This place with its thirty acres of land has changed hands oftener than any ante-bellum home in Natchez. Its history is broken and uncertain. It was undoubtedly built by imported craftsmen who had the help of local carpenters and slave labor.
Many prominent families of Natchez are identified with Belmont at some period in its history. Within its fort-like walls Natchez elite often sipped rare old wine from its private sub-cellar in frequent celebrations.
Belmont has its ghost story of whispering souls wandering through the high-ceilinged halls—ghosts created to scare the slaves, and “whispers” which proved to be the swishing of chimney swallows rushing in and out of their nests.
The approach to Belmont is a majestic line of moss-draped cedars and giant oak trees standing sentinel-like over the gardens of days long passed.
Louis Fry, present owner, plans the complete restoration of Belmont. It may soon ring with echoes of happier days.
Belvidere
On Homochitto street, in the shadow of magnificent “Dunleith”, is a simple white cottage, “Belvidere”, which for generations has been the home of the Henderson family.
Originally Belvidere was the center of a fourteen acre tract of wooded land which was the property of Christopher Miller, who was secretary to the Spanish Governor of Natchez, Gayoso de Lemos. The Hendersons are descendants of Christopher Miller.
Simple and unostentatious this small cottage stands with her very toes, as it were, on the street where once broad acreage spread. These acres gave space in later years for a public school and a paved highway.
Belvidere is more than 100 years old, and has been for more than a century owned and occupied by one family.