Intersection of State and South Canal streets

William Johnson, a freed person of color who was a barber, entrepreneur, and slave owner, built this house in 1841 using materials salvaged after the 1840 tornado that damaged much of downtown. His diary records its construction and offers insight into business deals, politics, and entertainments such as horse races and cockfights. His family lived upstairs, and one first-floor tenant was a dancing master, while Johnson's descendants remained in the house until 1976. Today the National Park Service maintains the property as a house museum and interpretive center within Natchez National Historical Park. Behind it, the Mississippi Central Railroad Depot stands on land bought from Johnson's family in 1906; in the 1900s the railroad became important in the Great Northern Migration of African Americans from the South, driven by factory jobs in the North, racial segregation in the South, boll weevil-infested cotton, and farm machines that displaced workers, and in recent years the station has housed shops and condominiums. The Natchez and Hamburg Railroad was planned in the early 1830s to run from Natchez to Jackson, but construction reached only Hamburg in Jefferson County, and Natchez did not develop railroad connections until 1882. That failure spared the city from siege or major battle during the Civil War, as the Union Army instead targeted Vicksburg, which had both a river port and railroad connections, while the Confederate Army, with limited resources, left Natchez undefended and fortified only Vicksburg in this area. At the end of World War Two, an automobile dealership, Bluff City Motors, replaced almost two blocks of historic buildings on South Canal Street, and the automobile became the greatest threat to Natchez's historic character as car dealerships, service stations, tire stores, and parking lots rapidly took the place of historic buildings.

Vidalia, Louisiana · United States