Eudora Welty House

Last updated

Eudora Welty House & Garden
The Eudora House and Garden Museum.jpg
Eudora Welty House & Garden [front]
USA Mississippi location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location1119 Pinehurst Street, Jackson, Mississippi
Coordinates 32°19′7.7″N90°10′13.22″W / 32.318806°N 90.1703389°W / 32.318806; -90.1703389
Built1925
Architect Wyatt C. Hedrick
Architectural style Tudor Revival
NRHP reference No. 02001388
USMS No.049-JAC-5917-NHL-ML
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 21, 2002 [1]
Designated NHLAugust 18, 2004 [2]
Designated USMSSeptember 21, 2001 [3]

The Eudora Welty House & Garden, at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson, Mississippi, was the home of author Eudora Welty for nearly 80 years. It was built by her parents in 1925. [4] Welty and her mother built and tended to the garden located at the side and back of the home over decades. Welty could often be found writing in her bedroom or on the porch, which frequently hosted her peers in writing. The house was first declared a Mississippi Landmark in 2001, [3] added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, [1] and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004. [2] [5]

Contents

The house was restored by the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. In 2006, the house and garden were opened to the public as an author's house museum. [6] The renovation of the house and garden is part of a larger effort to celebrate and promote Mississippi's literary heritage as a means of developing tourism to the state. [7] In 2009, the Education and Visitors Center was opened next door at 1109 Pinehurst Street. There, visitors can purchase tickets to tour the Welty House, see a selection of Welty's literary awards, and explore exhibits based on the author's memoir, One Writer's Beginnings. [8]

The Visitor Center for the Eudora Welty House and Garden and home to a "Little Library". Eudora Welty Home and Garden Visitor Center.png
The Visitor Center for the Eudora Welty House and Garden and home to a "Little Library".

The Visitor Center

The Visitor Center is located next door to the home of Eudora Welty at 1109 Pinehurst Street. This center is used to provide visitors with an overview of Welty's life, writings, and literary achievements. Inside of the visitor center is a store where visitors can buy books, shirts, and other such memorabilia relating to Eudora Welty. The Visitor Center is also home to a "Little Library," which is a community maintained free library. This is a space dedicated to the preservation of literature.

The Garden

This garden was designed by Chestina Welty, Eudora Welty's mother, in 1925. The garden was often referred to by Eudora and her mother as a labor of love. [9] It is located in the back of Eudora Welty's home and is a popular tourist attraction. The garden has a rose garden section, woodland garden section, and a camellia flower collection. Chestina Welty put enormous effort into the design of the garden, creating a "succession of bloom" throughout the entire year. For example, over 40 varieties of camellias bloom in the garden throughout the winter months. In the summer, the night-blooming cereus plants bloom on the side porch, an event Welty often invited friends to come spectate. Visitors are able to tour and explore the vast amount of different species of flowers growing in the garden, many of which feature in Welty's writing. In The Golden Apples the cereus is depicted as “a naked, luminous, complicated flower.” [10] Welty also wrote extensively about the garden in her letters. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eudora Welty</span> American short story writer, novelist and photographer (1909–2001)

Eudora Alice Welty was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yaddo</span> Artists community in Saratoga Springs, New York

Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400-acre (160 ha) estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment." On March 11, 2013 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowan Oak</span> Historic house in Mississippi, United States

Rowan Oak was the home of author William Faulkner in Oxford, Mississippi. It is a primitive Greek Revival house built in the 1840s by Colonel Robert Sheegog, an Irish immigrant planter from Tennessee. Faulkner purchased the house when it was in disrepair in 1930 and did many of the renovations himself. Other renovations were done in the 1950s. One of its more famous features is the outline of Faulkner's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel A Fable, penciled in graphite and red on the plaster walls of his office. It is now owned and operated by the University of Mississippi as a museum, and is open to visitors year-round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mount (Lenox, Massachusetts)</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Mount (1902) is a country house in Lenox, Massachusetts, the home of noted American author Edith Wharton, who designed the house and its grounds and considered it her "first real home." The estate, located in The Berkshires, is open to the public. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park</span> United States historic place

Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over 400 acres (160 ha) located in the village of Upper Brookville in the town of Oyster Bay, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bok Tower Gardens</span> United States historic place

Bok Tower Gardens is a 250-acre (100 ha) contemplative garden and bird sanctuary located atop Iron Mountain, north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States, created by Edward Bok in the 1920s. Formerly known as the Bok Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, the gardens' attractions include the Singing Tower and its 60-bell carillon, the Bok Exedra, the Pinewood Estate now known as El Retiro, the Pine Ridge Trail, and the Visitor Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden</span> United States historic place

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is a 66-acre (27 ha) botanical garden located at 8525 Garland Road in East Dallas, Texas, on the southeastern shore of White Rock Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris–Butler House</span> Historic house in Indiana, United States

The Morris–Butler House is a Second Empire-style house built about 1864 in the Old Northside Historic District of Indianapolis, Indiana. Restored as a museum home by Indiana Landmarks between 1964 and 1969, the American Civil War-era residence was the non-profit organization's first preservation project. Restoration work retained some of its original architectural features, and the home was furnished in Victorian and Post-Victorian styles. Its use was changed to a venue for Indiana Landmarks programs, special events, and private rentals following a refurbishment in 2013. Regular daily tours of the property have been discontinued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George C. Marshall's Dodona Manor</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Dodona Manor, the former home of General George Catlett Marshall (1880–1959), is a National Historic Landmark and historic house museum at 312 East Market Street in Leesburg, Virginia. It is owned by the George C. Marshall International Center, which has restored the property to its Marshall-era appearance of the 1950s. It is nationally significant as the home of George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army during World War II, Secretary of State, President of the American Red Cross, and Secretary of Defense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwood Cemetery (Jackson, Mississippi)</span> Historic cemetery in Hinds County, Mississippi

Greenwood Cemetery is a cemetery located in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. Still in use, it was established by a federal land grant on November 21, 1821. It was originally known simply as "The Graveyard" and later as "City Cemetery" before the present name was adopted in 1899. It is the final resting place of Confederate generals, former governors of Mississippi, mayors of Jackson, as well as other notable figures, the most recent of whom is internationally acclaimed author Eudora Welty. The graves of over 100 "unknown" Confederate soldiers are also located here. Greenwood Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Mississippi Landmark in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlington (Natchez, Mississippi)</span> Historic house in Mississippi, United States

Arlington is a historic Federal style house and outbuildings in Natchez, Mississippi. The 55-acre (22 ha) property, which includes three contributing buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It was further declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Following a fire that destroyed much of the main house, it was placed on Mississippi's 10 most endangered historic places for 2009 by the Mississippi Heritage Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willa Cather House</span> Historic house in Nebraska, United States

The Willa Cather House, also known as the Willa Cather Childhood Home, is a historic house museum at 241 North Cedar Street in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Built in 1878, it is the house where author Willa Cather (1873–1947) grew up. Cather's descriptions of frontier life in Nebraska were an important part of literary canon of the early 20th century. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971. The house is one of eight structures that make up the Willa Cather State Historic Site, which is owned by the Willa Cather Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ripshin Farm</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Ripshin Farm, also known as the Sherwood Anderson Farm is a historic farm property at the junction of Routes 603 and 732 near Troutdale, Virginia. It was developed as a summer home and later year-round home by writer Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941), and is where he wrote most of his later works. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

Hubert Creekmore was an American poet and writer from the small Mississippi town of Water Valley. Creekmore was born into one of the oldest Southern families of the area but he would grow up to embody ideals very different from the conservative Southern principles by which he was raised.

A Mississippi Landmark is a building officially nominated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and approved by each county's chancery clerk. The Mississippi Landmark designation is the highest form of recognition bestowed on properties by the state of Mississippi, and designated properties are protected from changes that may alter the property's historic character. Currently there are 890 designated landmarks in the state. Mississippi Landmarks are spread out between eighty-one of Mississippi's eighty-two counties; only Issaquena County has no such landmarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Why I Live at the P.O.</span> Short story by Eudora Welty

"Why I Live at the P.O." is a short story written by Eudora Welty, American writer and photographer. It was published in her collection of stories named A Curtain of Green (1941). The work was inspired by a photograph taken by Welty that depicts a woman ironing at the back of a post office. The story is classified as an example of Southern realism. "Why I Live at the P.O." is one of Welty's most popular and frequently anthologized stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin (Rome City, Indiana)</span> Historic house in Indiana, United States

The Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin, known as the Cabin at Wildflower Woods and the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site, is the former home of Gene Stratton-Porter, a noted Indiana author, naturalist, and nature photographer. The two-story, fourteen-room cabin, which was built in 1914, is located at Sylvan Lake near Rome City in Noble County, Indiana. Stratton-Porter lived full-time in the cabin from 1914 through 1919, then relocated to homes in California, where she continued to write and founded a movie studio. She returned to Wildflower Woods in Rome City for brief visits until her death in 1924. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

<i>Delta Wedding</i>

Delta Wedding is a 1946 Southern fiction novel by Eudora Welty. Set in 1923, the novel tells of the experiences of the Fairchild family in a domestic drama-filled week leading up to Dabney Fairchild's wedding to the family overseer, Troy Flavin, during an otherwise unexceptional year in the Mississippi Delta.

The literature of Mississippi, United States, includes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Mississippi has a literary tradition that arose from a diverse mix of cultures and races. Traditional themes from this genre of literature lean towards the past, conflict and change, and southern history in general; however, in the modern era, work have shifted towards deeply Southern works that do not rely on these traditional themes.

The Pinehurst Historic District in Tuscaloosa, Alabama is a residential historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The listing included 17 contributing buildings and nine non-contributing ones.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Eudora Welty House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 12, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  3. 1 2 "Mississippi Landmarks" (PDF). Mississippi Department of Archives and History. May 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 9, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
  4. "One Writer's Retreat". The Sun Herald. May 2, 2006. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  5. Richard J. Cawthon and Daniel J. Vivian (January 13, 2002). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Eudora Welty House" (pdf). National Park Service.
  6. Roger Mudd (May 4, 2006). "A Shrine to Southern Literature, Slightly Frayed". The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  7. George McNeill (May 2, 2005). "State's Literary History Plays Role in Tourism Development". Mississippi Business Journal. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  8. "Eudora Welty House and Garden". www.mdah.ms.gov. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  9. "The Eudora Welty Foundation » The Garden". Eudorawelty.org. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  10. Eby, Margaret (February 20, 2012). "In Miss Eudora's Garden". The Paris Review. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  11. Crews, Elizabeth (September 27, 2014). "Tell about Night Flowers: Eudora Welty's Gardening Letters, 1940–1949 by Eudora Welty (review)". Eudora Welty Review. 6 (6): 165–167. doi:10.1353/ewr.2014.0009. ISSN   2165-266X. S2CID   192100314.