Great double drawing rooms and a banquet room, while not containing the original furnishings, show woodwork and walls, hand-turned railings and doorways, evidence of the excellent taste of the builders.
After more than forty years the master-owner of D'Evereux died. The home was closed for a long while; later the widow with some of her young relatives opened the mansion and it became again the scene of many joyful gatherings.
Upon the death of Mrs. Elliott, "D'Evereux" was willed to her niece, Mrs. Margaret Martin Shields. During Mrs. Shields' occupancy, it was selected as the most perfect home, in style and setting, in the entire Southland, and for this reason it is shown in that exquisite motion picture, "The Heart of Maryland".
Within the past few years D'Evereux has been purchased by Miss Myra Smith of Chicago. With great pride in the ownership of one of the South's most majestic ante-bellum homes, Miss Smith has restored every portion of the old home, which today presents such magnificent perfection as to bring forth exclamations of wonder from all who travel that section of the Natchez Trace highway.
One of the most attractive of Natchez' ante-bellum houses is the recently reclaimed Cherokee, built in 1794 by Jesse Greenfield on land acquired under Spanish grant.
In 1810 David Michie purchased the property and added the classic front. The present owner, Mr. Charles Byrnes, has reclaimed the old Irish Manor House and its grounds, using wherever possible the style and materials of the original.
Cherokee stands on a great elevation overlooking Natchez. It is across the street from Choctaw and within calling distance of Connelly's Tavern on Ellicott Hill.
This house, built in 1849 by Gen. Dahlgreen, is situated in perfectly kept terraced grounds, surrounded by symmetrically planted oak trees which have grown to giant size. A long driveway from the tall iron gate at the street entrance to the porch steps bring one to "Dunleith", a veritable Greek temple.
Dunleith is almost one hundred years old. The land on which it stands is part of a Spanish grant of 700 acres, and was the site of the original home which was destroyed by fire (caused by lightning) in 1845. In the rear of the present Dunleith are the stables which belonged to the original house.