| A two-story, hip-roofed, stuccoed brick house without a portico or gallery, the Mercer House is important both for its characteristics which are typical of Natchez c.1820 and for those which are unique for Natchez of that period. The historic name of the house derives from its association with Dr. William Mercer, a distinguished citizen of Natchez and New Orleans, where his house, designed by James Gallier, Sr., in 1844 is today the Boston Club. Tradition has it that the house was used as an auxiliary to Mrs. Mercer's plantation, Laurel Hill, outside Natchez, providing a place for people arriving and departing by steamboat and for normal town visitors. "Stylistically, the Mercer House relates to Auburn and it is possible that it could have been designed and built by Auburn's architect Levi Weeks, who died after Wilkins sold the property for $20,000 in 1819. An architectural feature unique to these two houses is the slight projection of the central block of the façade. The Mercer House relates to Gloucester in having octagonal-ended rooms, although they are expressed the the Mercer House on the rear, rather than the side elevations. The most outstanding architectural feature of the house is the repetition of finely detailed elliptical fanlights on the entrance doorway and interior doorways" (Mimi Miller, Historic Natchez Foundation, c.1986). This building was individually listed on the National Register on 9 August 1979, and it was later included as element #619 in the Natchez-on-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District, which was placed on the National Register on 17 September 1979. It is included in the "Natchez Walking Guide" (1985) (#49, pp. 36-37) and 'The Architecture of Natchez before 1830,' in "Natchez before 1830" (1989) (pp. 146-147). |