Directions to The Cedars
The Cedars is located at 4145 Old Canton Road, Jackson, MS (601.366.5552); North of Lakeland Drive and south of Meadowbrook Road.    Map

 

About the Cedars

The Cedars is one of Jackson's oldest residences. It was constructed around 1840 as a two-room galleried cottage. At some point, a one-room schoolhouse was attached to the north side of the house, and additions were built on the rear, closing in the rear porch. Through several owners, one of whom was Governor Hugh White, and a few changes, one of the city's few antebellum buildings has retained considerable integrity and conveys a great deal about the historical growth of the city and the formerly rural nature of areas surrounding downtown Jackson.

Located on Old Canton Road south of Meadowbrook Road, the house's proximity to Interstate-55 has already changed the surrounding neighborhood dramatically, and recent developments of zero-lot line residences on the adjacent properties left the Cedars vulnerable. The Fondren Renaissance Foundation took on the monumental task of raising the money to purchase the property and to restore the house. The money raised was enough to buy the property and to receive a matching grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission Building Fund to reuse the house as a community visual and performing arts center.

Renovation work was completed on the house in the summer of 2004, and it was dedicated on August 29, 2004. Now The Cedars is home to an art gallery and is used for community functions and fundraisers. It represents a tremendous effort on the part of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation and the many people in the Fondren neighborhood and others who gave time and money to save the house in its original location and to help bring it back to life for the community.