While Spring Pilgrimage has been divided between two groups in recent years, the historic homes of Columbus are about to be on display together again.
The Pilgrimage, a two-week celebration of the city’s history through home tours and special events that goes back more than 80 years, will kick off Tuesday and last through April 13.
Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau will be heading up the Pilgrimage efforts again this year, working with both the Preservation Society of Columbus and Historic Home Tours groups to bring 16 pre-Civil War homes under one banner. CVB Tourism Director Frances Glenn encouraged Pilgrimage-goers to attend tours throughout the entire season.
“The tours are fabulous,” Glenn said. “The different experiences that some of the homes will offer, the special events. … It would be hard to pick one day to do something. You need to come (and) stay two weeks.”
Preservation Society Board President Jace Ferraez said this year both groups decided to join forces with CVB to alleviate confusion among visitors.
“There was a realization that we needed to be together to promote one pilgrimage,” Ferraez said. “… It’s better for the community, it’s better for the tourists and the visitors that we have visiting here.”
Glenn said the bureau was a “natural fit” to highlight the city’s historic homes and the other special events involved in the pilgrimage.
Historic Home Tours Chairman Dick Leike said his group is also fine with working with the CVB, despite past tensions with the Preservation Society.
Ferraez said historic homeowners will use tours throughout the Pilgrimage to showcase different elements of their homes, from architectural details to historical documentation.
“The unfortunate reality is that there wasn’t a lot of documentation or historical record about the people who were enslaved in the homes or who lived and worked there. … The homes that do, they’re going to feature that in some of their stories,” Ferraez said.
“There’s a lot of interesting architectural details and storylines that relate to the people who lived and owned the home and then also worked there.”
Glenn said this year’s tours will feature two homes that have not been showcased in a decade, Twelves Gables at 220 Third St. S. and Cady House at 518 College St.
Ferraez recently purchased Twelve Gables and said he is eager to showcase the home’s storied history during the tour.
Leike is looking forward to showing off his two historic homes, Riverview at 514 Second St. S. and White Arches at 122 Seventh Ave. S.
“We made a concerted effort to furnish these homes with American antiques,” Leike said. “So both of these houses are like a museum. … You can actually step back in history when you go to them and see how it was.”
Beyond antebellum homes
Pilgrimage will feature several other special events which will span across the two weeks.
The Historic Church Tour, which is hosted by the Preservation Society, will feature a tour of five historic churches. Ferraez said this year, they have added the Missionary Union Baptist Church, which is the oldest Black church in northeastern Mississippi. The event will be ticketed, and dates and times for those tours have not yet been announced.
Tales from the Crypt, an annual event hosted by the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, will also take place from 7 to 9 p.m. April 2, 4, 9 and 11. The event will be ticketed and will feature a dramatic tour through Friendship Cemetery.
The Gilbert-Bryan Lecture Series will also feature a free screening of “Eudora,” a documentary about novelist Eudora Welty. MSMS alumni and filmmaker Anthony Thaxton will host a question-answer discussion following the film. The screening will begin at 3 p.m. April 11 at Rent Auditorium on Mississippi University for Women’s campus.
Catfish in the Alley, a two-day music festival, will take place from noon to 2 p.m. April 11 and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 12. The festival will feature live music, artisans, food vendors and the annual Stella Shouting Contest, a competition where participants imitate the character Stanley Kowalski yelling in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” in honor of Columbus-born playwright Tennesee Williams.
There will also be a ticketed event April 13 at the historic Kidd’s Tavern in Steens. Tours of the venue will be held 2 to 5 p.m., followed by a 5 p.m. picnic with homeowners, event organizers and visitors.
All tickets can be purchased on the Visit Columbus website, along with a full calendar of events.
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