The original town of Edna, named for developer Philip Didlake’s wife, was renamed Mendenhall in 1900 after a post office application showed the name Edna was already in use; the new name honored Thomas L. Mendenhall, a prominent citizen and lawyer in Westville. R. H. Coke became the first postmaster, and the Coke Building, built in 1928, still stands on Main Street. Westville had been a thriving town and the county seat for about 70 years, but when the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad bypassed it for a more direct route, a legal struggle followed over the county seat, ending in 1905 when the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mendenhall. On December 4, 1906, the Board of Supervisors advertised for bids for a courthouse there; designed by New Orleans architect Andrew J. Bryon after the United States Capitol and built by M. W. Land of Jackson, Mississippi, it was completed on December 21, 1907, at a cost of $59,000. Known as “The most beautiful courthouse in Mississippi,” the Simpson County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 29, 1985, and restored in 1987 for $1,750,000. Today Mendenhall is the county seat of Simpson County, the county’s second largest retail center, and home to Simpson General Hospital. Historic buildings remain along Main Street, including the Coke Building, along with turn-of-the-century and early twentieth century houses, and City Hall occupies the historic Thames House. Mendenhall Ministries, founded by John Perkins in 1962 as Voice of Calvary Ministries during the Civil Rights Struggle, later became separate from the Jackson ministry and came to be regarded as a model for faith-based community development; in 1991, President George W. Bush presented them with the Number 541 Daily Point of Light Award.