Rosalie Mansion - Natchez, Mississippi - Historic Mansion

Rosalie Mansion is situated directly off South Canal Street at Orelans Street in Natchez, Mississippi. The house is open seven days a week throughout the year with tours starting on the hour between 9am and 4pm, but is closed to visitors Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989 and placed under the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

The mansion was built for a wealthy cotton broker in 1823 on the site of the Natchez Indians massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie almost a hundred years earlier. It was used as Union Army headquarters in 1863 first by General Grant and then General Walter Gresham. At this time Gresham placed many of the owner's furnishings in the attic to prevent them being damaged or stolen.

The property has been owned, operated and maintained by the Mississippi State Society Daughters of the American Revolution since the 1930s. Many efforts have been made to restore and preserve the mansion in order to show visitors how Rosalie House would have looked over 100 years ago. The house design is cubical in nature with two-story columns supporting both a front portico and a rear full-width gallery.

The architectural design at Rosalie became a prototype for other buildings and mansions in Natchez and across the south in later years. Similarly the 21 pieces of Rococo Revival furniture made in the workshop of John H. Belter are often referred to as having the "Rosalie'' pattern. Visitors will be able to see the wide galleries, colonial fanlights, Doric columns, antique clothing, paintings, and a beautiful Bicentennial Garden surrounded by an antique picket fence, which overlooks the Mississippi River.

The burial site of the 17th Century French Soldiers and Settlers in the Bicentennial Gardens at Rosalie House is free to the public year round. Tickets for the tour of the house and gardens can be purchased at the gift shop, where visitors can also purchase souvenirs. During the Natchez Pilgrimage Season in the spring and fall tickets are not so easy to acquire and visitors must purchase them at the Natchez Pilgrimage Tours at 401 High Street.

Many events are held at the mansion and its grounds throughout the year including the Great Mississippi River Balloon Competition in October. Weddings can be held here as well as other social gatherings and exhibitions. The mansion was one of the film locations for Disney's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Rosalie is just one of several mansions tourists can visit as part of the Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, with trips to Melrose, Longwood and Stanton Hall amongst others available to book at the visitor's center in S. Canal Street. Less than half a mile away is the First Presbyterian Church and Stratton Chapel Gallery, where many photographs of the city dating back to the mid 19th century can be viewed. Visitors looking for places to eat will find Pig Out Inn Barbeque and Mighty Martini Bistro also less than half a mile from Rosalie.