Natchez · Villas East & South of Town
Dunleith Historic Inn
Charles Dahlgren's c. 1855 house; the inn counts 22 rooms, 11 in a brick building Wikipedia says would have housed the kitchen and slave quarters.
- Built
- c. 1855–56The inn says 'designed as a residence in 1856' on one page and 'built in 1855' on another; the NHL nomination gives ca. 1855, with the previous house, Routhlands, destroyed by lightning on August 17, 1855.
- Style
- Greek Revival
- Architect
- Plan attributed by owner Charles Dahlgren to A. J. Downing and carried out by master carpenter John Crothers (nomination calls the Downing attribution otherwise unconfirmed)
- Type
- Inn
- Rooms
- 22
- Area
- Villas East & South of Town
- Credentials
- National Historic Landmark; Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The story
Dunleith stands on the site of Routhlands, built about the late 18th century by Job Routh, one of the largest landholders and planters in the Natchez district. Charles Dahlgren and his wife, Mary Routh, rebuilt after lightning burned the house in 1855; Mary died soon after, and the house was sold to Alfred Vidal Davis, who named it Dunleith. The Carpenter family held it from 1886 to 1976, when William F. Heins bought it and began operating it as a bed and breakfast. Its 26 Tuscan columns fully encircle the house, and Wikipedia calls it the only surviving Mississippi example of a plantation house with such a colonnade. Wikipedia says the three-story brick courtyard building would historically have housed the kitchen, laundry and slave quarters. It went to a lender at a 2019 foreclosure auction.
Good to know
- No pets
- Address: 84 Homochitto St, Natchez, MS 39120
Sources (4)
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.