Cottage Gardens
- Jay Brothers
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
816 Myrtle Ave. Natchez, MS
Circa 1795. 1-story late Federal home of cypress and poplar timbers
Smaller and less conspicuous than the grander mansions of later years.
Done Jose Vidal built his home on a Spanish land grant. Cottage Gardens was named for the beautiful gardens surrounding the home. Vidal was one of the last Spanish-appinted governors of the Natchez District.
Adam Bower purchased the home in 1828 and likely remodeled it.
The gardens were destroyed by Federal troops in the Civil War who used it as a pasture for their horses.
Later, the Foster family owned the home for several generations.
Earl Norman, a local photographer (1888-1951) owned Cottage Gardens). His father Henry C. Norman had opened Norman Studios in Natchez in 1877, and had been in the photography business since the 1850s. His son Earl took over the studio, and Norman and his wife Mary Kate Foster Norman resided at Cottage Gardens. In 1940, Mary Kate Norman (1896-1977), a Foster heir, and Karl Norman were owners. In 1960, Mary Kate sold the collections of her father and father-in-law to Thomas H. Gandy who preserved and catalogued it.
Nineteen sixty-three saw William "Billy" C. and Sarah Blewett McGehee purchase and restore the property. The couple well-known in the antiques community and also restored Magnolia Hills and Dr. Dub's Town House. She was a Natchez native and served for years on the Natchez Preservation Committee. Their daughter was Milly McGehee, a renowned antiques dealer and authority.
A decade later, in 1973, Tom H. (1916-1988) and Dorothy Jane (1919-1996) McNeil acquired Cottage Garden. The McNeil family came down to Kentucky and then to Mississippi and became very prosperous and bought great tracts of land. There is likely a tie to Grace McNiel-Suget Macneil in Memphis.
In 2000, Betty Jo and Jerry Krouse owned the home. Krouse ownes Krouse and Company which operates Natchez Pecan Shelling Company and Krouse Metals. NR 1979
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