In 1798 John Foster platted the sixteen-block Washington grid on a portion of his cotton plantation. In 1802 the Mississippi Territorial legislature voted to relocate the capital from Natchez to Washington and to establish Jefferson College (1601 North Street) in the fledgling town. Elizabeth Female Academy, the state’s first college for women, opened here in 1818 and closed in 1843 (a wayside exhibit at milepost 5.1 on the Natchez Trace Parkway identifies the site). The two colleges were responsible for Washington’s reputation as a rural retreat for intellectuals. A yellow fever epidemic in 1825 hastened the demise of the town, which had begun to decline after it ceased to be the territorial capital and county seat in 1817.
Washington’s original town plan is today interrupted by the four-lane U.S. 61. The one-story Moderne former Washington Consolidated School (1947; 823 U.S. 61 N) and a line of mid-twentieth-century motor court cottages on Wellborn Lane reflect Washington’s twentieth-century highway history. The school’s central auditorium block’s recessed entrance is highlighted by curved concrete panels with streamlined moldings.
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