Come On In
This fall, two Natchez garden clubs will let you past the front door of 14 historic homes, including eight that spend the rest of the year closed to the public.
There is wallpaper at Lansdowne that has been on the walls since 1853. It’s original Zuber, printed in France, and you can’t see it from the road. That’s the catch with Natchez. So many of the city’s most interesting houses are still private homes, which means the architecture you came for often ends at the front gate.
Natchez Fall Pilgrimage 2026 is the exception, and two garden clubs are each running their own. On September 17–19, 24–26, and October 1–3, the Pilgrimage Garden Club opens eight private historic homes to visitors, and the people who keep these houses show you through rooms the public doesn’t otherwise see. The Natchez Garden Club’s Pilgrimage runs September 26 through October 17 and adds six more homes.
The Pilgrimage Garden Club’s lineup rewards curiosity. The Burn, built in 1832, is one of the city’s earliest Greek Revival homes, complete with a semi-spiral staircase. The furnishings at Green Leaves have stayed with the house for more than 170 years, and Myrtle Terrace still holds its Empire and Victorian pieces. Concord Quarters, built around 1819, is the only freestanding former slave dwelling in Mississippi listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and touring it alongside the mansions gives Pilgrimage its fullest picture of the city’s history. Tours there come with musical performances and a collection of African art. The Dr. John Bowman Banks House, built in 1905, is named for Natchez’s first Black physician. Mt. Repose, a Federal-style home from 1824, and White Wings, an 1833 Federal cottage expanded over the decades, join Lansdowne to round out the eight. A few of the homes, including The Burn and Lansdowne, take overnight guests, so the right reservation means you don’t have to leave when the tour ends.
A $130 private home package covers all eight houses and is valid on every one of the club’s tour dates, so you can tour a few homes one weekend and finish on another. Tours run in two windows each day, 9 to 11 in the morning and 1:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon, which leaves a long lunch hour for exploring downtown. The museum homes you may already know (Longwood, Stanton Hall, Rosalie, and Monmouth) aren’t included in the package. They sell their own tickets, with optional two-, three-, and four-home bundles if you want to add them to your trip.
The Natchez Garden Club, founded in 1927, celebrates its 100th anniversary next year. Its Fall Pilgrimage includes Choctaw Hall, The House on Ellicott’s Hill, Linden Bed & Breakfast, Magnolia Hall, Sunnyside, and The Towers. Tickets are $20 to $25 per person per home, so you can build a tour around the houses you’re most curious
about. Tour times vary from home to home, and you can book online through Little Easy Tours or buy at each home’s entrance. Linden, like The Burn and Lansdowne, takes overnight guests. Between the two clubs, Natchez historic home tours don’t get more thorough than this.
Make a Weekend of It
Pilgrimage lands at the front end of the busiest stretch of fall events in Natchez, so it’s worth padding your itinerary. The Natchez Balloon Festival sets up October 16 and 17 on the grounds of Rosalie, with hot air balloons drifting over the Mississippi River bluff, live music, and a balloon glow on Friday night. (Kids ten and under get in free.) That’s also the Natchez Garden Club’s final Pilgrimage weekend, so you can plan one trip around both. Angels on the Bluff returns to the Natchez City Cemetery November 5–7, when locals and descendants stand at selected gravesites and tell the stories of the people buried there. (It sells out, so buy tickets early.) The Live at Five concert series brings free music to the gazebo on the bluff from 5 p.m. until sunset, and downtown’s pumpkin patch keeps the corner of Main Street stocked with pumpkins of every size through October.
Fall is the season Natchez shows you the most of itself. Of all the things to do in Natchez, Mississippi, this one comes with a deadline: the Pilgrimage Garden Club’s private homes go back to being homes after October 3, and the Natchez Garden Club’s tours wrap up October 17. Find dates, tickets, and tour details for both at visitnatchez.org/pilgrimage.
