A grand example of an early vernacular building form, this house features a distinctive roof created by surrounding shed roofs attached high on a side gable. This shape reflects early additions at each gable end. Built for merchant James Moore, the house is one of Mississippi’s earliest buildings in the Federal style, and its doorway fanlights may be the earliest in the state.
The river-facing facade is two stories in height with a first floor that is essentially a raised brick basement, exposed on the front where the ground slopes to the street but beneath the ground on the rear. Travel writer Fortescue Cuming, in Cuming’s Tour to the Western Country: 1807–1809, wrote that he was “much struck with the similarity of Natchez to many of the smaller West Indian towns. … all with balconies and piazzas.” The similarity is understandable since Natchez and the West Indies shared cultural influences, climate, and trade interests.
The large principal room on the main floor is the most finely trimmed and includes a molded cornice and a matching pair of gouge-carved mantels, one of which is original. The room also has a regionally unique ceiling dome that provided extra height for a lighting fixture and was probably originally lined with tin to reflect light. In the mid-1930s, the Natchez Garden Club completed the first restoration undertaken by a private organization in Mississippi and continues to interpret the building as a house museum.