On the famous Natchez Trace Highway, within calling distance of the Lower Woodville road, through a narrow gateway flanked by giant oaks, is a quaint little cottage, “Hawthorne”.

It is the old Southern Planter type home, a story-and-a-half.

A beautiful double front door with panels of early period thin glass and an exquisitely wrought fanlight above give an atmosphere of friendliness to the entrance.

Architects interested in the unusual find charm in the hand-hewn stairway which rises from the broad back hall to the rooms above.

“Hawthorne” more than a century ago belonged to a family named Overaker who sold the place with its sixty acres of wooded land to the Dunbar family, under whose regime this quaint old home sheltered and entertained the elite of the South as early as 1837. It is believed that Hawthorne was built by the Tichenor family about 1825.

For many years this old place was vacant. Lumber mills and grist mills crowded too near, but the property was recently bought by the family of William McGehee, who are reclaiming “Hawthorne”. Every line of the period architecture is being followed, and “Hawthorne”, its meadows and gardens, will soon be restored as in stage coach days to greet today its motor car visitors. The history of Hawthorne is a sad story with a hopeful ending.