| This house, designed by Levi Weeks for Lyman Harding, is dominated by a giant portico with Roman Ionic columns. The two doorways are based on traditional Palladian motifs. The main house is, according to Mimi Miller, unquestionably the most architecturally significant building dating to the territorial period because it introduced academic architecture to the Mississippi Territory. It is historically important as the residence of attorney Lyman Harding, one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Natchez during the territorial period, legal counsel for Aaron Burr at his arraignment in 1807, and Mississippi's first Attorney General. Auburn's two-story portico is one of the earliest in the South, pre-dating similar porticoes at the University of Virginia and those added in the 1820s to the White House and to Arlington in Virginia. Auburn was designated a National Historic Landmark (and thereby listed on the National Register) on 30 May 1974 and was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 5 January 1984. Auburn is the subject of an article by Millie McGehee, 'Auburn in Natchez,' in the March 1977 issue of "Antiques" magazine. It is included in "Shrines to Yesterday" (1968), "The Majesty of Natchez" (1969/1981/1986) (pp. 60-61), "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (pp. 19-22), "Old Homes of Mississippi, Volume I: Natchez and the South" (1977) (p. 26), "Plantation Homes of Louisiana and the Natchez Area" (1982) (pp. 74-75), "The Great Houses of Natchez" (1986) (pp. 6-7), 'The Architecture of Natchez before 1830,' in "Natchez before 1830" (1989) (pp. 147-148), "Architecture of the Old South: Mississippi – Alabama" (1989), "Architecture of the Old South" (summary volume) (1993) (pp. 164-167), "Classic Natchez" (1996) (pp. 23, 68-71), "Natchez Images, 1880-1960" (2002) (p. 49), "Natchez: Houses and History …" (2003) (pp. 66-71), "Great Houses of Mississippi" (2004) (pp. 7-10), "Louisiana Architecture 1714-1820" (2004) (pp. 249-253), "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (pp. 48-49, ND53), and numerous other books. [HABS: MS-9 (seven photos made by James Butters on 27 March and 14 April 1936)] |