A Tour of Natchez and Pink Blossoms in My Yard

Sunday Favorites is a meme started by Chari of http://happytodesign.blogspot.com/. Sunday is a day of relaxation so how much easier would it be than just go back to your old posts, pick one of your favorites and repost it as a Sunday Favorite? What a brilliant idea that Chari came out with. Thanks, Chari!

Today, I would like to share our charming little town with you again, Natchez, MS. I originally featured it for one of my Sightseeing Saturdays on 3/21/09. Enjoy touring the city again!

Today, I will have a double post. First post will be my usual Sightseeing Sat. and just below it will be Pink Saturday.

We are not going very far today because I want to show you just what is in our own backyard in Natchez, MS. I think we have a very quaint and charming town. Our downtown is full of antique shops and mansions, which I think is very unusual. A lot of antebellum houses here were spared during the civil war because the bluffs concealed them. For that reason, we have the most antebellum plantation houses that still stand today for a very small town of 20,000 population. Twice a year, a lot of them are open to the public, shown complete with the hostesses wearing southern belle costumes. Right now, one of those events is going on, the Spring Pilgrimage. That's what gave me the idea of showing the houses to you. I hope you enjoy the tour because it is a long one.

We are located on the Mississippi River.

This is Dunleith. It is a Bed and breakfast now. In fact, this is where the hospital put dh and me when he was being recruited.
Behind it is a very fine restaurant, The Castle, which used to be the carriage house where horses were kept.
Isn't it just stately?
This is Dunleith's backyard, very southern, of course.
This is Longwood, the largest octagonal house in the US. We take every out of town visitor who come and visit us to tour this house because the history is very interesting. I won't go into that because I don't want to take out your excitement in case you plan to visit someday. Besides, it will make the post even longer.
Magnolia Hall, a Greek revival mansion, was the last great one built before the break of the civil war. Do you see the tree on the right side? They used to hang outlaws there while their loved ones stood below, grieving and hugging them until they died. Isn't that sad?
That is my sister with my niece and her friend when they came to visit to pick up the 4 kids from Chicago who spent 2 weeks of their summer vacation with us last year. And this is the Stanton Hall, built in 1857.
Behind the Stanton Hall is also a fine restaurant called the Carriage House, where we often eat for lunch after church on Sundays. They are very famous for their southern fried chicken and mint julep but my favorites are the crab cakes and fried green tomatoes.
The whole Chicago gang and AJ.Here is Twin Oaks, which is right across Dunleith.
One of my favorites....Ravennaside. I guess we cannot call it an antebellum house since it was not built before the civil war. Just look at that! Wouldn't it be one of your favorites too?

I love the gazebo on one side of the mansion.

and all the statues lining the driveway Linden


If you take a ghost tour, this is one of the places they take you to.

Even our Catholic church is antebellum, St. Mary's Basilica.

Isn't it pretty?

Rosalie mansion, a good place to tour. It's filled with furniture, paintings and clothes used by the very family that lived there for over 100 years!

Back side of Rosalie.

The Briars, where Jefferson Davis got married. We stayed here too on one of my house hunting trips. Actually, not in this particular building but in a private suite behind it. Some of these antebellum houses have more than 1 building in the property. I had my daughter, her fiance at the time and AJ accompany me cause John was on call 24/7 and could not leave town. They put us in this huge 2 bedroom unit with a big living room and kitchen. Don't tell anyone but I rearranged the furniture in the living room. LOL! Did you know that I bought our house here, did the closing all by myself and John never even got to see it until we actually moved? Luckily, he fell in love with it too the moment he laid eyes on it.

The King's Tavern is the oldest building in Mississippi and the most haunted. You can google and read about its ghost stories on the internet. The one on the right is my eldest sister, Fe. Can you believe that she is 70? (I hope she does not read this and get mad at me for revealing her age, lol) The one with her is her daughter, Stephanie. Do you think she looks like me? So many people mistakenly call her "Christine" thinking she is me. Never mind that I am 25 years older than her. A lot of people say we look so much alike.

Remember my first estate auction experience? The owner of this home "Paradise" is Jimmy Pippen's estate. He owned the biggest antique shop downtown and he died suddenly in this home's backyard with his clippers still in his hand. Evidently he was clipping his plants when that happened. He was only in his low 50's. A lot of our compotes came from his estate and antique store.

This home, "Orchard" also belongs to his estate. There is only one home in b/w the 2 historical houses.

The house is located downtown almost right across King's Tavern.

Do you remember the fireplace fender I showed you in one of my posts? This is where I first spotted it. It's nice to own a little piece of history.

Just look at the gorgeous grounds! Click and enjoy!

Monmouth is another Bed and Breakfast Inn now. It is also a fine restaurant. Enjoy the antiques inside while dining and that's exactly what I did when the hospital COO took us out to dinner there.

A closer look of the Monmouth.

Melrose

Melrose: a closer look

the back

Green Leaves

Even our cemetery is famous. Does any of you read Greg Isles' books? One of them is the Turning Angel and his title was derived from this monument, which was erected to look over the tombstones of 5 teenagers who died in 1908 when a huge explosion happened at Natchez Drug Company. They were all employees and the youngest was 12 years old. Greg Isles lives in Natchez.

Ok, now let's just drive around downtown.

We also have an annual Balloon Festival every October.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and I am so glad you kept me company.

I think I am ready to check out all the pinks now.

I am very excited to join Pink Saturday for the very first time, sponsored by Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/. If you haven't visited Beverly, you should, so you can see everybody else's pink lovelies.There is a lot of pinkness blooming in our yard now. The pink and red azaleas are all in bloom and the peach trees are blooming also.

View from our master bedroom window.

Even the bromeliad pot has pink on it.

Isn't the Bromeliad pink bloom so pretty?It has tiny specks of purple on it.

Japanese Magnolia . The color is so close to the azalea's. The flowers on the right are azaleas. The bigger ones on the left are the Japanese Magnolia.

Pink Bouganville in a hanging basket. How do you like my new hanging lantern?

Pink Impatiens

I hope you enjoyed the pink flowers in our backyard. Thanks Beverly, for allowing me to participate in Pink Saturday. I certainly enjoyed it! Now, I'm off to visit the other participants. I hope you will all come and join me!