NATCHEZ — Stella Carby didn’t have to go far for a hoop skirt.

Coming from a lineage of antebellum houses, her mother’s house, Hawthorne, is on tour during Spring Pilgrimage.

So Carby already had the garb when it came time for her and her husband Philip’s house, Greenlea, to join the Fall Pilgrimage tour.

And she’s been working hard to get her house on South Wall Street ready for the influx of people.

“We’re cleaning, we’re planting, we’re painting, we’re washing, we’re scrubbing, we’re polishing, we’re steaming,” Carby said. “I can’t think of any more words, but whatever they are we’re doing it all.

“We’re trying to put our best face on.”

Not only that, but she’s been cracking the history books, too, to learn about the house.

“It’s been really interesting to get back out the Mississippi history books and read a little bit,” she said.

While she said the studying has instilled a little more pride in her house, she said mostly she’s glad to be involved in bringing tourists to Natchez.

“It continues the pride and amazement I have with the people in Natchez who are so generous as far as volunteering their time and efforts to keep us on the map,” Carby said.

Pilgrimage begins Saturday, with seven new houses on tour.

Natchez Pilgrimage Tours Interim Manager Marsha Colson said she expects a good turnout.

Colson said the new homes — Greenlea, Twin Oaks, Oak Hill, Rip-Rap, The Stone House, Pleasant Hill and The Gardens — are the biggest installment of new homes Pilgrimage has seen in a while.

One major change Pilgrimage is seeing this year is many of the mansion or museum homes owned by clubs and organizations are no longer part of the three-home tour and are touring independently.

Yet another change involves researching new stories about the tour homes to tell, Colson said.

“The homeowners and some of us at NPT are searching and delving into unusual stories,” she said.

Not only will this be appealing to out-of-town tourists, but to Miss-Lou residents, too, she said.

“I really want to appeal to everybody in our community and neighboring counties,” she said.

Despite Fall Pilgrimage having a historically lighter turnout than the spring, Colson said she is optimistic about this season’s turnout.

However, she said it’s difficult to know what to expect.

“It’s almost impossible to judge what the turnout is going to be,” she said. “All I can say is I hope for a very good turnout because it really takes a lot of hard work, not just from people with NPT but the people who own the houses.”

And to get the full story, Natchez Association for the Preservation of African American Culture Museum Director Darrell White will be available to give a tour telling “The Rest of the Story.”

White said the tour can be arranged through NPT and will explore all the black historical sites including Fort Rosalie, Natchez Under-the-Hill, the William Johnson House, the Robert Smith House, Forks of the Road, St. Catherine Street, Zion African American Methodist Church and ends at the NAPAC museum.

Evening entertainment includes Amos Polk’s Voices of Hope Spiritual Singers and Natchez Little Theatre’s production of Big River. Ticket information is available at NPT.