NATCHEZ — The Natchez National Historical Park is moving dirt in an effort to go back in time.

Workers are transplanting 132 azaleas along the front of the antebellum mansion to make way for a fence that was part of the original landscape of the house.

Park Ranger Melissa Tynes said the project has been a year in the making and is part of the park management’s plan to restore the house and property to its original 1840s design.

“Our goal is to create as close to a perfect representation of the original property as we can,” Tynes said

“We want to show people that this was not a working cotton plantation. This was a home, and that means returning things to what they were like when the McMurrans were living at Melrose.”

Workers started Monday moving the Arlington Pink azaleas and spent Thursday planting 65 bushes at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center. Other azalea bushes have been donated to local non-profit agencies and even transplanted to other historic Natchez houses.

The azaleas were planted in the 1940s by Ethel Moore Kelly, who owned the house with her husband George Malin Davis Kelly until her death in 1975.

“The Kellys history at Melrose is very much a part of the fabric of this property,” Tynes said.

For that reason, Tynes said discarding the flowering shrubs was never an option.

“The Kellys are a part of Melrose’s story,” she said. “We weren’t just going to throw out that part of the story.”

Tynes said after the azaleas are transplanted, the park can move forward on plans to construct a replica fence for the Melrose property. Tynes believes the project will begin within a year.

The fence isn’t the only sign of moving backward at Melrose. Construction crews are also working to return the stucco faade of the house to its original faux-finished look.

When completed, the white stucco will have a marbleized finish.

“It may look different to everyone, but it is what the original house looked like,” Tynes said. “We are trying return as much to the original as possible.

“The work isn’t just the house and the fence though, it involves the gardens, the outbuilding and pulling everything back to its original look.”