Natchez Sites

A $15,000 improvement project was allotted for Natchez Charity hospital, the oldest charity hospital in Mississippi, for main building and nurses’ home. The hospital was constructed 1849-1852, 3.5 stories, and was destroyed by fire in 1984. It became the Natchez Charity Hospital in 1890s.

"Constructed in 1836 for Joseph Neibert, Choctaw is a transitional Natchez mansion, containing the general Federal style form established by Arlington and Rosalie while blending Greek Revival details."   (misspreservation.com) According to the Historic Natchez Foundation, the WPA worked to renovate Choctaw during the New Deal. Located at the western corner of Wall St. and High St., Choctaw lies on the same block as the city auditorium, another WPA project.

The Natchez City Auditorium was Mississippi project # 1350 from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. The 995-seat arena is headed by a large stage, and is designed in a squared-corner horseshoe, with seats on both sides and the back. The building features "a broad, hexastyle pedimented Doric portico" (Mississippi Department of Archives & History). Community events as well as national tours are scheduled in the auditorium on a regular basis. It underwent renovation in 1999-2000.

An application for the erection of a stadium grandstand at the Natchez High School was submitted September 7, 1935 to the Brookhaven WPA office. City bonds were used in addition to WPA labor to construct the grandstand on the west side of the football field, completed in summer of 1936. It accommodated 900 spectators. A new high school was constructed in 1963, however old high school field remained in use for a period of time afterwards. The stadium has since been demolished.

The 445-mile parkway follows the general path of the old Natchez Trace, originally a footpath for Native American Choctaw and Chickasaw (Littman). The parkway runs from Natchez, Mississippi, across the northeast corner of Alabama, and into Tennessee. The Northern Terminus (Tupelo-Nashville) ends just out of Nashville after passing by Franklin, Tennessee. The final leg of the parkway was completed in 1996 (Littman). Representative Thomas J. Busby of Mississippi introduced the first of the bills into Contgress to construct a paved road along the route of the old Trace. Work began under the Public Works Administration, and included the Works Project...

A cantilevered Warren through truss bridge spanning the Mississippi River on US Highway 84 connects Natchez, Mississippi with Vidalia, Louisiana. Mississippi's project # 1126 opened to traffic on September 26, 1940 after two years of construction (Mississippi Department of Archives & History). It originally operated as a toll bridge. The toll plaza remains on the Natchez side of the river, and although the toll booths have been removed, the semi-circular wooden columns that surrounded the plaza remain. A commemorative tower and plaque, identical to the one at the toll plaza, stands just before the bridge entrance in Vidalia. A second bridge...