Old Court House Museum

The Old Warren County Court House went up between 1858 and 1860 on a hilltop in Vicksburg, a Greek Revival block with Ionic columns on all four sides, built for $100,000. The contractors, the Weldon Brothers of Rodney, used 100 skilled enslaved artisans to make the brick and raise the walls. It is a National Historic Landmark. The county used it as a courthouse until 1939. Eva Whitaker Davis organized a historical society in 1946 to save the empty building, and the museum opened in 1948. The private, nonprofit Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society still runs it.

Go knowing what the collection is. The museum describes holdings that run from pre-Columbian artifacts to portraits, silver and toys, and it bills itself as home to one of the largest collections of Civil War memorabilia in the South, with Confederate flags and the tie Jefferson Davis wore at his inauguration. It is a private society's collection, and its emphasis falls on the Confederacy.

The county this building served had another history. In 1860 about two-thirds of Warren County was enslaved. In December 1874 armed white men demanded that Peter Crosby, the county's first Black sheriff, resign, and by one count about 23 Black residents were killed. On July 4, 1863, the Union flag went up over the building. Pair this stop with the national park, which tells the story of those who were freed.