History | Myrtle Bank

CIRCA 1835

Myrtle Bank occupies an original Spanish land grant surveyed by Sir William Dunbar and awarded to George Overaker in 1795 for the purpose of building a house. It was reputedly also the site of U.S. surveyor Andrew Ellicot's encampment in 1797.

Overaker built Myrtle Bank in 1818, likely in the style of a one-story frame house with a raised basement encircled by brick pillars. In 1835, Alfred Cochran and his wife, Eliza, great-granddaughter of William Dunbar, purchased Myrtle Bank for $3,000 and started enlarging the home and grounds. At Alfred's death, Eliza's mother, Anne Dunbar Postlethwaite, bought Myrtle Bank for $12,000. In the 1850s, alterations and embellishments were made to Myrtle Bank, likely by wealthy planter Benjamin Wade, who purchased the property in 1856. At Wade's Death in 1858, the house and grounds were leased as The Natchez Young Ladies Institute, a boarding and day school. The school closed in 1861 and during the next 40 years, the grounds were divided into several lots. Descendants of Benjamin Wade sold Myrtle Bank in the early 1870s, after which additional remodeling took place.

Top photo: Exact date unknown; sometime after 1850

THE GANDY HOUSE

In 1957, Dr. Thomas Gandy purchased Myrtle Bank, and in the basement of Myrtle Bank, He tackled a monumental task that helped revive and preserve the history of Natchez. To understand his task at hand, we have to rewind to the 1870s when Mr. Henry Norman arrived in Natchez and started photographing the daily life of his adopted town. He photographed Natchez life until his death in 1913, and his son carried on the family business until his death in 1951. From 1951 until 1960, their negatives - some 75,000 pictures taken over 81 years - remained in crates and cartons. In 1960, Dr. Gandy persuaded Mrs. Norman to sell him the collection. Dr. Gandy, along with his wife and other locals, began a decades-long job of printing, sorting and cataloguing the images that otherwise may have been lost forever.

Dr. and Mrs. Gandy published several books of the Norman photograph collection. There is also a free public gallery of the photographs located in the Stratton Chapel behind First Presbyterian Church on Pearl Street.

Dr. Gandy has since passed and the home has been passed on, but to honor their tremendous contribution to history and the city, Myrtle Bank will remain "The Gandy House." The Bordeauxs are excited to make it their second home and to share it with others interested in the beautiful city of Natchez.

Bottom photo: 1978 by Mrs. Joan Gandy