Eudora Welty House

The Eudora Welty House & Garden, at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson, Mississippi, was the home of author Eudora Welty for nearly 80 years. It was built by her parents in 1925.[4] Welty and her mother built and tended to the garden located at the side and back of the home over decades. Welty could often be found writing in her bedroom or on the porch, which frequently hosted her peers in writing. The house was first declared a Mississippi Landmark in 2001,[3] added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002,[1] and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004.[2][5]

Eudora Welty House & Garden
Eudora Welty House & Garden [front]
Eudora Welty House is located in Mississippi
Eudora Welty House
Eudora Welty House is located in the United States
Eudora Welty House
Location1119 Pinehurst Street, Jackson, Mississippi
Coordinates32°19′7.7″N 90°10′13.22″W
Built1925
ArchitectWyatt C. Hedrick
Architectural styleTudor Revival
NRHP reference No.02001388
USMS No.049-JAC-5917-NHL-ML
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 21, 2002[1]
Designated NHLAugust 18, 2004[2]
Designated USMSSeptember 21, 2001[3]

The house was restored by the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. In 2006, the house and garden were opened to the public as an author's house museum.[6] The renovation of the house and garden is part of a larger effort to celebrate and promote Mississippi's literary heritage as a means of developing tourism to the state.[7] In 2009, the Education and Visitors Center was opened next door at 1109 Pinehurst Street. There, visitors can purchase tickets to tour the Welty House, see a selection of Welty's literary awards, and explore exhibits based on the author's memoir, One Writer's Beginnings.[8]

The Visitor's Center for the Eudora Welty House and Garden and home to a "Little Library".

The Visitor's Center

The Visitor Center is located next door to the home of Eudora Welty at 1109 Pinehurst Street. This center is used to provide visitors with an overview of Welty's life, writings, and literary achievements. Inside of the visitor's center is a store where visitors can buy books, shirts, and other such memorabilia relating to Eudora Welty. The Visitor Center is also home to a "Little Library," which is a community maintained free library. This is a space dedicated to the preservation of literature.

The Garden

This garden was designed by Chestina Welty, Eudora Welty's mother, in 1925. The garden was often referred to by Eudora and her mother as a labor of love.[9] It is located in the back of Eudora Welty's home and is a popular tourist attraction. The garden has a rose garden section, woodland garden section, and a camellia flower collection. Chestina Welty put enormous effort into the design of the garden, creating a "succession of bloom" throughout the entire year. For example, over 40 varieties of camellias bloom in the garden throughout the winter months. In the summer, the night-blooming cereus plants bloom on the side porch, an event Welty often invited friends to come spectate. Visitors are able to tour and explore the vast amount of different species of flowers growing in the garden, many of which feature in Welty's writing. In The Golden Apples the cereus is depicted as “a naked, luminous, complicated flower.”[10] Welty also wrote extensively about the garden in her letters.[11]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "Eudora Welty House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 12, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  3. "Mississippi Landmarks" (PDF). Mississippi Department of Archives and History. May 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 9, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
  4. "One Writer's Retreat". The Sun Herald. May 2, 2006. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  5. Richard J. Cawthon and Daniel J. Vivian (January 13, 2002). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Eudora Welty House" (pdf). National Park Service.
  6. Roger Mudd (May 4, 2006). "A Shrine to Southern Literature, Slightly Frayed". The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  7. George McNeill (May 2, 2005). "State's Literary History Plays Role in Tourism Development". Mississippi Business Journal. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  8. "Eudora Welty House and Garden". www.mdah.ms.gov. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  9. "The Eudora Welty Foundation » The Garden". Eudorawelty.org. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  10. Eby, Margaret (February 20, 2012). "In Miss Eudora's Garden". The Paris Review. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  11. Crews, Elizabeth (September 27, 2014). "Tell about Night Flowers: Eudora Welty's Gardening Letters, 1940–1949 by Eudora Welty (review)". Eudora Welty Review. 6 (6): 165–167. doi:10.1353/ewr.2014.0009. ISSN 2165-266X. S2CID 192100314.
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