| The Colonel James Drane House, constructed between 1846 and 1848, was the residence of Choctaw County's most prominent early settler and is one of only a few antebellum structures remaining in the county. In addition to its historical associations, the building--a well-preserved wood-frame single-galleried I-house with a seven-bay façade and an open dogtrot on the lower story--is highly significant in the architectural history of Mississippi as an example of the blending of folk architecture with sophisticated (albeit anachronistic) ornamentation borrowed from the east coast. It is particularly distinguished by its surviving vernacular paint colors. It was moved to its present location alongside the Natchez Trace Parkway in 1981, and is now operated as a house museum by French Camp Academy. This building was listed on the National Register on 21 July 1983. It received a grant of $9,000 under the Emergency Jobs Act of 1983. The Drane House is included in "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p. 196, in the listing for the French Camp Historic Village, CH7). |