A few hundred feet below the city of Natchez, along the river edge, is an extension of land on which the first Natchez was situated. This old town was known as “Natchez Under the Hill”. The commercial center of the old Natchez has passed into decay. The buildings that sheltered the river men, the gambling “joints” that housed the riff-raff of those steamboat days, have long since tumbled into the river. Driving down a long and steep shelf of land, at the north end of what was old Natchez, one comes to the gate of a castle-like home in the heart of a garden which is always beautiful with blossoms. It is “Magnolia Vale”.

This house was built about 110 years ago by Andrew Brown and is owned today by Andrew B. Learned, a direct descendant.

Andrew Brown was a native of Scotland, and a great lover of flowers. After building a home of the early American type, with wide galleries, handsome Doric columns, spacious halls and large rooms, he found self-expression in creating a garden which has been famous for generations, from St. Louis to New Orleans, as “Brown’s Gardens”.

A formal driveway, bordered with Louis Philippe roses, leads to the mansion. Giant magnolias and evergreen laurimundi splash the landscape with white and green. Formal flower beds, with boxwood borders, cover the entire acreage of the foreground to Magnolia Vale.

The Mississippi River has continuously eaten into the grounds of Magnolia Vale until much of this promontory has vanished into the waters. Although the great house shows marked evidence of “settling” from year to year, and is occupied now by a caretaker only, the gardens are given constant attention. The same trim boxwood hedges, the same formal walks and beloved flower beds, the same shrubs, the same tall trees, and the maze of gardenia and japonica greet the visitor and shed perfume across the broad and mighty river, which ravenously eats at the very roots of these gorgeous plants.