NATCHEZ, Miss. – The landscape of the upper half of the city’s river bluff area is being enhanced with a plaza honoring Black Union Civil War soldiers along with the beautification of the nearby grounds surrounding the old Broadway Street train depot.
The Natchez Board of Aldermen on Tuesday selected a Jackson area-based landscaping company to sculpt and cultivate a part of the green space at Broadway and Madison streets. This spot has been designated for a memorial paying tribute to formerly enslaved men recruited by the Union army stationed in Natchez. Four Seasons was the best of two bidders for the landscaping project.
The agreed-to cost is nearly $443,000, which also includes doing drainage improvements for another city plaza being planned elsewhere to honor Hiram Revels, the first Black to serve in the U.S. Congress. A monument for the former Natchez aldermen is being planned on St. Catherine Street.
Also in the works for the bluff area is new landscaping for the Broadway Street railroad depot with $362,000 the city received in state funds earlier this year combined with $90,000 in city funds. The circa 1915 train station reopened in 2024 as a Natchez visitors center with public restrooms and meeting space after a decade-long, stalled renovation process costing about $1 million. Planning is underway for the depot’s outdoor venue overlooking the Mississippi River.
For the Black Union soldiers plaza, city aldermen in 2023 approved the design of the monument and park occupying part of the large green lawn at the bluff’s north section. More than 3,000 Black U.S. soldiers served in Natchez when it was occupied by the Union army beginning in 1863, according to historical accounts. The Board of Aldermen’s selection of the memorial’s landscaper Tuesday came a day after the city marked the anniversary of the Union troops’ July 13 arrival in Natchez 163 years ago.
Private funds and public grants have been sought for the Natchez U.S. Colored Troops memorial, which has previously been estimated to cost as much as $1 million. The $443,000 landscaping costs accepted Tuesday does not include the monument, which an Oregon-based sculptor has designed.
In another long-planned Natchez beautification project, aldermen agreed Tuesday to continue preparing to install decorative lights on the Mississippi River bridges connecting Natchez and Vidalia. The Mississippi Legislature has given Natchez $1 million to do this, but Mayor Dan Gibson said another $250,000 is needed from Louisiana before the lights are installed.
For other construction-related projects discussed Tuesday, the mayor and aldermen:
– were told it could cost an estimated $300,000 or so to renovate the city-owned cemetery’s Shelter House. The architecturally significant structure was built in 1914. It was designed by Natchez-born architect Samuel Marx, who went on to become a nationally acclaimed designer of homes, commercial buildings and furniture.
– Agreed to seek a state historic preservation grant to help pay for reroofing the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture. The city-owned building, dating to 1905, has a leaking roof.
– Agreed to seek a state grant to plan for installing an elevator at City Hall. The 1924 building only has stairs going to its second floor, making it inaccessible for the disabled.
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