re: Pictures from the Natchez City Cemetery

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besides the battlefield (which i highly recommend) is there anything to do in Vicksburg? don't say gamble

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You got a metal detector and a pair of snake boots?

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My great uncle owned the company that made the tombstones. My grandparents and great grandparents are buried there with countless cousins. The grave of the little girl with the steps and window scared the Hell out of me when I was a kid.

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Was coming ask this MFer why he left out 10 yr old Florence Irene Ford. I always took friends to see this one when they'd visit us


Story of Florence Irene Ford Natchez Cemetery

As someone who was born in Jeff Davis Memorial Hospital in Natchez, while my parents lived in Vidaiia, I can assure you, that mall opening was big for kids on both sides of the river. I think there was a McDonald's already there, but they built a multi-screen cinema out front. Before then your only option was an old theater in downtown Natchez.

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The International Paper plant closing, followed by several other facilities is not okay to talk about?

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Those are minor contributing factors, the largest single one was the destruction of the school system by the justice dept.

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Before then your only option was an old theater in downtown Natchez.

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What? you are FOS

They closed decades prior to the mall opening, the "other" theatre remained open a long time after the mall opened in Tracetown.

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Before the civil war, Natchez had more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the U.S.

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Other than the city having more millionaires per capita than any other city in the country at a point in time, one of the most unique things about Natchez was it being such a hilly area.

How hilly was it?

People tied ropes to their push lawnmowers, let the rope out to let them down the hills in their yards, and pulled them back up with the rope. I'm talking their front yards on lots where the house was at the top of the hill and the street, and front edge of their yard was down a very steep hill. No way they could have safely pushed the mower up the hill.

This yard on Pearl Street is nowhere near as steep as the yards in some of the poorer neighborhoods.



More like this one, also on Pearl, before they put these brick retaining walls up.



There were some houses, with no more front yard than this last pic, that had 20+ foot drop offs.

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What? you are FOS

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Maybe I don't remember something from my first eight years of life as clearly as I should. Maybe my parents lied to me to keep from having to take me to the movies. But after Civil Rights protests started downtown, we didn't get to go to a movie until they opened the theater by mall right over the bridge. Is this the one being discussed?

Love old cemetaries... some interesting stuff

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With remote working become more of a norm these cities could be revitalized. A lot of people are fleeing metro areas for affordable living. Not saying it will happen but it's possible.

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And Natchez is trying this right now.

Natchez will pay you $6000 to move to Natchez and buy a home-going after remote workers

Friend,

Suggesting the collapse of Natchez occurred because school bussing started is silly. Natchez was a city built on trade along the river. Its rise to becoming a city was entirely due to cotton. When cotton crashed in America, cities that depended on cotton crashed. New Orleans was able to survive because it had a far better location and did not depend entirely on cotton. As cotton declined, the produce trade kept New Orleans trucking in world commerce. That momentum, of course, meant there was a lot of money in the city, and the city maintained its status as the banking capital of the South, which it had been since the 1830s. New Orleans' role in American banking is quite fascinating, as it is the origin of commonwealth banking. Anyway, New Orleans continued to evolve, due to its more educated inhabitants and better geographic position, leaning later on gas and oil, and later, tourism.

Natchez, on the other hand, is a failed city from a failed economy and society. It was unable to evolve like New Orleans did, and thus, it, like Vicksburg, are no longer cities at all. It is not a bad place to spend a weekend at a Bed and Breakfast, though. But not more than a weekend.

Yours,
TulaneLSU