Parlor of Melrose Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi

Ranger-guided tours of Melrose Mansion are held daily at the top of every hour from 10 AM to 3 PM (no tour at noon). There is a fee for this tour and it must be paid in cash or check only—National Park passes are not accepted. For the current schedule, visit the National Park Service’s official Operating Hours and Seasons web page for Natchez National Historical Park. Current fees are listed on the park’s Fees and Passes web page.

Tours last about 45 minutes and cover the first and second floors. Tickets can be purchased at the Visitor Center building, which is housed in the former kitchen and slave quarters. This is one of two identical buildings located next to the mansion, the other being the laundry and dairy building. For the average person today, one of these buildings would make a fine home, so it seems surprising that they would have been used to house slaves. Let’s not forget that back then, as is the case today, that these mansions were really a way for the owners to show off their wealth. Even the slave quarters had to be top notch. The slaves lived on the top floor, and the working areas were on the bottom.

Former kitchen and slave quarters, now the Natchez National Historical Park Visitor Center

You are welcome to take photos inside the house, but without a flash. It is dark inside, but if you set your camera’s ISO high enough, you should be able to get a decent photo. Today’s cameras do a pretty good job of controlling digital noise that plagues poorly lit photographs.

The tour covers the first and second floors of the home. The design of the two floors is identical, each having a large, main hall with rooms bordering it on three sides. All rooms are connected to each other, so a person can move from room to room via doorways with no need to reenter the hall.

The first stop is the drawing room, the area where guests were seated and entertained when first coming to the mansion. The name has nothing to do with drawing, but instead comes from the term withdrawing room, as in a “room to withdraw to.” This is similar to today’s living room and is also called a sitting room.

Drawing room of Melrose Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi

Next to the sitting room is the dining room. The most interesting aspect of this room is the large, mahogany fan that hangs from the ceiling. Popular in India, this is called a punkah and resembles a giant paddle. A young slave boy, called a punkhawallah, would stand in the corner during mealtime and gently pull on a rope that would cause the punkah to rock back and forth, creating a breeze that would cool the room as well as keep the flies off the food. You can see the rope in the following photos. Today this would be operated by a college graduate who couldn’t find a job.

Dining Room of Melrose Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi

Punkah hangs from the ceiling and is operated by a slave boy

The other rooms on the bottom floor are the parlor and the library.

Portrait over the parlor fireplace is of Julia Davis (Kelly), daughter of Melrose Mansion’s second owners

Library of Melrose Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi

The top floor is comprised entirely of bedrooms. Other than when guests came calling, the bedrooms were where family members spent most of their time. Of course they are all as large as entire floors of many apartments and small homes, so there was plenty of room for doing much more than sleeping. There are a few things to note about the bedrooms. One is that there is a “day bed” at the foot of each bed. Day beds were meant for taking naps or resting on during the day. They were also used by a woman when giving birth. A second thing to note is the hooks on the canopies above the beds (best seen in the third photo below). These were used to hold mosquito netting. There were no screens on windows in the mid-1800s, so flies, mosquitoes, and other bugs were more common than human guests.

Master bedroom of Melrose Mansion

Day bed sits a the foot of the main bed, Melrose Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi

Hooks on the canopy hold mosquito netting

Child’s bedroom at Melrose Mansion in Natchez Mississippi

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