One thing I haven’t mentioned much of is the Jewish community in the south. It was always smaller than the north, but it was there. The biggest community was in Memphis, probably still is. Sure a ton of Jews are moving to Nashville these days – but most don’t care about Judaism.
It was nice to see a beautiful large synagogue in the middle of downtown Natchez, not off on the edge somewhere. A number of the beautiful houses were also built by the Jewish merchants that came and were part of the cotton trade.
This is 11 years before Los Angeles had a Jewish Temple, I know, we are the Wild West, but this tells me a lot. The large Jewish migration starts along with the Germans in 1848, so maybe before that there wasn’t much difference in the size of Jewish populations between north and south.
Side view of the Temple. Today there is an effort to save the building. There really isn’t much of a Jewish Community here anymore. I hope they do save it and I hope that other Jewish communities in the south come and use the building from time to time. Its’ not a synagogue if it’s just an empty relic.
We toured inside a local house, and from the second floor balcony got a better view of the dome on the temple.
The home was Magnolia Hall, today the headquarters of the Garden Club. The club used to be a women only club, today they have men as well. Such as our guide. The home was built in 1858, it went through many iterations, so what we saw as far as furnishings were all accurate to the period, but none came from the house.
I enjoyed these Parisian porcelains, named thus because they aren’t from the big famous porcelain manufacturers, but they are from Paris. This one isn’t porcelain, oops.
A very impressive silver tea and coffee set. Since the Garden Club owns the house they not only give tours. They also have events here and yes, the house is available for rent. The Garden Club is similar to the Pasadena Hunt Club in that both sponsor the big events of the year – here the Rose Parade, in Natchez there is an annual ball as well.
A small section of a wall tapestry. You didn’t think I’d ignore the textiles did you??
This fruit bowl is made entirely out of wax. Some very special process since in over 150 years it hasn’t melted in the hot humid summer heat.
A Childs’ rocking chair. The caning is still in decent shape.
What is this??? A baby walker, yes, even back 200 years ago they had this contraption! Who knew?
They store the gowns of the former presidents of the Club here. I hate to say this, most were pretty tacky. Not made of quality fabric. They do display this corset and hoop to show the undergarments that created that famous look of antebellum dresses. The guide talked about tightening the corset so much the women couldn’t breath. I corrected him. He didn’t like that – well I learned that in a preservation course. Well, to be kind I said – then the information about that has changed. the corset was like a bra – supportive, not restrictive, and the way to give the illusion of a tiny waist is the hoops, accentuate the hips and beyond and the waist looks small. I think that might have been the last comment I made about anything on the tour.
Someone donate this wonderful old hand crank sewing machine. The crank itself is missing. This is probably from around 1880. To me this is a thing of beauty!
Leah