Historic preservation in Natchez was born with Pilgrimage.

Antebellum houses now kept in pristine condition would likely be in ruins had it not been for the annual Pilgrimage, the money it made and the social stir it created, said Ron Miller, executive director of the Historic Natchez Foundation.

“Pilgrimage made preservation an economic activity and a social activity,” Miller said. “It became the economic basis for the houses here to stay painted, to keep the roofs fixed.”

The first Pilgrimage, in 1932, occurred in the middle of the depression. Natchez didn’t have and interstate system or a way to generate money, manager of Natchez Pilgrimage Tours Jim Coy said.

“After three years they had enough money in the coffers to purchase and start restoration on the House on Ellicott Hill.”

And there it began. By 1976 the two garden clubs owned and maintained four antebellum houses. Scores of private homeowners had joined the Pilgrimage, opening their own houses to tours.

“When you have people coming from all over to go through your home, it inspires the owner of the home to make repairs and try to keep it up,” Coy said.

Houses on tour receive a portion of the Pilgrimage profits to pay for house upkeep.

Preservation became a domino effect for local homeowners, longtime Pilgrimage supporter Amon Jordan said.

Jordan moved to Natchez in 1945 and said she’s seen the effects the annual tours have had on preservation.

“It made everyone aware of what to do and what not to do,” she said. “It has certainly improved our town greatly.”

Homeowners began watching other historic houses grow and develop and everyone learned to put their money back into their houses, Jordan said.

Being a part of Pilgrimage was the socially desirable thing to do, Miller said.

If these houses hadn’t become a money-making venture, the history would have been lost, he said.

Without the history, Natchez would not be a tourism destination, Miller said.

“Our tourism is based on (the fact that) there’s no better place to see what life was like for rich cotton planters than in Natchez, Miss.,” Miller said.

“Where would we be without tourism?

“We’d be economically dead without these big houses.”