Dated to 1757 through dendrochonology in 2016, this house is the oldest surviving building in Mississippi. The East Room was added around 1762, and the West Room probably around 1820. In the 1990s it underwent a substantial restoration to return it to its appearance as of about 1820. Owned by Jackson County and operated as a museum. It was listed on the National Register on 3 September 1971, and was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 5 January 1984. This building received an HPF grant of $20,000 in 1978 and a grant of $45,000 under the Emergency Jobs Act of 1983. It received flooding damage from Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005, including damage to the porch that exposed previous termite damage. This building is included in "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (pp. 102-103), "The Majesty of Eastern Mississippi and the Coast" (2004) (p. 94), and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (pp. 361-362, GC44). [HABS: MS-18 (1936/1940): photos and measured drawings] |