The Oaks House Museum

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The Oaks House and Museum, one of the oldest structures in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Oaks House Museum, located at 823 North Jefferson Street in Jackson, Mississippi, is the former home of Jackson Mayor James Hervey Boyd (1809-77) and his wife Eliza Ellis Boyd and their family. Having survived the burning of Jackson during the Civil War, "The Oaks" is one of the oldest structures in the city. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Mississippi Landmark.

"The Oaks" in a photograph from the 19th century.

The structure was built in the Greek Revival style in approximately 1853. The original property was larger than the current one, at one time encompassing four acres and extending north to Boyd Street and west to North Street, an urban farmstead with main house, barn, detached kitchen, smokehouse, greenhouse, and other outbuildings. Three generations of the Boyd family lived at The Oaks, from 1853 until 1960. Mrs. Eliza Ellis Boyd survived her husband by many years and lived in the house until her death in 1902. Daughter Mary and her husband, Richard F. McGill, lived in the house with their two children. In 1960, the grandchildren sold the property to the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Mississippi (NSCDA-MS). The home is now a museum administered by the Oaks House Museum Corporation.^[1].