Order in the Courthouse.

The massively dignified courthouse is a common architectural feature across the Mississippi Hills. Often Greek Revival in design and always impressive in scale, these historic structures watch over their towns like benevolent giants, eternally steadfast even, as in the case of the Jacinto Courthouse, when their constituents are not.

One of the nation’s finest examples of the Federal style, the Jacinto Courthouse was constructed with walls two feet thick, yet its demographic foundation was crumbling even as the building was going up. Passed over for a railroad, the town would lose its status as county seat soon after and eventually became a ghost town. Yet the Courthouse would endure and adapt, and at the last moment avoid the wrecking ball when concerned citizens stepped in to restore it.

Architectural rescues are another continuing theme of the Mississippi Hills, in places like Grenada where the magnificent 1920s Masonic Temple was saved from a developer bent on demolition, and Oxford where John Grisham’s donation of the historic Burns Church, known as the Belfry, will create an African American cultural resource. Historic character is something we not only preserve, we treasure, and our downtowns are all the more vibrant for it.

Often anchored by one of those grand courthouses, the town square is the hardy perennial of the Mississippi Hills. Charming, picturesque, endlessly ingenious in its functionality, the town square stands at the heart of our way of life, flourishing economically even as it offers visitors and residents alike daily adventures in shopping, dining, business and social opportunities.

Beyond thriving downtowns, historic neighborhoods spread their porticoes and pediments with luxurious abandon. Antebellum mansions, Victorian gingerbreads, 1920s bungalows—historic homes in the Mississippi Hills have both style and substance.