Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District

Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Swiss Chalet style "Edelweiss", at 209 S. Broadway
Location	Natchez, Mississippi
Architect	Multiple
Architectural style	Greek Revival, Late Victorian
NRHP Reference #	79003381[1]
Added to NRHP	September 17, 1979

Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District is an historic district in Natchez, Mississippi that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.^[1]

Important sites within the district include:^[2]:17

• the location of Andrew Marschalk's printing office, where the first book printed in Mississippi was printed in 1799,
• the first bank in Mississippi,
• the site of American flag-raising, in 1798, by Andrew Ellicott near the House on Ellicott's Hill, and
• the traditional location of the earliest Sunday school south of Philadelphia, conducted at a Methodist church.

Architecturally, the district includes a set of Greek Revival works that are of national-level significance, and many other styles including Late Victorian architecture.^[2] It has what is assessed to be the best Swiss Chalet Style work in Mississippi and it also has the best residential French Second Empire style work in Mississippi.^[2]:17

It includes National Historic Landmark-designated sites:^[2]

• House on Ellicott's Hill
• Stanton Hall
• Rosalie

and other sites individually listed on the National Register:

• King's Tavern
• Winchester House (1835)
• Williamsburg, NRHP-listed as John Bayton House
• Prentiss Club (1904), 211 N. Pearl St., a yellow brick building in Second Renaissance Revival style, designed by New Orleans architects Soule and McDonald
• Stratton Chapel of the First Presbyterian Church
• First Presbyterian Church
• Magnolia Hall, NRHP-listed as Henderson-Britton House.
• The Elms, c.1805
• Green Leaves, 303 S. Rankin St, Greek Revival with Doric columns (photo 68)
• Presbyterian Manse
• William Johnson House (1841) Greek Revival
• Choctaw (c.1835), NRHP-listed as Neibert-Fisk House
• Longwood^:84
• Melrose^:84
• Auburn, also known as "Glen Auburn", described as "probably the most outstanding of the post-Civil War

houses" in the district and as "the best example of the Second Empire style in the state of Mississippi."^[2] (see photo #62)

Adams County Courthouse

One of the district's "pivotal" contributing buildings is the Adams County Courthouse at 201 S. Wall Street, which was built c. 1820 as a two-story Federal-style brick courthouse with a cupola. It was remodeled c. 1920 into Colonial Revival style with classical porticos.^[2]:77 (See photo #55 in accompanying photos.) Ca. 1820,\remodeled ca, 1920. (see phoowner 2, photo 55)

• Commercial Bank and Banker's House (c. 1837), a National Historic Landmark consisting of the Commercial Bank Building, a "one-story three-bay stuccoed brick with stone facade commercial building of two-story height with Ionic portico" and the connected Greek Revival style . Andrew Brown, builder.^[2]:83 (photo #36)

A map delineating the area of the district, including a rectangle defined by Monroe, Pine, Orleans, and Broadway, but also a bit more, is provided in its 1979 NRHP nomination document.^[3]

See also

There are several other NRHP-listed historic districts in Natchez:

• Downriver Residential Historic District, adjacent on the south below Orleans St.
• Natchez Bluffs and Under-the-Hill Historic District, adjacent to the river side
• Upriver Residential District, adjacent on the north, above Monroe St.
• Holy Family Catholic Church Historic District, adjacent, on the west
• Clifton Heights Historic District, on the river side of the Upriver Residential District
• Cemetery Bluff District
• Woodlawn Historic District

References

1. National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
2. Mary Warren Miller (May 31, 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District" (PDF). National Park Service. and accompanying photos
3. See the NRHP nomination document on page 93 of the PDF file. Note the outline is indicated by hand-drawing on top of a 1976 map, with term "Natchez Old Town Historic District" (perhaps a proposed or actual locally-designated historic district name); the outline drawn, however, is for this Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill district.