Belmont Plantation
Highway 1 South, Wayside
One of the few antebellum homes in the Mississippi Delta to escape burning by Union forces during the Civil War, Belmont was built circa 1857 by W.W. Worthington. In 1946, Mississippi Governor Dennis Murphree founded Belmont Hunting Lodge; today the property is a private residence.
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Mount Holly Plantation
Highway 1 South, at Lake Washington
In the town of Foote is a magnificent mansion once owned by the family of Shelby Foote, the noted Civil War historian. Mount Holly, built of slave-made brick with 14-foot ceilings and 2-foot-thick walls, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house, one of the finest examples of Italianate architecture in the State, is now a private residence.
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Linden Plantation
Linden-on-the-lake B&B
Lake Washington Road
Phone: 662-839-2181
Built in the early 1900’s and now operated as a bed and breakfast, this 20-room mansion is a stunning example of turn-of-the-century Colonial Revival architecture. It sits on what is believed to be the site of the first house built in the territory and is operated by descendants of the original owners.
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Old Highway 61
The Original Blues Highway
When Delta Bluesmen took Highway 61 to the industrial North to seek work, they also took their music. Today, the music born in the Delta is revered worldwide and recognized as the root music for jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and hip hop. As a fitting tribute to early Delta Bluesmen such as Robert Johnson, Son Thomas and Muddy Waters, as well as their contemporaries – B.B King, Little Richard and others, the Delta Blues Festival is held in Washington County each September. This, along with the Highway 61 Blues Festival in Leland each June, attracts music fans from all over the world.
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First National Bank Building
302 Main Street
This Neoclassical Revival building was built in 1903 by the first federally chartered bank in Washington County. First National’s founding president, James E. Negus, selected the building’s marble and stained-glass windows from Italy. Today, the restored building houses the Greenville Municipal Court.
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St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church
412 Main Street
Phone: 662-335-5251
Open: Mass Saturday, 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, 8:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 5:30 p.m.
This fine Neo-Gothic Church was erected in 1907 and has a sister church in Haarlem, Holland. The church was designed and financed by Father P. J. Korstenbroek, a Dutch nobleman who was the parish priest for 33 years. Father Korstenbroek’s charity was memorialized in Lanterns on the Levee, the Memoirs of William Alexander Percy. St. Joseph’s stained-glass windows are from the Munich studio of Emil Frei.
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First Baptist Church
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Hebrew Union Temple
Goldstein Nelken Solomon
Century of History Museum
504 Main Street
Phone: 662-332-4153
Open: Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – Noon
Greenville’s Jewish history dates to 1867 and includes the city’s first elected mayor, Leopold Wilzinski. An earlier structure was built on this site and dedicated in 1880. The current temple was erected in 1906 and boasts exquisite stained-glass windows. Housed within its walls is the Century of History Museum detailing the contributions and culture of Greenville’s early Jewish residents.
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Washington County Courthouse & Arboretum
Corner Washington Avenue and Edison Street
The original courthouse burned by Union troops during the Civil War was replaced in 1890 with a structure comprised primarily of Illinois brownstone. Its original planners were avid conservationists and landscaped the grounds with a variety of trees indigenous to the area, creating the Courthouse Arboretum. The confederate monument located in the Arboretum is most noteworthy. It, like many of its kind in Mississippi, faces south.
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Mt. Horeb M. B. Church
538 Nelson Street
Phone: 662-335-1605
Open: Sunday Services, 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
For 140 years, Mt. Horeb Missionary Baptist Church has been an important part of the city’s religious life. The congregation was established in 1864; however, its first church structure was not built until 1868 on Levee Street. The church moved to its present site circa 1909. The present structure was built in 1971.
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St. Matthew AME Church
514 Nelson Street
Phone: 662-335-4479
Open: Sunday Services, 11:00 a.m.
St. Matthew African Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1867, the first AME church established in the Delta and the fourth in Mississippi. The church’s original site on Levee Street was swallowed up by the Mississippi, forcing the church to relocate to its present site in 1890.
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Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church
422 E. Gloster St.
Phone: 662-332-0891
Open: Tours Available Upon Request
For nearly a century, this congregation has been dedicated to educating area youth. In 1910, the Divine Word Missionaries established a parochial school for African-American youth. On the same site in 1920, Father Matthew Christmann helped form St. Augustine Seminary, the first of its kind in the country to train and instruct African-American priests. The current Romanesque Revival structure was built in 1828.
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Holt Collier Historic Marker
Live Oak Cemetery
How The Teddy Bear Got Its Name
In 1903, noted outdoorsman and confederate scout Holt Collier headed up a bear hunting expedition for President Theodore Roosevelt. The night before the Mississippi Delta bear hunt, Collier, other hunters and President Roosevelt sat around a campfire telling stories. It was then that Collier promised to capture a bear for the President. The next morning, Collier did capture a bear. When the President was alerted, he had so much sympathy for the bear he could not shoot it. Later a political cartoonist popularized the event, and a toy maker named his stuffed toys “Teddy Bears,” a title now famous worldwide. Holt Collier, still known in the Mississippi Delta as the greatest bear hunter of all time, is buried in historic Live Oak Cemetery.
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Greenville’s Historic Cemeteries
Jewish Cemetery, 1000 south Main Street
Greenville Cemetery, South Main at Washington
Live Oak Cemetery, south Main at Crescent Street
Chinese Cemetery, 116 Crescent St.
These final resting places tell volumes about the men and women who were Greenville’s early residents: bankers and business people, politicians and former slaves, writers and teachers, community and religious leaders, and people from every walk of life.
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Cotton Row
200 Block of Main Street
The classical architecture of the late 19th century lives on here, long after Delta cotton fortunes were made and lost. Today Cotton Row is home to various law offices, accounting firms and merchants.
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Old Offices of the Delta Democrat Times
Corner of Main and Walnut Street
This historic structure, built in 1881, was an inspired setting for Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Hodding Carter, Jr., who penned editorials advocating racial and religious tolerance.
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*Information on this page provided by the Washington County Convention & Visitors Bureau |
