The Oaks House Museum, also known as ''The Oaks'', located at 823 North Jefferson Street in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

, is the former home of Jackson Mayor James H. Boyd (1809–77) and his wife Eliza Ellis Boyd and their family. Having survived the burning of Jackson during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, The Oaks is one of the oldest structures in the city. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and is a Mississippi Landmark. The structure was built in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style in approximately 1853. The original property was larger than the current one, at one time encompassing and extending north to Boyd Street and west to North Street, an urban farmstead with main house, barn, detached kitchen,

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, and other outbuildings. Three generations of the Boyd family lived at The Oaks, from 1853 until 1960. Mrs. Eliza Ellis Boyd outlived her husband by many years and lived in the house until her death in 1902. Daughter Mary and her husband, Richard F. McGill, lived in the house with their two children. In 1960, the grandchildren sold the property to

The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America is an American organization composed of women who are descended from an ancestor "who came to reside in an American Colony before 1776, and whose services were rendered during the Colonial Pe ...

in the State of Mississippi (NSCDA-MS). The home is now a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

administered by the Oaks House Museum Corporation.

External links

The Oaks House website

NSCDA-MS Museum Property, "The Oaks"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oaks House Museum, The Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi Historic house museums in Mississippi Museums in Jackson, Mississippi Houses completed in 1853 National Society of the Colonial Dames of America Houses in Jackson, Mississippi National Register of Historic Places in Jackson, Mississippi