A Southern planter’s typical home, “Inglewood” stands today as the perfection of a beautiful dream recalled from crumbling ruins of years long gone. More than a century ago this quaint old story-and-a-half house was built by Gustavus Calhoun, who practiced medicine in Natchez Territory in 1829—back in the days when calls were made on horseback and the doctor carried along his miniature drug store in his “saddle bags”. Dr. Calhoun was a friend and contemporary of Dr. Stephen Duncan of “Auburn”.

In 1858 “Inglewood” became the home of Edward M. Blackburn through his marriage into the Calhoun family. It has been for many years known as “the old Blackburn place.” Here the last member of the Natchez Blackburn family lived until the old house was about to tumble down. Then the place was purchased by Dr. Wallace Smith, a young physician who came with his bride to reclaim and rebuild Inglewood along the exact lines of its original architectural design.

The old gardens of Inglewood were once as famous for beauty as those of “Arlington” and “Melrose” but the gardens too passed with the old families. Doctor and Mrs. Smith are replanting, and are replacing walks and borders of old-fashioned boxwood, everything to conform as nearly as possible to original design.

Inglewood, like all Natchez homes, is off the highway, secluded by forests, and only by careful observation can one glimpse the gleaming white outlines of this beautiful old plantation home.

The approach to the house is marked at the public highway by a wrought iron replica of the old-fashioned doctor’s horse and buggy. Inglewood is today, as it was originally, the property of a practicing physician’s family.