renovation almost complete

By

Nita McCann

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ &045;&045; To those who have pushed for the project, the restoration of the William Johnson House isn’t just a construction project.

Instead, it’s a chance to construct a more complete picture of Natchez’s history.

&uot;Natchez is certainly more than big plantations and big houses,&uot; said Margaret Moss, one of several people who led the purchasing of the house by the Natchez Garden Club in the 1970s.

&uot;Natchez was made up of ordinary people who did extraordinary things but didn’t live in lavish homes. They lived simple lives.&uot;

And now, one of those simple homes with extraordinary stories is close to being open to the public. Restoration of the William Johnson House should be complete by April and the house should be open for public tours in June, said Keith Whisenant, superintendent of the Natchez National Historical Park.

Johnson was a free black man who was known as &uot;the Barber of Natchez&uot; and kept an extensive diary in post-Civil War days &045;&045; what some believe to be one of the most complete records of Natchez at that time.

When the National Park Service, which owns the building, completes its renovations, the house will contain exhibits related to Johnson and the family life and Natchez society of his time.

The McCallum House, which is being rebuilt next door, will contain an information center and Park Service offices.

This week, crews were occupied with installing doors and millwork on the McCallum House; installing a drainage system; and doing plaster work on the Johnson House.

Crews will then install railings on, and a brick sidewalk in front of, both houses; finish inside walls and office space in the McCallum House; landscape; and finish the fire suppression system.

The houses will open in June with temporary exhibits and with some furniture, including major pieces donated to the Park Service by Johnson’s descendants. &uot;It might take a year to get the (permanent) exhibits fabricated,&uot; Whisenant said.

He said he believes it’s important to get the house restored and open in order to tell a story that has been underrepresented in past historical accounts &045;&045; the story of free black people in the South of the 1800s.

&uot;It’s a significant part of African-American history that’s not been told,&uot; Whisenant said.

Just a block away at the antebellum house Texada, Margaret Moss describes herself as being &uot;excited and thankful&uot; that the restoration project is being done. That’s true not only because the project is of historical significance &045;&045; for Moss, it also has personal significance. After all, Moss was a friend and neighbor of Sally Johnson, the last descendent of Johnson to live in the William Johnson House.

&uot;I knew her and became interested in her family’s history, and after reading the book, I became even more interested in it,&uot; Moss said, referring to a text based on Johnson’s diaries.

It was that interest that spurred Moss, along with other members of the Natchez Garden Club, to purchase the William Johnson House in the 1970s.

The club spent funds to preserve the structure and owned it until the 1990s, when ownership was transferred to the city. &uot;Our club did as much as we could financially to preserve (the house) until they could make good use of it, and we’re grateful to the city for buying it and giving it to the Park Service,&uot; Moss said.

The house is an important piece of the area’s history that must be preserved, Moss said. &uot;It’s a unique structure that has an important place in our town, and the man himself was a very important citizen &045;&045; he and his whole family,&uot; she said.

Moss gives much credit for the project to Johnson’s descendants. &uot;They had foresight to realize that the house was important and needed to be saved, not put on market to be used for just anything,&uot; she said.

The restoration project is important, in part, because it shows that there was much more to the South of the 1800s than &uot;Gone with the Wind,&uot; said Ron Miller, executive director of the Historic Natchez Foundation. People from the other regions of the country &uot;have such a two-dimensional idea of what the South is and was,&uot; Miller said. &uot;Nothing could be further from the truth.&uot;

Interpretation of sites such as the William Johnson House, he said, &uot;is a way to show them &045;&045; and sometimes ourselves &045;&045; how much more to the story there is.&uot; For example, the Johnson story shows people that not all black people of the 1800s were enslaved.

The history of black people in Natchez, in particular, &uot;is one that’s so rich in its variety,&uot; Miller said, citing the stories of Johnson and Robert Smith, a black man who built the antebellum house Bontura.

&uot;Here are men who led difficult lives but had successful lives despite those difficulties,&uot; Miller said. Hearing a more complete history, he said, &uot;you begin to be impressed at how many variations a human life could have.&uot;