Brandon, Gerard, IV, House

Constructed in 1890, the Gerard Brandon IV House is one of the first houses erected in the turn-of-the-century northern Suburbs of Natchez and is one of the better examples of the Queen Anne Style in the entire city. Good examples of Queen Anne Style architecture are relatively scarce in Mississippi with most essays in the style limited to one-story frame dwellings with gabled, bay projections. The economic conditions of the South during the late nineteenth century generally precluded the building of elaborate Queen Anne Style residences. The Gerard Brandon House gains additional significance from its architectural integrity, its well-documented construction date which serves as a useful tool in studying the evolution of the Queen Anne Style in Natchez, and from the local importance of Gerard Brandon IV for whom the house was constructed. Gerard Brandon IV was the fourth generation of his influential and prosperous family to reside in the Natchez area. Brandon's great-grandfather, Gerard Brandon, came from Ireland and settled at Selma Plantation northeast of Natchez in the late eighteenth century; his grandfather, Gerard Brandon, Jr., was the first native-born governor of the state of Mississippi; and his father, Dr. James Brandon, was a beloved physician of the Natchez area. Gerard Brandon IV was born in 1861 and was educated at nearby Jefferson Military College and the University of Mississippi at Oxford. Before obtaining a law degree, Brandon served as principal of the Natchez Public School System from 1882-1886. While a practicing attorney in Natchez, he served a number of years as city solicitor and was elected a state senator in 1906 (The Natchez Democrat, August 15, 1956, p. 1). In 1932, Brandon wrote a lengthy, unpublished history of the Brandon family in America that is equally as important as a primary resource for studying the history of Natchez and the surrounding area (Gerard Brandon, unpublished history of the Brandon family, xerox copy in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Margaret Wesley, 209 South Broadway Street, Natchez, Mississippi). In this family chronicle, Brandon wrote that he moved into his new residence on North Union Street in September of 1890. He resided at the North Union Street address until his death in 1956 (Mrs. Margaret Wesley, granddaughter of Gerard Brandon, interviewed by Mary Warren Miller, research consultant with the Historic Natchez Foundation, Natchez, Mississippi, at Natchez, Mississippi, October 28, 1980).