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History · Natchez

Natchez’s post office opened in 1892, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Natchez was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Its Register listing is the John Carroll Jones House. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1937 on, and the census since 1980.

1892first post office
1on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Natchez’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Natchez began

When was Natchez founded?

1892

The Natchez post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 527 in 19802020 census: 489134 years
Founding year: the first Natchez post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Natchez’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers, 1728–1933.
★ What stands out · By decade

Natchez, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1720s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1720s1 item
Natchez settlement mapc. 1728Natchez settlement mapMap
1930s11 items
Close view looking from the east to show cistern and electric meter - Piece sur piece Building (House), On dirt road of…1933Close view looking from the east to show cistern and …Closer view of the south elevation - Sompayrac House, 1078 Louisiana State Highway 494, Natchez, Natchitoches Parish, LA1933Closer view of the south elevation - Sompayrac House,…DETAIL VIEW OF ENTRY - Bubba's Juke Joint, 3410 Louisiana State Highway 484, Natchez, Natchitoches Parish, LA1933DETAIL VIEW OF ENTRY - Bubba's Juke Joint, 3410 Louis…Detail view of northeast elevation to show front stair - Roubieu-Jones House, 374 Louisiana State Highway 484, Natchez,…1933Detail view of northeast elevation to show front stai…Detail view of south front entrance, looking from east - St. Charles Roman Catholic Chapel, 4078 Louisiana State Highwa…1933Detail view of south front entrance, looking from eas…Detail view of west elevation window (one north of tower) to show clapboards - St. Charles Roman Catholic Chapel, 4078 …1933Detail view of west elevation window (one north of to…Detail view, underside of west porch looking from the northwest - Oaklawn Plantation, Highway 494, Natchez, Natchitoche…1933Detail view, underside of west porch looking from the…ELEVATION VIEW OF NORTH FACADE - Lair LaCour House, 2694 Louisiana State Highway 484, Natchez, Natchitoches Parish, LA1933ELEVATION VIEW OF NORTH FACADE - Lair LaCour House, 2…ELEVATION VIEW OF THE NORTHEAST (FRONT) FACADE - Herman-Christophe House, 1728 Louisiana State Highway 484, Natchez, Na…1933ELEVATION VIEW OF THE NORTHEAST (FRONT) FACADE - Herm…ELEVATION VIEW OF THE SOUTHEAST FACADE - Woods Hall, Louisiana State Highway 484, Natchez, Natchitoches Parish, LA1933ELEVATION VIEW OF THE SOUTHEAST FACADE - Woods Hall, …East elevation - Piece sur piece Building (House), On dirt road off of Highway 494, about 1 1-2 miles Northwest of Berm…1933East elevation - Piece sur piece Building (House), On…
1940s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
The story

How Natchez came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Natchez.

Read it all →

This village is one of the oldest communities in the territory covered by the Louisiana Purchase, and is part of the Cane River National Heritage Area. The Côte Joyeuse (English: Joyous Coast) area was home to the earliest French planters in Louisiana. Some of the plantations (or former plantations) in Natchez include the Oakland Plantation (1818), Cherokee Plantation (c. 1825), Oaklawn Plantation (1830), Cedar Bend Plantation (1850) and the Atahoe Plantation (1873).

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Natchez, 1728 to 1937

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 18th century
  2. 1728In the archiveNatchez settlement map
  3. 19th century
  4. 1892Post officeThe Natchez post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1933In the archiveClose view looking from the east to show cistern and electric meter - Piece sur piece Bui…
  7. 1937On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
On the map

Natchez on the map, 1937 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Natchez. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Natchez on the 1937 USGS mapNatchez on the 1943 USGS mapNatchez on the 1957 USGS mapNatchez on the 1983 USGS map1937Bermuda sheet · 1:31,680

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Natchez.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Close view looking from the east to show cistern and electric meter - Piece sur piece Building (House), On dirt road of…
Retake this viewClose view looking from the east to show cistern and electric meter - Piece sur piece Building (House), On dirt road of…, 1933

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Natchez’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Natchez

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2000
John Carroll Jones House

Architectural styles listings

French Creole1
All 1 listings
John Carroll Jones HouseBuilding · listed 2000

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Natchez, census by census

0100200300400500600198020002020Peak: 597

Between 434 and 597 people in every census since 1980.

5 censuses, 1980–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Natchez’s Wikipedia page.

Help out

Finish Natchez’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewClose view looking from the east to sho…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Natchez’s history

What year was Natchez founded?

The Natchez post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Natchez?

One place: the John Carroll Jones House (listed 2000).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (12), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.