of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

By

Joan Gandy

The Natchez Democrat

The Elbert Hilliard era at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History came to an end on Dec. 31, 2004, when the longtime director stepped down after 31 years in the position.

In honor of his term and the interplay for so many years between his department and preservation efforts in Natchez, the Historic Natchez Foundation has organized its annual meeting, Tuesday, 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Elms Court, to pay tribute to Hilliard and the state agency he led.

&uot;We want to thank him,&uot; said Mimi Miller, preservation director at the foundation. Further, the meeting will allow members to meet H.L. &uot;Hank&uot; Holmes, who replaced Hilliard as director; and Julia Marks Young, who replaced Holmes as director of the archives and library division.

Hilliard’s leadership at the department mirrors in large part the most active decades of historic preservation in Natchez &045; the drawing of the first Natchez National Register District as the Natchez Under-the-Hill District in the early 1970s, the naming important historic buildings to National Register and National and State Landmark status, assisting city government with ordinances to protect historic properties, establishing Historic Jefferson College and the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians as state historic sites and assisting with a storefront rehabilitation program in the downtown commercial district that has become a landmark event in preservation history in Natchez.

Hilliard was instrumental in efforts to protect the Natchez riverfront in the early 1990s, when the onset of riverboat gambling threatened to change the character of the historic area.

&uot;Had there not been an Elbert Hilliard, our waterfront today would look like Monterey, California,&uot; Miller said.

Tony Byrne, a former Natchez mayor, remembers well the assistance given the city by Hilliard and others at the department.

Efforts had begun early in the 1970s to create a city agency with oversight over historic properties, but the regulations fell short of what Natchez needed, Byrne said. &uot;A couple of historic buildings were torn down that shouldn’t have been because we didn’t have the right ordinances,&uot; he said. &uot;We worked with Archives and History to get stronger ordinances in place.&uot;

Byrne, mayor through the two decades of 1970s and 1980s, remembers well the opening of Historic Jefferson College and Grand Village. &uot;Those have been so important to Natchez.&uot;

Indeed, the restoration at Jefferson College brought Ron Miller to Natchez in 1972, Byrne recalled. &uot;The best thing Archives and History did for us was to send Ron and Mimi to us,&uot; he said.

Ron Miller oversaw the restoration at Jefferson College and then accepted the position of executive director of the foundation in the late 1970s. He continues in that position today, with his wife, Mimi, working for the foundation following her own years of employment by the state Department of Archives and History.

Ron Miller said that, in many ways, he feels as though he never left Archives and History and Elbert Hilliard.

&uot;I really never left his employ, and our staff feels the same way,&uot; he said. &uot;We think of ourselves as a branch of Archives and History in Southwest Mississippi.&uot;

In recent years, important grants in the hundreds of thousands of dollars have made an impact on Natchez and its preservation efforts.

Those include the $400,000 to assist in rehabilitating Memorial Hall into a federal courthouse; $150,000 to replace the roof on the old Natchez post office now housing the black history museum; $200,000 for Forks of the Road land acquisition and exhibits; $200,000 for repairs at Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center; $100,000 for the exterior renovation and roof repair at Sadie V. Thompson School; and others.

Justice Court Judge Mary Toles, founder of the Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture, has great respect for the generosity of Archives and History in funding Natchez projects.

&uot;Over the past 20 years, I’ve been privileged to see and to understand the importance of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History under the direction of Mr. Elbert Hilliard to this city,&uot; she said. &uot;Of particular importance to me was the grant to repair the roof of the old post office that now houses the NAPAC museum.&uot;

Toles has watched with interest the role Archives and History has taken in Forks of the Road, the site of the second largest slave market in the Deep South in the early 19th century.

&uot;I am also pleased with the role Archives and History is playing, present and future, in the development of the exhibits for Forks of the Roads,&uot; she said. Those exhibits will inspire &uot;all people, black and white, to recognize the true history of Natchez.&uot;

The Forks of the Road exhibits will have an impact nationwide, Toles said.

Ron Miller said Hilliard’s support for Natchez has crossed many boundaries. &uot;He has always supported us financially, but he also has put his neck on the line for us many times.&uot;

Mimi Miller said Hilliard’s integrity has been his strength. &uot;I have a great deal of admiration for his integrity. He is the most principled person I’ve ever known,&uot; she said. &uot;He has the respect of the Legislature because he never plays games with them.&uot;