Named for a nineteenth-century estate that was developed as a Presbyterian college now known as Belhaven University, Belhaven is the state’s largest and most architecturally distinguished early-twentieth-century neighborhood. After the streetcar extended its N. State Street line to Fortification Street in 1875 and then to the Mississippi Lunatic Asylum around 1900, the neighborhood developed east from N. State, first with short blocks and later with long automobile-oriented blocks farther east. Over twenty subdivisions—some still marked by brick entrance piers—combine in a loose, sometimes curvilinear grid crossed by east-west boulevards Pinehurst and Poplar. Fortification Street, Jackson’s defensive line during the Civil War and its northern border until 1908, bisects the neighborhood.
Two automobile-oriented buildings are the Tudor Revival English Village Shopping Center (c. 1929, E. J. Hull; 1941 addition, N. W. Overstreet) at 904 E. Fortification and the Colonial Revival Shady Nook Service Station (c. 1928, A. Hays Town; 944 Poplar Boulevard). Belhaven boasts the state’s largest concentration of early apartment buildings and courts, notably the Tudor Revival Orkin Apartments (1937–1939, Fort and White) at the corner of Belhaven and Peachtree streets. Larger apartment complexes from the 1960s occupy sections of Belhaven Heights, south of E. Fortification.
N. W. Overstreet helped develop Gillespie Street (see JM42) and built his house here. Other architects who lived in Belhaven include Harry N. Austin (702 N. State), R. W. Naef (1518 Lyncrest Avenue), A. Hays Town (100 E. Riverview Drive), R. C. Jones (1739 Piedmont Street), W. E. Mallett (1305 Belvoir Place), James M. Spain (1001 Belhaven Street), and James T. Canizaro, who lived in his Kenwood Apartments (JM41).
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