First in class.

With its extensive collection of Civil War artifacts, the Stephen D. Lee Home and Museum takes you inside the time and place of the man who was in command at Fort Sumter when those first fateful shots were fired, and who after his service to the Confederacy went on to become the first president of Mississippi A & M College, now Mississippi State University.

The plantation home Waverly, with its unusual octagonal cupola, also offers a unique window into the past.  Built in 1852, the mansion was once the hub of a self-sustaining community with its own lumber mill, leather tannery and hat manufacturing operation.  The nation’s first foxhunt association was formed in the mansion’s library in 1893, and some believe that the first American-made saddle blankets were produced on the plantation.

But there were other important firsts in this area as well.  In 1884, the nation’s first state-supported college dedicated to the education of women opened here, and today Mississippi University for Women continues to thrive as a top-rated institution of higher learning with an environment where heritage and architectural character have been carefully preserved.  Nearly two dozen buildings on this scenic campus are listed on the National Register for Historic Places.  Although it is now a co-ed school, “The W,” as it was affectionately known, provided a stimulating learning environment for generations of women.  The mothers of both Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner attended The W, as did Pulitzer Prize-winner Eudora Welty, and every year the University’s Welty Weekend brings noted writers and leaders to the campus for symposiums and celebration.