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The Municipal Building, known today at City Hall at the corner of South Pearl and Market streets. The current building replaced the historic 1837 City Hall and Market.

The man behind the city truck is Natchez Mayor Luther Whittington, who held office when the idea of a new building was conceived and made a reality. Original copper letters and numbers that read Municipal Building and 1924 survive on the parapet of the front wall, though largely obscured by the live oak trees. A bolder, more visible sign above the entry doors identifies the building today as City Hall. The partially raised basement originally housed the police department and city jail.

The beautiful live oak trees in front of the buidling were not an original landscape feature. The front yard is clearly visible and void of trees in the background of a 1952 photo of a street banner identifying the Eisenhower campaign headquarters in the Duffy Hotel, which has since been demolished.

This photo was taken during the building’s demolition and illustrates both its original South Pearl and Market Street facades. The mayor and board of aldermen met in the meeting room on the second story.

The second-story meeting room in 1922 at the death of Mayor William Benbrook, who holds the city record — 33 years — for mayoral service. His picture on the wall and his chair are draped in black.

NATCHEZ — On its 100th year of standing, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson re-dedicated the Natchez City Hall.

Mimi Miller, executive director emerita of the Historic Natchez Foundation, presented her research on the history of Natchez’s current and previous city halls at the rededication ceremony.

The Municipal Building, known today as City Hall at the corner of South Pearl and Market streets, replaced the historic 1837 City Hall and Market, which functioned much like the French Market in New Orleans. City Hall was located on the second floor of that building.

The city hired architect C.H. Lindley, who later designed the Natchez General Hospital, originally known as the Chamberlain Rice Hospital. However, Miller said that Lindsley was soon replaced by H.N. Austin. Lindsley and Austin practiced in Jackson.

Miller said that while the 100th year of the current City Hall is celebrated, it is also the 100th anniversary of the historic preservation in Natchez.

“(City Hall’s) birth gave birth to the historic preservation movement in Natchez,” Miller said. “It was this building that sparked it.”

Natchez resident Miss Charlie Compton led a fight to save the building. “She lost the battle but won the war, so to speak because that fight gave birth to historic preservation here.”

Natchez City Hall is a Mississippi landmark, and as such, the state’s Department of Archives and History controls what is done with it, Miller said.

She discussed the many important moments in Natchez history that have taken place in City Hall, including the Natchez Agreement in 1965.

“When the NAACP gave its list of demands, and the city basically capitulated to every one. That was unprecedented, the NAACP said in its magazine, ‘Crisis,’ “ Miller said. “It changed the whole character of Natchez, that agreement did, and this building played an important role.”

Interestingly, Miller pointed to the two live oaks in the front of city hall, which look as if they are very old.

“There were no live oaks here. Even in the 1950s, in 1952 at least, there were no live oaks in front of City Hall,” she said.

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