- City:
- Tupelo, MS
- Site Type:
- Forestry and Agriculture, Resettlement Communities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Housing Programs, Resettlement Administration (RA)
- Started:
- 1934
- Completed:
- 1936
- Designers:
- Frank R. Kincannon, Walter Richard Nelson
- Contractor:
- Tupelo Lumber Company
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
A 35-unit subsistence homestead community, located 5 miles north of Tupelo off the Natchez Trace consisted of modest, one-story frame houses. Twenty of the units remain, and are owned by the National Park Service since transfer in 1940, and were used to house park personnel until recently. A man-made lake and recreation area was constructed in the community, although the dam broke in the 1960s and nothing remains of that feature. First initiated by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, the project was completed by the Resettlement Administration.
The original plans called for 25 units, industrial-type homesteads, and in 1934, Tupelo Lumber Company obtained the contract to build the units for $50,600. Homesteaders moved in mid-November of 1934, and President and Mrs. Roosevelt visited a few days later.
Phase 2 was begun in 1936, ten new brick houses next to the original wood frame units.
Most recently, the houses are again available for public use, with the National Park Service calling for proposals for use. The houses may not be sold, moved, or altered.
Source notes
Brown, J. D. (1996). Nomination form for National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved from Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Historic Resources Inventory, Tupelo. Moore, W. (May 15, 2015). History for the taking: Cottages offer chance to save a piece of the past. Daily Journal Online, retrieved from djournal.com Smith, F. C. ( 2006). The Tupelo Homesteads: New Deal Agrarian Experiment. The Mississippi Journal of History, 85-112.Site originally submitted by Susan Allen on August 26, 2015.
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Susie Dent
When President and Mrs. Roosevelt visited this Homestead House, President Roosevelt had to send Secret Service agents into the house to retrieve Eleanor after an hour of visiting the lady of the house.
The DAR placed a marker at this house many years ago, but it has “disappeared”.