Historic Riverboat Cruises at Myrtle Terrace in Natchez

Duration

Tour length will vary.

About

This welcoming home was built by Nathaniel L. Carpenter beginning in 1844 and completed in 1851 when purchased by steamboat captain, Thomas P. Leathers. Today, the home showcases a gorgeous collection of Empire and Victorian furnishings within the walls of its spacious yet homey rooms. The mid-nineteen century furnishings that you see are appropriate for the early life of this home.

Although Nathaniel L. Carpenter came to Natchez as a builder, no building other than Myrtle Terrace has been documented as having been built by him. The house is a good example of transitional architecture, with the earlier Federal Style surviving in the delicately turned columns and the later Greek Revival Style employed in the entrance and interior mill work. The interior plan is a double-pile plan, two rooms deep, with a center hallway.

The second-story was originally accessed through an enclosed stairway entered from the rear gallery. Mr. and Mrs. Butler who owned the home beginning in 1943 installed the present stairway. The second-story of the house contains four bedrooms and two bathrooms. A small basement room is located beneath the rear sitting room of the first story. Modern additions to the home which you will see were added by the Durkin family in approximately 1979. Camille Durkin inherited the home from her parents, the Butlers, and we purchased Myrtle Terrace in 2018.

Myrtle Terrace is historical known as the home of Captain Thomas P. Leathers, who was internationally known as a famous steamboat captain. He was born in Kentucky in1816 and began his river career on the Yazoo River in 1836. He had great financial success in the lower river cotton trade and built many steamboats, among them seven named Natchez.

A frequently told story is the legendary steamboat race in 1870 between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee, whose captain was John W. Cannon. Stories about the race indicate that it was not meant to be an official race since the ships were carrying passengers and cargo, but it became a race by popular acclamation. It was a race to see who could get from New Orleans to St. Louis first. You may see a Currier and Ives print of the race where the two boats are close to each other as if in a race. But the boats were never that close.

Captain Cannon left first and stayed ahead the entire trip, risking heavy fog without stopping. Leathers, however, was concerned for the safety of his passengers and cargo, so he waited until the weather improved, thus losing the race by a little over six hours.

After retiring to New Orleans, Leathers died at the age of 80 after having been run over by a hit-and-run bicyclist, thus ending one of the most successful careers in steamboat history.

Another important person in the Natchez community who lived in this home was John Hunter, who was Mayor in 1862 when the navel forces of the United States demanded the surrender of the City. In an elegant short message he surrendered the city. Apparently, someone fired a shot at one of the ships that returned, a blast that damaged one home and killed a young girl. Other than that, the city showed no opposition to the Union forces, and many of the beautiful homes of Natchez remain to this day. In 1871 John Hunter's widow sold Myrtle Terrace to Henry Frank, a well-to-do Jewish merchant. Mr. Frank bought and sold large amounts of property in Natchez.

The home has a beautiful garden with fountains surrounded by an ornate iron fence. Behind the house is a carriage house built in the 1850s that is now used as an Airbnb. The house on the other side of the driveway was once on the property and housed the slave help. It was moved to its present location sometime between 1910 and 1925. The three-car garage was built sometime between 1925 and 1943.

We hope you will enjoy this home described by the author, Harnett T. Kane, as “a small gem in the town of Natchez, almost a baby-scaled version of the plantation type." He goes on to write that Myrtle Terrace has the "charm of the diminutive and the restrained-everything that the Captain was not."