9 Oakhurst Road NatchezMS 39120 | List Price: $975,000

Oakland

Once Natchez became part of the United States with Territorial Status in 1798, its expansion hit new levels as a major Mississippi River port. With the invention of the cotton gin almost at the same time, the planter world emerged, and left a legacy of great homes.

The Natchez District was settled largely by the sons of major early American families . . . families who had made their mark in the East and whose sons needed new worlds to conquer. They had money, taste, and entrepreneurial ambition.

Many plantations, many intended to impress, were built in these early years on huge tracts of lands in the areas of the Natchez District and its early towns of Natchez, Woodville, Washington, and Port Gibson. But early on fears existed of illnesses emanating from low lying soils of the lands bordering the River and the heights of Natchez gained appeal.

The downtown grid appeared, and simultaneously surrounding the city on the hill, urban villas, as we might call them, also appeared, built on tracts of anywhere from modest 20 acre tracts to 40 and 50 acre tracts as they spread further out.

Oakland, unlike many of the grand homes being built was built in what has become known as the planters style with a more modest exterior but every bit an impressive an interior. Typically built with a center hall, two large rooms on either side, a wide covered front gallery, and a smaller real loggia, flanked by cabinet rooms. Oakland was built of brick and then stuccoed and has a handsome hipped roof.

Sometime later two small matching wings were added . . . on the dining room side to accommodate a kitchen and on the other a library.

The remaining dependency to the rear is a two-story brick structure with a one bedroom unit on each floor; currently used one as a residence the other as an office.

The interior is pure elegance with great scale, sixteen foot ceilings, fabulously simple Greek Revival deep ceiling moldings, and high Greek Revival door and window surrounds. The windows have paneled interior shutters that neatly fold into recessed compartments and the mahogany pocket doors have their original silver hardware so prized during that period.

The house is raised and the topography allows for a usable partially raised basement which today houses a sitting room, a storage room, a bedroom and bath.

In the 1950’s, as often happened, the acreage surrounding Oakland was sold off as lots for homes in a subdivision known today as Forest Lawn. Oakland retains complete privacy and accessibility on over three beautifully landscaped acres.

4 BEDROOMS  |  3 FULL BATHS  |  5,165 SQ. FT.  |  3.5 ACRES  |  MLS 2305319

Dorian Bennett SIR Agent Contacts

Ernesto Caldeira
Phone: 504.944.3605
Mobile: 504.450.8991