End — Natchez Trails —

Photographer Earl Norman stood on Jefferson Street and snapped this view of the intersection of St. Catherine, Martin Luther King and Jefferson streets.A single column of the portico of Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church appears on the far right. Holy . . . — — Map (db m108599) HM

56 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Voss Family and A-B Motor Company — The Natchez Trails —

Axel Voss spoke little English when he emigrated in 1925 from Copenhagen, Denmark. He worked as a mechanic for Chris Anderson and John T. Belt, who founded A-B Motor Company in a backyard garage at 114 St. Catherine. The first Voss business venture . . . — — Map (db m103882) HM

57 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Wheaton-McGuire House - 125 St. Catherine Street — Natchez Trails —

Lettie Stanton, most likely born into slavery and possibly at Brandon Hall, had a stable relationship with cotton planter William Page, who never married anyone else and fathered her two daughters, heirs to the Page estate.Margaret Page, daughter of . . . — — Map (db m114292) HM

58 ► Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez — Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church — Natchez Trails —

Henry Gurney photographed Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church in 1866, the year the congregation bought the building built in 1858 as the Second Presbyterian Church. Zion Chapel had earlier purchased the Methodist Church that fronted Union Street between . . . — — Map (db m110513) HM