Cottage Gardens

When “Cottage Gardens” was built, some hundred and forty years ago, Natchez was young, and homes at that time were of compact, inconspicuous design.

The land upon which this home stands was a part of the original Spanish grant to Don Jose Vidal, a young Spanish nobleman. “Cottage Gardens” was so named because of the beautiful gardens surrounding the cottage. It is recorded that these gardens were destroyed during the War Between the States when Union soldiers used the grounds as a pasture for their horses.

Don Jose Vidal was a military governor and Captain in a Spanish army. His duties took him across the river from Natchez to a place now known as Vidalia. When his beloved young wife died her tomb was built on a high bluff on the estate overlooking the Mississippi River. While engaged in official service across the broad waters, Capt. Vidal could look out at any moment and see the spot where his beautiful Donna Vidal was buried. Don Jose is buried in a Natchez Cemetery. A great shaft has been erected above his grave and is inscribed with a lengthy epitaph which mentions that “he was a friend of his Sovereign”.

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LIVING ROOM AND DINING ROOM

Cottage Gardens has been for several generations owned and occupied by the Foster family. Although the exterior is on simple lines, the house is surprisingly spacious. The wide hall through the center contains a stairway of unusual architectural attractiveness. Its broad steps with mahogany handrailing lead up along the left wall almost to the ceiling, then leaving the wall the stairway crosses the hall in a graceful spiral curve and the ascending flight is finished along the right wall.

At the rear end of the hall is a beautiful arch and doorway with fanlight above and plain side glass. It is a facsimile of the entrance door at the opposite end of the hall.

From the present owners, the Foster family, comes Mary Kate Norman, the wife of Karl Norman, whose photographic art in picturing the old homes of Natchez has given him a prominent place among artists of the South.

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This family room in Cottage Gardens has an eight foot bed and a child’s bed.

THE TOMB OF DONE JOSE VIDAL

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