Elizabeth Female Academy Site (No. 101-3X) | |
![]() The ruins | |
Nearest city | Natchez, Mississippi |
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Coordinates | 31°34′28.9″N91°17′38.1″W / 31.574694°N 91.293917°W |
Area | 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) |
Built | 1818 |
NRHP reference No. | 77000109 [1] |
Added to NRHP | May 6, 1977 |
The Elizabeth Female Academy, founded in 1818 in the town of Washington, was the first female educational institution in Mississippi. It was named after Mrs. Elizabeth Roach (later Greenfield), who donated the land on which the school was located. [2]
The academy received its charter from the State Assembly on February 17, 1819. [3] The school was operated by Methodists, spiritual culture was emphasized over training for a profession. The curriculum included chemistry, biology, natural and moral philosophy, botany and Latin, among other subjects. [4] John James Audubon taught drawing there in May and June 1822. [5]
The school closed in 1845, [6] due in part to the relocation of the state capital from Natchez to Jackson, the general shift in the center of population, and several epidemics of yellow fever in the area. The site was reduced to ruins by a fire in the late 1870s. Part of a brick wall is all that now remains of the Academy buildings. [4]
The site of the Academy was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. [4] A parking area with interpretive signs and a path to the ruins is located at mile marker 4.1 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. [7]
Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,538. The county seat is Natchez.
Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 109,145. The county seat is Canton. The county is named for Founding Father and U.S. President James Madison.
Hinds County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. With its county seats, Hinds is the most populous county in Mississippi with a 2020 census population of 227,742 residents. Hinds County is a central part of the Jackson metropolitan statistical area. It is a professional, educational, business and industrial hub in the state. It is bordered on the northwest by the Big Black River and on the east by the Pearl River. It is one county width away from the Yazoo River and the southern border of the Mississippi Delta.
Cherokee is a town in west Colbert County, Alabama, United States. Located near the Tennessee River, it is part of the Florence–Muscle Shoals metropolitan area, known as "The Shoals". As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 1,048.
Natchez, officially the City of Natchez, is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.
Tupelo is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. With an estimated population of 38,300, Tupelo is the 7th most populous city in Mississippi and is considered a commercial, industrial, and cultural hub of North Mississippi.
The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers.
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a national parkway in the Southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Natchez Trace and preserves sections of that original trail. Its central feature is a two-lane road that extends 444 miles (715 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. Access to the parkway is limited, with more than 50 access points in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The southern end of the route is in Natchez at its intersection with Liberty Road, and the northern end is northeast of Fairview, Tennessee, in the suburban community of Pasquo, at an intersection with Tennessee State Route 100. In addition to Natchez and Nashville, larger cities along the route include Jackson and Tupelo, Mississippi, and Florence, Alabama.
Washington is an unincorporated community in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Located along the lower Mississippi, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Natchez, it was the second and longest-serving capital of the Mississippi Territory.
Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site memorializes the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads, in which a U.S. Army force was defeated by a smaller Confederate force commanded by Major-General Nathan Bedford Forrest on June 10, 1864, but nonetheless secured Union supply lines between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Tupelo National Battlefield commemorates the Battle of Tupelo, also known as the Battle of Harrisburg, fought from July 14 to 15, 1864, near Tupelo, Mississippi during the American Civil War. The Union victory over Confederate forces in northeast Mississippi ensured the safety of Sherman's supply lines during the Atlanta Campaign.
The Emerald Mound site, also known as the Selsertown site, is a Plaquemine culture Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE. It is the type site for the Emerald Phase of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology and was still in use by the later historic Natchez people for their main ceremonial center. The platform mound is the second-largest Mississippian period earthwork in the country, after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois.
Leiper's Fork is an unincorporated rural village in Williamson County, Tennessee. It has a population of about 650 on an area of about 1,100 acres (450 ha). Most of the village shares a ZIP code with Franklin.
Seven segments of the historic Natchez Trace are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Also there are additional NRHP-listed structures and other sites along the Natchez Trace, which served the travelers of the trace and survive from the era of its active use.
The Boyd Mounds Site (22MD512) is an archaeological site from the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian period located in Madison County, Mississippi near Ridgeland. Many of the mounds were excavated by The National Park Service in 1964. It is located at mile 106.9 on the old Natchez Trace, now the Natchez Trace Parkway. It was added to the NRHP on July 14, 1989 as NRIS number 89000784.
The Colonel James Drane House is a frontier I-house built from 1846 to 1848. It is located on the historic Natchez Trace, at mile marker 180.7 on the modern Natchez Trace Parkway in French Camp, Mississippi, USA. It was built for James Drane, a state politician.
The John Gordon House is a historic brick home located along the Old Natchez Trace near Williamsport, Tennessee, within the boundaries of the Natchez Trace Parkway, a National Park Service unit.
Pharr Mounds is a Middle Woodland period archaeological site located near Tupelo in parts of Itawamba and Prentiss counties in northern Mississippi. This complex was made of earthwork mounds.
The Bynum Mound and Village Site (22CS501) is a Middle Woodland period archaeological site located near Houston in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The complex of six burial mounds was in use during the Miller 1 and Miller 2 phases of the Miller culture and was built between 100 BC and 100 AD. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 as part of the Natchez Trace Parkway at milepost 232.4.
Rocky Springs is a ghost town and historic site located in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States, between Old Port Gibson Road and the Natchez Trace Parkway. The old town site can be viewed by the public during daylight hours. Rocky Springs and the surrounding area is maintained by the National Park Service.