Most Natchez mansions were built in a single burst of cotton money. The Towers is different — it grew in three distinct waves across nearly seventy years, and each wave left its mark on the house you can walk through today.
Phase one: a West Indies cottage, circa 1790
The earliest section of the house dates to around 1790, during the early years of American settlement on this stretch of the Mississippi. It was built in a West Indies style, using peg construction and barge-board elements salvaged from river boats that were arriving at the Port of Natchez as part of the fur trade — a detail that ties the house directly to the river commerce that built the city.
Phase two: a Neo-Classical addition, 1826
In 1826, the house was expanded again, this time in the Neo-Classical style fashionable across the antebellum South. A row of square columns was added, wrapping completely around the building. Some of these original columns are still visible today on the side and rear porches, tucked behind the grander facade that came later.
Phase three: the Italian Villa facade, and how the house got its name
The final and most dramatic phase came in 1858, when the house was given an Italian Villa — Renaissance Revival facade. This addition included a pair of third-story rooms, one on each front corner of the house, that looked like towers. That's the origin of the name — The Towers.
"This 'newest' construction originally had a pair of third story rooms on each front corner of the house, which looked like towers … and that is how we got the name 'The Towers.'"
The fire that took the towers away
The towers themselves didn't survive the 20th century intact. In the 1920s, a fire broke out on the second floor and badly damaged the north tower room. Rather than rebuild, the owners at the time chose to remove the tower rooms altogether — and for decades, the house that gave Natchez one of its most distinctive names no longer had any towers on it.
Bringing the towers back
The current owner, Ginger, took on the restoration of the historic house and made a point of giving it back its namesake towers, rebuilding them to match the 1858–59 design. Today the property sits on nearly eight acres in downtown Natchez, shaded by oak trees that were already mature before the Civil War, and the towers are once again part of the skyline they were built to complete.
Today The Towers is considered one of the grandest historic villas in the South, its rooms filled with period antiques, laces, and a private collection built up over decades — a house that has now spent more of its life with towers than without them.