Cemeteries, southern architecture, blues singers and forgoing electricity in favor of candlelight. That’s right. Spring Pilgrimage is back.
Visit Columbus is partnering again with the Preservation Society and Historic Home Tours to present Columbus’ 86th Spring Pilgrimage. This year, the societies will show 18 pre-civil war homes – two more than the 16 homes last year. Tours begin on Tuesday and will run through April 18.
“We’ve got a lot of the old favorites,” said Frances Glenn, Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau tourism director. “Well, they’re all old. But you know Riverview, Waverly. … And this year we’ve added two new homes: Magnolia Hill and Bryn Bella. Bryn Bella hasn’t had a tour in over 10 years, so we’re excited for that.”
Magnolia Hill, circa 1825, home of the Andrew McLarty family, is a notable example of Columbus’ “raised-cottage architecture,” but unlike other raised cottages its upper level features log construction clad in clapboard siding. Bryn Bella, circa 1848, once sat on 5,000 acres and retains many of its original features, including “15-foot ceilings, transoms over doors, 12 fireplaces, and five porches” according to Visit Columbus’ website. Now on just 500 acres, Glenn said the family is excited to share their home with the community once again.
In addition to the two new homes, candlelight tours are returning for the first time in years and will be hosted at Shadowlawn and the Chandler Beckett house. And, according to Glenn, the Preservation Society is planning a special birthday party on April 19 to celebrate Kidd’s Tavern turning 200 years old.
But with all this good news came an announcement that was bittersweet for the organizers of Pilgrimage: The Amzi-Love home will be retiring from tours after this spring.
“It’s one of the only homes that’s still owned by the original family,” Glenn said. “They’ve been a part of pilgrimage 75 years. I don’t know if they’ve ever missed one.”
Sid Caradine, owner of the Amzi-Love home, said that he’s enjoyed hosting Pilgrimage and that 75 years seemed like “a nice number to end on.”
“It’s time to let other homes have a turn,” Caradine said. “It just feels like a good time for us to pass the baton.”
Over the decades, the home has seen thousands of guests come through its doors, though visitor numbers have fallen in recent years.
According to Glenn, in 2025 the home tours saw about 800 guests in total. The organizations are hoping to grow those numbers this year after a large marketing effort was made.
“It’s never recovered from 2020,” said Glenn. “But I think we’re seeing a slow comeback. I hope our numbers will increase year after year because there’s really something for everybody. The historic homes, the blues festival, Tales From the Crypt, the Stella Shouting Contest. I think, as a whole, it really encompasses a lot of our history and culture.”
Tales From the Crypt back with 11 new productions
With Spring Pilgrimage returns an old community favorite: The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science’s “Tales From the Crypt,” an award-winning, student-led drama series featuring monologues from those long past – some who are buried in the historic Friendship Cemetery. Performances are scheduled for April 8, 10, 15 and 17, coinciding with candlelit tours of the cemetery grounds.
MSMS history teacher and event organizer Chuck Yarborough said the community will hear a variety of new stories, including ones about the Mississippi University for Women and downtown businesses, a World War II veteran who died in Europe, the first female principal of Union Academy, and a tuberculosis nurse who cared for Captain Charles Steel, a commander in the Spanish-American War.
Yarborough said that each student worked diligently for over a year to put together the script for their performance, utilizing every form of research they could – from internet searches to combing through the MUW’s library archives.
“There is no other place in the country that has high school students doing the level of research that ours are doing and then presenting it to the community in dramatic form,” Yarborough said. “That just doesn’t happen anywhere else. And most importantly students learn that their work can contribute to a community. That’s what community leaders are built of.”
Other events happening during Pilgrimage include Catfish in the Alley, a free two-day blues festival scheduled for April 10 and 11.
On April 10, the festival presents the “Blues With a Side of Soul” luncheon, scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. On April 11, music begins at noon, with legendary bluesman Jimmy D. Lane headlining. Also on April 11 at 4 p.m. is the Stella Shouting Contest, an event inspired by Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” where citizens sign-up to shout “Stella!” at a young woman standing at the top of the fire escape across from the old Hollyhock’s building. Biggest shout takes home a prize and bragging rights.
Tickets for home tours are available at visitcolumbus.org. Those interested can also find more details about the homes themselves, and more information about coinciding events.
Reporter Braden Simmons contributed to this report.
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