Early settler John Clark’s daughter Blanche and her husband, attorney J. W. Cutrer, moved the old family home, a two-story wooden building of 1859, to an adjacent lot (211 Clark) to make room for this two-story Italian Renaissance-influenced villa. Its smooth white stuccoed exterior, hipped red tile roof, wide bracketed eaves, arched first-floor fenestration, and opulent interior formed a backdrop to the Cutrers’ lavish parties, which spilled into the now-altered sunken garden at the rear. Tennessee Williams, who spent his early childhood at the nearby Episcopal rectory (106 Sharkey Avenue), reportedly used Blanche’s name for the character in A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and the house as the model for Big Daddy’s residence in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).
The Cutrers died in the early 1930s, and in 1947, the house became the centerpiece and convent of St. Elizabeth’s Catholic School. In 1999, the school moved and sold the property to a consortium led by Delta State University. The new Coahoma County Higher Education Center includes the restored mansion (2003) and the two-story brick and glass Coahoma County Higher Education Center (2009).