| A fine brick townhouse with lacy cast-iron double-tiered galleries--one of the most handsome uses of ironwork in Natchez. Built in stages between 1851 and 1858 by successful free black businessman Robert D. Smith for his home and livery business, the Smith-Bontura-Evans House is a remarkably complete and rare regional example of a residential-commercial complex. The plan of the L-shaped structure is significant for its attention to circulation and to the separation of functions. This building was individually listed on the National Register on 29 March 1978, and it was later listed as element #12 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 "Shrines to Yesterday" (1968), "The Majesty of Natchez" (1969/1981/1986) (pp. 35-36), "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (pp. 5-7), "Old Homes of Mississippi, Volume I: Natchez and the South" (1977) (pp. 41-42, as "Evansview"), the "Natchez Walking Guide" (1985) (#2, pp. 6-7), "The Great Houses of Natchez" (1986) (pp. 104-105), "Classic Natchez" (1996) (p. 33), "Natchez: Houses and History" (2003) (pp. 162-165), "Louisiana Architecture 1840-1860" (2006) (pp. 384-386), and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (pp.37-38, ND35). [HABS MS-161 (1940)] |