Church Hill, Mississippi | |
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![]() Christ Church, completed in 1858 | |
Coordinates: 31°42′59″N91°14′17″W / 31.71639°N 91.23806°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Mississippi |
County | Jefferson |
Elevation | 213 ft (65 m) |
Population (1900) | |
• Total | 107 [1] |
Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
Area codes | 601 & 769 |
GNIS feature ID | [2] |
Church Hill is a small unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. [2] It is located eight miles east of the Mississippi River and approximately 18 miles north of Natchez at the intersection of highway 553 and Church Hill Road. [3] Church Hill was a community of wealthy cotton planters and enslaved people before the American Civil War. [3] [1] Soil erosion, which had been going on since well before the Civil War, caused the area to decline into a poor farming community with none of the land under cultivation by 1999. [3] The area is remarkable because its antebellum buildings are mostly intact with few modern buildings having been built. [3]
The Church Hill community got its name from Christ Church - an Episcopal Church located on a terraced hill at the intersection of Church Hill Road and Highway 553. [4] It is the last of three successive buildings. [4] The first building of 1820 was made of logs on population ridge. [4] The second building of 1829 was half mile to the south east of the first on land formerly owned by James G. Wood. [4] The third building was completed in 1858 in the same general location as the second building. [4] This land was donated by Ms James Payne. [4] The fine craftsmanship and decorative details of the third church reflect the great wealth of the area planters in 1858. [4] All of the massive beams in the hammer-beam roof (one of the few in Mississippi) have been stained and false grained. [4] Three of the workmen signed the false graining before it dried. [4]
Across the intersection from the Christ Church is Wagner's Store, which closed in 1998. [3] The store building dates stylistically to ca. 1855-1880 and is one of the oldest country stores remaining in Mississippi. [3] The old community post office operated from the store. [3] Remarkably, the original interior store counters survive. [3]
Church Hill was a community of wealthy cotton planters and the people whom they enslaved before the American Civil War. [3] In antebellum times, most of the area plantations were essentially each self-contained communities isolated in clearings in the woods. [3] With a few exceptions travellers along the area roads just saw woods, with occasional gates that led into the plantations. [3] Soil erosion in the 1800s continually decreased the amount of land that was suitable for farming. [3] After the Civil War the main crop remained cotton until around 1933 when the boll weevil destroyed cotton farming in the area. [3] By this time soil erosion had caused the area to become a poor farming community, and it remained so throughout the twentieth century. [3] Almost none of the land is being farmed as of 1999; thus, the area is more wooded than it was in antebellum times. [3] A large number of the owner's residences and other buildings on these former plantations remain and are privately owned. [3] Among these are The Cedars, Oak Grove, Pecan Grove (also known as the Bluffs), Richland, Springfield, Woodland, and Wyolah. [5] [3] [1] [6]
Antebellum plantations (Gayoso, Pecan Grove, Logonia, Oak Grove, Cedars, Woodland and Springfield) line a twelve-mile stretch of highway 533 that includes Christ Church. [6] Details about many of the area plantations are as follows.