It was 75 years ago that the first Columbus Pilgrimage was held. In the mid-1930s, T.C. Billups, who was circulation manager for The Commercial Dispatch, was seeking ways to promote Columbus. He observed the success of Natchez and several other Southern towns in using a spring pilgrimage to attract tourist and promote community development. The potential that Columbus possessed became apparent when, in June 1936, representatives of the Library of Congress’ Historic American Building Survey spent a week in Columbus photographing buildings. They photographed and recorded information on 12 residences, the Courthouse, Franklin Academy and the Catholic Church. Billups’ residence, Whitehall, was one of the 12, and he was inspired to organize a Columbus Pilgrimage.

Initial pilgrimage meetings were held at Billups’ home and probably over the noted “Whitehall Mint Julep” that Eudora Welty would later write about. By early 1939, a pilgrimage association was making plans for a Columbus Pilgrimage in the spring of 1940. The executive committee was composed of Mrs. T.C. Billups chairman, Henry Pratt co-chairman, Mrs. B.A. Lincoln secretary, and also Mrs. Pratt, Mrs. T. Bailey Hardy, Birney Imes Jr., and J.O. Slaughter.

The members compiled a lengthy list of antebellum homes to be considered for the first pilgrimage. The houses were then discussed and voted on. There appeared to be two criteria for being invited to be in that first pilgrimage: How attractive and historic was the house and how well did the committee members like who lived there. Invitations were mailed to the selected homeowner to gather at the YMCA on June 9, 1939, to discuss pilgrimage plans.

In the first Columbus Pilgrimage, there were 22 homes, including 10 of the 12 homes recorded in the 1936 Historic American Building Survey. There were also 37 Star Homes. These were homes of architectural or historic interest not open for public tours.

In order to publicize the first tour of homes, Columbus hosted an Associated Press travel writers tour in October 1939. The writers toured several of Columbus’ historic homes and churches and attended a reception at Whitehall. One of the writer/photographers who came was Eudora Welty. Her interview of Mrs. Billups at Whitehall for the proper way to make a mint julep circulated nationwide. The story and recipe of the “Whitehall Mint Julep” has since been reprinted frequently, including recently in USA Today.

Press coverage of the first pilgrimage ranged from the New York Times to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. In 1941, 18 private homes were open, and added to the tour was the “Blewett – Stephen D Lee Home,” which was then connected to the city’s then-S.D. Lee High School building. Twenty homes were open in 1942 but in 1950 only 16 were open.

This year 19 will be open.

Of all the Pilgrimages, the one that attracted the most national and international attention was that of 1942. It was war time and Kaye Field Air Corps Advanced Flying School (now Columbus Air Force Base) had just opened. The patriotic theme presented was evidenced by an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. On April 5, 1942, the paper carried an article about the event titled: “Tour of Gardens will offer Peace, Strength In Trying Times.” According to the article, though it was war time, “the pilgrimage committee believes that now more than ever, the American people need the peace and strength that comes from beauty and heritage.”

Personnel and their families from the air base played a prominent role in the pilgrimage. One of the pilgrimage “star homes,” the Dr. Cornelius Hardy home (now named Magnolia Hill), was the residence of Maj. Joseph Duckworth, the base’s Director of Training. Mrs. L.C. Mallory, wife of Col. Mallory, the base’s commanding officer, served as a hostess at Whitehall, and Mrs. Joseph Duckworth served as a hostess at Snowdoun. In a letter dated February 9, 1942, Col Mallory wrote that normal activities were encouraged to help maintain morale and he felt “that the Columbus Pilgrimage offers the highest type of cultural entertainment.”

As a result of the involvement of air corps personal and the community’s efforts to support the base, Life Magazine did a pictorial of airmen at a hoopskirt party in Columbus. The story attracted international attention and was even picked up by the London Illustrated Magazine.

The pilgrimage headquarters for the first pilgrimage was located at the 1862 Gilmer Hotel downtown. In the first two Pilgrimages of 1940 and 1941, the tour was a sequential route to be followed with each house being numbered. In that first year the tour began at Franklin Square on Third Avenue North and ended at Whitehall on South Side. The second year the tour started at Ole Homestead on College Street and ended at the Franklin Square. One can imagine the bottleneck of visitors, as all started and ended at the same houses. That practice ended in 1942.

This years Columbus Pilgrimage features 19 historic homes. Twelve of those homes, Rosewood Manor, Whitehall, Baskerville Manor, Colonnade, Waverly, Temple Heights the Cedars, White Arches, Snowdoun, Shadowlawn, Twelve Gables and the Ole Homestead, were in that first pilgrimage. Amazingly, of the original 22 homes of that first tour 75 years ago, only two have been lost.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].

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