Hazlehurst was incorporated in 1865, and in 1872, when it was designated the county seat, the frame courthouse was moved here from nearby Gallatin, which had been bypassed by the railroad. Like Crystal Springs, Hazlehurst’s economy from the 1880s through the mid-twentieth century rested on truck farming and the cooperatives that shipped produce north on the railroad. Several buildings show the importance of the railroad to the local economy, including the one-story brick former Illinois Central Depot (c. 1925; 138 N. Ragsdale Avenue), now the Mississippi Music Museum, and the two-story brick former Millsaps Hotel (1918; 132 W. Green Street). Industries such as the Hazlehurst Box Factory and the Hazlehurst Oil Mill and Fertilizer Company developed along the railroad south of downtown, but only abandoned fragments survive. Hazlehurst’s historically African American neighborhood, located in the southeast quadrant of the city, housed workers for these and other railroad-oriented industries.
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