Fall is on its way, and with it the many great fall events for which Natchez is known all over the world, everything from the Balloon Festival to Angels on the Bluff at the historic Natchez City Cemetery.
Thousands will soon be traveling to our beautiful city to enjoy our sunsets, stroll our streets, and enjoy a deep dive into history. By all accounts, local hotels, B&B’s and short-term rentals are already booking up, and the first major fall event kicks off on September 25 and runs through October 18 – the 2025 Natchez Fall Pilgrimage.
With over a month of historic home tours and activities, this year promises to be outstanding. In all, 22 houses are featured this year, ranging from iconic mansions like Stanton Hall and Magnolia Hall to Longwood, the largest octagonal house in America, and The Towers, a stunning mansion featuring fully restored three-story tower structures on either side of its grand exterior. Dunleith, Mississippi’s only surviving historic southern mansion with columns on all four sides, Frogmore, a continuously operating cotton plantation in Concordia Parish just across the Mississippi River, and Linden, one of our city’s oldest and most historic mansions, provide a diverse depiction of our earlier history.
And new additions to the Fall Pilgrimage will be must-sees, such as D’Evereux, a grand Greek-Revival “temple” of a house, and the historic Dr. John Bowman Banks House, home to the first black doctor in both Natchez and the State of Mississippi and also the scene of many great milestones of the Civil Rights History of our city. In addition, Concord Quarters, Mississippi’s only freestanding slave dwelling on the National Register of Historic Places, will be on tour, along with one of the oldest dwellings in the south, the House on Ellicott Hill, where Major Andrew Ellicott, surveyor to George Washington, raised the American Flag in 1797, bravely claiming the Natchez Territory in defiance of Spain.
I could go and on – I haven’t even touched upon half of the historic houses, much less the great events that are planned all over our city during this special time of year. There will be performances of great Negro Spirituals at the historic Zion Chapel, once the pulpit of Rev. Hiram Revels, the first man of color to ever serve in the US Congress as a Senator from Mississippi. And the stories to be told at NAPAC, our city’s Museum of African American History on Main Street, are second to none – stories of men like Senator Revels and also of Major John Roy Lynch, a former slave from Dunleith who went on to be the first black Speaker of the House in any American State, a celebrated soldier during the Spanish American War, an author, and a hero now buried at Arlington National Cemetery. And a visit to Forks of the Road, a former slave market prior to the Civil War, and to Melrose, a beautifully-maintained antebellum mansion and site to historic slave cabins, will present the sobering reminder of the enslaved Africans who built much of Natchez. Both sites are now owned and operated by the National Parks Service as part of the Natchez National Historical Park.
Anyone not from Natchez wishing to visit during the Fall Pilgrimage needs to make plans now! Our bed and breakfasts, short-term rentals, and beautiful (and growing) hotel market offer a variety of stay options. And nowhere will you find a city our size that offers more restaurants, gift shops and tourist attractions than Natchez. Great food, live music, carriage rides, historic tours, outdoor excursions – we have it all! Our historic streets are lovely and walkable. Our historic bluff with its majestic river views is captivating. And our sunsets are stunning. After all, Natchez is “The Sunset Capital of the South”.
A ticket to these great Natchez Fall Pilgrimage opportunities begins with a click on the cellphone or laptop. Visit visitnatchez.org for complete details, ticket purchases, a link to the home tours calendar, and exciting information on so many other things happening this fall in Natchez!
Information can also be found by visiting the following websites: www.natchezgardenclub.org, www.natchezpilgrimage.com, www.littleeasytours.com. Or call 601-492-3000, 601-653-0919 or 601-890-2388.
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