Founded as Holmes County’s seat in 1833, Lexington is dominated by the courthouse (YB41) on a square where two early roads meet, the east—west Tchula-Durant Road (MS 12) and the north-south Carrollton-Yazoo City Road (MS 17). An 1886 railroad branch joining the main lines at Durant and Tchula brought the county’s cotton here to be processed and shipped out. Only the Lexington Compress Company Cotton Warehouse (c. 1910; Yazoo Street at the railroad) survives from this industrial past. Two important black institutions stand on MS 17 just south of the railroad: St. Paul Church of God in Christ (1907), considered the Mother Church of the denomination, and the affiliated Saints Academy, founded in 1918.
Architect William Nichols died in Lexington in 1853 while he was engaged on his last project, Lexington’s Male and Female Academy (1854 completed; 1904 burned). His ornately carved marble tombstone stands in Lexington’s Odd Fellows Cemetery (Rockport Road, north of Cemetery Street).
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