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IMAGES
From
Nostalgiaville |
NOTE: A Click of your Mouse on most of the pictures will enlarge them for better viewing
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PORT GIBSON, MISSISSIPPI |
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PEOPLE OF PORT GIBSON
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HORACE L LIGHTFOOT 1927 to 1976. Tradesman... Businessman... Public Servant. Claiborne County native educated in local schools and Alcorn A & M College. First black citizen elected to the Claiborne County Board of Education (1960 to 1974). Operated a successful business on this site. Owned an electrical and plumbing contracting business serving the community. |
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IRWIN RESSELL East one block is the birthplace of Irwin Russell. In a short life of 26 years he won fame with his poems in Negro dialect. Author of "Christmas Night in the Quarters" and other poems. |
DOWN TOWN PORT GIBSON
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| North side of Fair Street from Market to East |
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| East side of Market Street from Fair to Walnut |
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| West side of Market Street from Walnut to Fair |
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| East side of Market Street from Walnut to Carroll |
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| West side of Market Street from Carson to Walnut |
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| South side of Walnut Street from Farmer to Market |
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| North side of Walnut Street from Farmer to Market (Mississippi National Bank) |
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BRASHEAR ACADEMY 407 Walnut. 1857 Greek Revival. Erected as a school for young ladies. Brashear Academy became Chamberlain - Hunt Academy after the Civil War. Thereafter, used as a public school until purchased by the First Presbyterian Church. |
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| BRASHEAR ACADEMY |
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CLAIBORNE COUNTY COURTHOUSE Market Street and Orange. 1845. Beaux-Arts Classicism. The original two story brick courthouse was constructed in 1845. The Confederate Monument occupies a small portion of the site of the original Greek Revival jail. |
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| CLAIBORNE COUNTY COURTHOUSE |
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IRWIN RUSSELL MEMORIAL 1055 College. 1842. Greek Revival. Constructed as an educational institution on land once owned by Samuel Gibson, Port Gibson's founder. Presently houses the Harriette Person Memorial Library, town hall, and the mayor's office. |
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| PORT GIBSON CITY HALL |
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PLANTER'S HOTEL 405 Market. 1810 to 1820 Federal. This large brick structure was one of the well known inns along the Natchez Trace. The famous actor Joseph Jefferson was a guest here. This is one of the oldest buildings in Claiborne County. |
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| PLANTER'S HOTEL |
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PORT GIBSON BANK 702 Market. 1840 Greek Revival. This bank closed its doors during the Civil War but re-opened afterwards as a hotel. Since 1890 it has been used for its original purpose. The hexa-style portico features unfluted Doric columns. |
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THE BERNHEIMER COMPLEX Built by Samuel and Jacob, prominent Jewish businessmen, this complex forms an unusual group of consecutively constructed buildings of various architectural styles. This house, built in 1901, replaced an earlier one used by General U S Grand as his headquarters after the Battle of Port Gibson, fought on May 1, 1883. |
THE CIVIL WAR AT PORT GIBSON
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BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON |
| The few horses were used to pull artillery leaving most of the troops on foot. Advance troops reached Shaifer Place at 1:30 AM, May 1, 1863, and for the first time came in contact with Confederate outposts. Although shots were fired, both armies bedded down and actual fighting did not resume until after daybreak. The battle ensued, extending from the Shaifer House north to the Sillers of Andrews House. The Union army fought in the ravines much of the time while the Confederate troops withdrew and the Union army advanced northeastward through this intersection into Port Gibson. |
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BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON First shot fired 4 miles west of this point on May 1, 1863, during Grant's advance from Bruinsburg. After two hour battle, Confederate forces retreated vial Bayou Pierre Bridge on Farmers Street. |
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THE FEDERALS OCCUPY PORT
GIBSON |
| Churches, inns, and houses were turned into hospitals to shelter the hundreds of wounded "Yanks" and "Rebs". The raft-bridge was declared open for traffic at 4 PM. General J B McPherson's XVII Corps crossed the Little Bayou Pierre in route to Grindstone Ford. By noon on May 3, most of the Union Army had marched on. Union victory at the battle of Fort Gibson secured Grant's bridgehead east of the Mississippi. |
HISTORIC HOMES OF PORT GIBSON
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BRUINSBURG About 14 miles west at the mouth of Bayou Pierre is the old river port settled by Peter Bryan Bruin in 1788. It was visited by Aaron Burr in 1807. Grant landed there in Vicksburg Campaign of 1863. |
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| CAMELLIA COLUMNS Circa 1895 |
CANEMOUNT PLANTATION |
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DISHAROON HOME |
DRAKE HOME |
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| ENGLESING HOME 702 Church. Ca 1817. Federal. The birthplace of Constance Cary who was one of the young ladies involved in making the first Confederate battle flag. The small formal garden is the only one of its type remaining in Port Gibson. |
GAGE HOUSE 602 Church. Ca 1830 - 50. Federal/Greek Revival. One of two remaining examples of this architectural style in Claiborne County. Double galleries have modified Tuscan colonnettes. The brick dependency possibly predated the home. |
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| GUTHRIE HOME 703 Church. Ca 1840. Greek Revival/Italianate. Itallanate long windows and protruding bay windows are typical of many houses built just before the Civil War. The interesting and unusual etched glass panel in the front door depicts a pelican. |
HEATH HOME 1301 College. 1840's. Queen Anne. The oldest portion of this house is a three room, one story wing at the southeast corner. The Queen Anne addition, constructed in 1890, became the main living area. |
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| HOPKINS HOUSE 803 Church. Ca 1845. Greek Revival. Reportedly constructed of flat boats in Grand Gulf in 1845 and moved to Port Gibson Ca 1872. This Greek Revival cottage has typical square columns. Dormer windows have been added to the original structure. |
JUDGE COLEMAN HOME 1108 Church. Ca 1830. Greek Revival. This home built by Judge Coleman was the site of a large political rally held for Henry Clay during one of his early visits to Port Gibson. |
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| LEVY HOME 1202 Church. Ca 1890. Stick Style. This house with its tall proportions, irregular silhouette, projecting ;eaves, and exposed framing in the gables is an interesting example of the Stick Style. |
McDOUGALL HOUSE 509 Church. Ca 1820. Greek Revival. The portico treatment featuring two round columns between two square columns is called distyle-in-antis. This arrangement is modeled after the Tower of the Winds in Athens. The Corinthian columns are carved from solid cypress logs. |
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| MIDDLETON HOME 410 Carrol. Ca 1852. Italienate Revival. This architecture is common in the central and north central states but not in this area. Materials used in the house were shipped down the Mississippi River from Cincinnati. |
MISS PHOEBE'S HOUSE |
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| OAK SQUARE 1207 Church. 1850-1906. Port Gibson's largest mansion. This Neoclassic house exemplifies the grandeur of antebellum days. The house with gardens and dependencies originally occupied the entire block. Named Oak Square because of massive Oak trees on the grounds. |
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| PERSON HOME 1009 Church. Ca 1880's. Queen Anne. This house is noteworthy for the Tavish display of stained glass on the front facade. The builder used a strange, free classic Corinthian order for his columns. |
SCHILLIG HOME 1101 College. 1896 Queen Anne. This house is one of the finest examples of Queen Anne architecture in Claiborne County. The style is indicative of a number of houses built in Port Gibson near the turn of the century. |
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| SHREVE HOUSE 701 Church. Ca 1825. Federal. The original floor plan consisted of four rooms, no center hall, front and back galleries. The designer and builder was Horatio Nelson Spencer, a prominent local attorney. |
SPENCER HOME 1302 Church. Ca 1840. Greek Revival. The front part of this house is pegged together with wooden pegs rather than being nailed. The original kitchen was in a separate building to the rear. |
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| WHEELESS HOUSE 601 Church. Ca 1845. Greek Revival. Fine woodwork is evident at this one-and-a-half story cottage. Square Tuscan columns support the portico. |
HISTORIC CHURCHES OF PORT GIBSON
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| FIRST BAPTIST M B CHURCH Founded in 1867 by freedmen. Moved to this site ca 1896. Played a vital role in the Civil Rights Movement in Port Gibson. Beginning in 1965, the NAACP held meetings here to promote boycotts of local white merchants, who subsequently filed suit. In a landmark ruling in 1982, the U S Supreme Court upheld the legality of the boycotts. |
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| FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Second oldest Presbyterian Church in Old Southwest. Originated April, 1807, as Bayou Pierre Church. Moved to Port Gibson 1827. Zebulon Butler first resident pastor, 1827- 60. Present structure built 1859. |
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| PRESBYTERIAN MANSE 1103 Church. 1830-31. Greek Revival. This house was constructed the year following erection of the first building to house the First Presbyterian Church during the early ministry of Dr Zebulon Butler. |
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| METHODIST CHURCH 901 Church. 1858-60. Romanesque Revival. The original building was constructed in 1826, but was destroyed by fire in 1858. the new church, built on the same site, was dedicated July 8, 1860. |
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| ST JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH 808 Church. 1884-85. Ca 1897. High Victorian Gothic. The architect was W P Wentworth from Boston. The entire structure reflects contemporary architectural developments in Massachusetts rather than in Mississippi. |
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| ST JOSEPH'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 909 Church. 1850-51. Gothic Revival. EME Bowie Moore, daughter of Resin and Margaret Bowie and niece of Jim Bowie, was instrumental in the building of St Joseph's. This is the oldest surviving church in Port Gibson. |
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| ST PETER A M E CHURCH 409 Church. Ca 1885. High Victorian Gothic. This church was founded in 1870. The building is a simplified version of the High Victorian Gothic style popular in the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century. |
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| TEMPLE GEMILUTH CHASSED 706 Church. 1891-92. Victorian Moro-Byzantine Revival. The architects of Temple Gemiluth Chassed, which means gift of the righteous, combined Moorish Byzantine and Romanesque styles to produce a building unique in Mississippi. |
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| PORT GIBSON BAPTIST CHURCH (Church constituted 1872 Building erected 1923) |
JUST BEYOND PORT GIBSON
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Smith Coffee Daniell II, a successful cotton planter, completed construction of Windsor in 1861. Daniell owned 21,000 acres of plantation land in Louisiana and Mississippi. Ironically, he died in April 1861, only weeks after completing his mansion. His wife and children continued to live at Windsor but were left to suffer the loss of much of the family's holdings during the Civil War. |
| The mansion survived the Civil War only to be
destroyed by accidental fire on February 17, 1890. All was lost
except for the columns and the iron work. One flight of metal stairs from Windsor is
now installed at Oakland Chapel on the campus of nearby Alcorn State University. All
of the Daniell family's photographs and drawings of the mansion were lost in the
fire. In 1991, historians discovered a drawing of Windsor sketched in 1863
by a Union soldier in Major General Ulysses S Grant's army. The soldier's drawing is
similar to the illustration reproduced here. Windsor's basic
style was Greek Revival but with added details borrowed from and gothic
architecture. The house contained 23 rooms, with an above ground basement, two
residential floors, and attic. The ell-shaped extension on the east side, attached
to a single row of columns extending from the main square, contained the kitchen, pantry,
and dining room. Rainwater stored in large tanks in the attic supplied two
bathrooms. A cupola, from which the Mississippi River could be viewed, was centered
on top of the roof. |
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WINDSOR MOUNDS AND FREELAND
CEMETERY This mound group contains four large truncate mounds. The largest is thirty feet high. The others are approximately twenty, fifteen, and three feet high. While originally bare, trees now cover these mounds. There are archeological indications that structures were once located on top. |
| Professional belief is that Indians of the Natchez Trace occupied this site, but later abandoned it as they moved southward. Freeland Cemetery (Ca early 1800's) on top of the mound to the east contains graves of several notable people, including Smith Coffee Daniell II, the builder of Windsor, and Peter Bruin, the founder of Brainsburg. Three mounds are visible, the large mound nearby to the south, the one to the north beyond the road, and the large mound to the west near the road. |
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| BETHEL CHURCH Ca 1843. Greek Revival. The original congregation of the Bethel Presbyterian Church organizer in 1826 under the direction of Dr Jeremiah Chamberlain constructed this building in the mid 1840's. On the interior, ornamentation is completely lacking. The use of pilasters or the exterior is an interesting feature as are the simplified hood molds, normally found only on Gothic Revival buildings. Renovations have occurred over the years and the original slave gallery has been removed. A tornado destroyed the sharply pointed steeple. |
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