Myrtle Terrace

This welcoming home was built by Nathaniel L. Carpenter beginning in 1844 and completed in 1851 when purchased by steamboat captain, Thomas P. Leathers. Today the home showcases a gorgeous collection of Empire and Victorian furnishings within the walls of its spacious yet homey rooms. The mid-nineteenth century furnishings that you see are appropriate for the early life of the home.

Although Nathaniel L. Carpenter came to Natchez as a builder, no building other than Myrtle Terrace has been documented as having been built by him. The house is a good example of transitional architecture with the earlier Federal Style surviving in the delicately runed columns and the later Greek Revival Style employed in the entrance and interior millwork. The interior plan is. A double-pile plan, two rooms deep, with a center hallway. The second story was originally accessed through an enclosed stairway entered from the rear gallery. Mr. and Mrs. Butler who owned the home beginning in 1942 installed the present stairway. The second story of the house contains four bedrooms and two bathrooms. A small basement room is located beneath the rear sitting room of the first story. Modern additions to the home were added by the Durkin family I n approximately 1979. Camille Durkin inherited the home from her parents, the Butlers, and the home was purchased by James C. Johnson and Geoffrey Butcher in 2018.

Myrtle Terrace is historically known as the home of Captain ond of the now double front entrances and also the dry moat. In 1824 Sargent’s widow sold the house to James Campbell Wilkins and his wife, who was the daughter of the Yellow Duchess of Concord. They added the massive columns across the front and back of the house, likely mimicking her mother’s house, Concord (which is no longer standing).

This brought the architecture of the house from Federal (symmetrical) to Neo-Classical (columned) style.

Twenty years later, in 1844, Governor Sargent’s son, George Washington Sargent, bought Gloucester back from the Wilkinses. And twenty years after that, in 1864, Natchez was occupied by Union soldiers. It was during this time that members of the U.S. Colored Troops came one night to rob Gloucester, and shot George mortally through both lungs. He died in the house an excruciating four days later. Gloucester now sits on 6 acres of park-like land, and for the first time in over a decade, will welcome visitors for Fall Pilgrimage 2022. Enjoy the house and formal gardens, plus the intact Summer Kitchen and Billiard Room. Directly across Lower Woodville Road, visit Gloucester Cemetery, with its monument to the Governor and graves of his family, and also Seargeant S. Prentiss and family.

Thomas P. Leathers, who was internationally known as a famous steamboat captain. He was born in Kentucky in 1816 and began his river career on the Yazoo River in 1836. He had great financial success in the lower river cotton trade and built many steamboats, among them seven named “Natchez.” A frequently told story is the legendary steamboat race in 1870 between the Natchez, captained by Leathers, and the Robert E. Lee, whose captain was John W. Cannon. After retiring to New Orleans, Leathers died at the age of 80 after having been r un over by a hit-and-run bicyclist, thus ending one of the most successful careers in steamboat history. Another important person in the Natchez community who lived in this home was John Hunter, who was mayor in 1962 when the naval forces of the U.S. demanded the surrender of the city. The home has a beautiful garden with fountains surrounded by an ornate iron fence. Behind the house is a carriage house built in the 1850s that is now used as an Airbnb. The house on the other side of the driveway was once on the property and housed the help. It was moved to its present location sometime between 1910 and 1925. The three-car garage was built sometime between 1925 and 1943.

Harnett T. Kane once described Myrtle Terrace as “a smell gem in the town of Natchez, almost a baby-scaled version of the plantation time … (it) has the charm of the diminutive and the restrained – everything the. Captain was not.”

Just across the river at Frogmore Plantation, Louisiana, individuals and groups visiting Natchez and Vidalia can see first-hand “Cotton, Then and Now,” and see how John Gillespie and many other Natchez planters became millionaires from “King Cotton.”

Lynette Tanner, along with Lynn Mann and Kathy Forman, greet Ameri- can and international tourists as part of the tour of the Tanners’ 200-year-old plantation complete with authentically furnished slave quarters, rare, Smithso- nian quality, steam cotton gin, plantation church, overseer’s home, antique farm equipment, general store, and even a three-hole privy.

Frogmore Plantation, on U.S. High- way 84 just west of Ferriday, on the Na- tional Register of Historic Places, was the recipient of Louisiana’s state tour-ism award in 1999, was selected by Rand McNally in 2009 as a “MUST SEE” site, and according to the owners’ extensive research is the only such offering of realistic history of the progression of the South’s cotton industry, including slave ownership, cotton’s pre-Civil War boom, benefits and flaws of sharecrop- ping, and later mechanization & com- puterization of the industry.

The Illinois born, but Louisiana raised owner (former teacher) stays in the learning mode with research well beyond tourism pamphlets and school text books.

Her love for history and its influence on today’s society comes naturally from her parents, the late Don and LaVonne Ater.

Her parents and ancestors were all farming families, and Lynette grew up on a plantation.

After marriage, the Tanners, along with constructing and operating their modern plantation, have restored 19 buildings and spent hours in research. Suddenly Lynette took on the role of tour guide, historian, and once again ed- ucator, while Buddy (previously named outstanding cotton ginner in the United States) became tour guide and advocate for United States agriculture.

Frogmore Plantation is an 1,800 acre working plantation, where cotton is planted, picked and ginned for the pub- lic each year.

The historical buildings are a col- lec- tion of dependency buildings that date from 1790 to 1900, some of which were on Frogmore, and some originally on area plantations, now all carefully re- stored.

The restoration includes the Tanner’s plantation home, a complete village of slave quarters, an overseer’s cabin, a church, rare 1880’s steam gin, dozens of pieces of antique farm equipment and general store that serves as part muse- um, part gift shop with unique cotton & plantation specialties, and library of reference books for sale on slave culture, and all aspects of Delta life.

Two reconstructed buildings are also included in the tour, a smokehouse and pigeonnier. Modern tours of Frogmore include visiting the completely com- puterized cotton gin and viewing a vid- eo and display that illustrates modern seed, fertilizer, planting, and harvesting techniques.

Unusual products from the seed, world ag statistics, and cotton trivia are also part of the tour.

Frogmore is 20 minutes west of Natchez located at 11656 U. S. Highway 84, Frogmore, Louisiana.