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Mississippi » Natchez District » Claiborne County » Port Gibson and Vicinity » PORT GIBSON CITY HALL (IRWIN RUSSELL MEMORIAL BUILDING)

PORT GIBSON CITY HALL (IRWIN RUSSELL MEMORIAL BUILDING)

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c. 1838; 1990–1992 restored, J. Russell Perkins. 1005 College St.

First occupied by the Port Gibson Academy, this two-story brick building became home in 1881 to the Port Gibson Female College. Poet Irwin Russell, a Port Gibson native whose father taught here, was among the first to employ Negro dialect as a serious literary device, and his Christmas-Night in the Quarters (1878) influenced other writers. In 1933, the school closed, and the Irwin Russell Memorial Association bought the block and donated it to the city. Minimal Greek Revival ornament includes the pilastered entrance portico supported on fluted tapered piers and the full entablature on three sides. The small panes in the twelve-light sash windows were old-fashioned and contrast with the large-paned, more expensive six-over-six windows seen in contemporary Natchez houses. The square cupola was reconstructed during a 1990–1992 restoration.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Jennifer V.O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio with Mary Warren Miller
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Data

What's Nearby

ST. JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
TEMPLE GEMILUTH CHASSED
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BERNHEIMER COMPLEX

Citation

Jennifer V.O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio with Mary Warren Miller, "PORT GIBSON CITY HALL (IRWIN RUSSELL MEMORIAL BUILDING)", [Port Gibson, Mississippi], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MS-02-ND77.

Print Source

Buildings of Mississippi, Jennifer V. O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio. With Mary Warren Miller. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021, 63-63.

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