We are currently camped in Vadalia, LA directly across the river from Natchez, MS. Basically, the town was named after sun‐worshiping Indians. It is built on bluffs to avoid yellow‐fever‐ridden swamps. The crop success is due to rare soil found only two other places in the world—Vicksburg and China. Town's wealth before the Civil War due to (1) location on the Mississippi River, (2) invention of the steamboat, (3) huge cotton crops, (4) slaves. We got to tour the downtown area of Natchez via a horse drawn carriage. What a wonderful old Southern City. The folks here are proud of this old girl and rightly so. The downtown area is home to beautiful and interesting buildings and homes of the antebellum period.
This is Clyde, our host for the morning. His handler, did the talking, but he was the star of the show. He "talked" to us during the entire tour and was very entertaining. He is from an Amish farm in Indiana. The tour company gets all the horses from there since they are used to pulling carriages around cars.
some of our fellow travelers enjoying the ride.
Example of the buildings in downtown Natchez. The city tries very hard to keep the original architecture where it can. Most of the buildings in downtown Natchez are original and built in the early 1800's. Mark Twain called Natchez "the last of the beautiful hill cities before Baton Rouge. Cotton and the Steamboat were the paths to wealth in this city and it shows.
This is the oldest Episcopal Church in the United States. Mark Twain is said to have thought this the prettiest Church in the South, he even was reported to have attended services here. That might be wishful thinking given Twain's feeling about churches and religion in general!
After the carriage tour, we ventured into the Stanton House. Sitting in the middle of an entire block of downtown Natchez, Stanton Hall appears to look over the smaller buildings that surround it. The Hall is now an Inn decorated in period furniture. The original owners made there fortune in the cotton market. The hall took 6 years to complete and the entire cost, including the architect fees, consturction and material came to $86,000 back in 1857. The sheer size of the rooms, halls and like are impressive.
After Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy, was released from prison, he came here to stay with his brother. He stood on the second floor balcony and addressed the people of Natchez for the last time.
An example of the decorating and furnishings throughout the hall. The original owner only lived in it for nine months before he died from yellow fever. It was saved from demolition by a group of civic minded ladies who formed the Preservation Garden Club and purchased for the sum of $16,000 in 1940. Very few of the original furnishings were left but thorough donations and purchases the garden club ladies have restored the hall to it former, opulent self. Notice the large mirror on the wall. These were made in France and are at each end of the large rooms giving the appearance of the room extending to infinity in either direction. The garden club is still buying and restoring property in the "On Top of the Hill" portion of Natchez.
The original hand carved structural beam in the main hall. It is made from a single piece of cypress, and measures 17 feet wide, 16 inches thick and 4 feet tall on the ends. Also in the photo are examples of the hand-carved door frames and a gasolier light.
Close up of one of the numerous gasoliers that have been converted to electric. The light fixture is made of pot metal and each one has a different theme. Two duplicates of the fixture were made and now grace the United States Senate.
One of the many bedrooms in the hall. If you ever get to Natchez this tour is on the top of the list. It is truly a magnificent Southern Belle in a beautiful Southern city.
One can not tell the story of Natchez without the mention of "Under-the-hill" Natchez. Located below the bluffs right on the Mississippi, is a small collection of buildings that were once part of, according to Mark Twain, "a small, straggling and shabby area. There was plenty of drinking, carousing, fisticuffing, and killing there among the riff-raff of the river." It is said the police did not even like to go down silver street to the river area below. They would stand up on the hill and stop people from going down to ask if they had a gun or a knife. If the answer was no, they were issued one!
It is now home to a few small shops and a couple of good restaurants.
Our time in Natchez is coming to an end. Tomorrow we leave for our final destination of this trip, New Orleans! The drive down will be on the interstate, unlike most of our drive, and we will be in the city for five days before our trip ends. Hope you all come back and see what New Orleans has to offer us. Hope you all have a great rest of the week!
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