Arts & Entertainment
Old Ethridge Home on South Lamar Leaves Lasting Impression
The home above is perhaps most commonly known as the Old Ethridge Home.
Judge Ethridge owned the home before selling it in the early 1950.
According to David Tatum, Ethridge family members Tommy and Billy Ethridge grew up there. Billy later became head of the Mississippi Supreme Court in Jackson and Tommy was a prominent attorney in Oxford.
“It was called the ‘Old Ethridge Home’ when we lived in it,” said Kathryn Smith. “This view is actually the back of the house and the front faces South Lamar. We lived in an apartment on the far left side in this picture! The Dan Watson’s lived below us. The house was not featured in Home From The Hills as was Fiddler’s Folly, along with Ammadelle where Mrs. Dorothy Tatum lives. We had a great neighborhood back then! Loved it!”
Another commentator adds further context. “My grandfather, Neil White, Sr., bought the home from the Ethridge family in the early 1950s,” said Neil White. “My family occupied it for about two years.”
When I was a little girl we called it The Lawrence Home,” said Judy Young. “It was made into four apartments and Janice and Cathy Coers lived in one of the apartments for a while before they built next door to me. Kathryn Smith lived in one of the apartments for a while and Robert and Margaret Khayat lived in one shortly after they married. A wonderful house and I am so thrilled they haven’t torn it down, like so many others. I have a lot of memories playing there, especially on the front porch.”
Courtesy of John Cofield with comments by John’s devoted readers. John is a HottyToddy.com writer and a noted folk historian of all things Oxford.
Neil White
January 22, 2014 at 9:08 am
Thanks, John. As a bookend, my daughter, Maggie, lived in the house last year in the au pair suite. The realtor who was shopping the house (and ultimately sold it in 2013 to a Texas family) called her “Turret Girl.”
I also have a photo of my father and his siblings (taken in the living room of the home) standing next to a television (circa 1954). It was an ad for Shine Morgan “It’s going to be a television Christmas.”
billyethridge
January 28, 2014 at 1:14 am
I have several old pics of family members in front of the Old Ethridge Home. “Billy Ethridge” was my father. (I’m Wm. N. Ethridge IV.) when my grandparents moved out of the Old Ethridge Home, they moved right behind it on 1011 South 11th Street. I was born in Oxford in 1948, and moved with my family to Jackson in @1951 when my father was appointed to the State Supreme Court. My uncle Thomas moved adjacent to my grandparents’ house, where he and his family (Aunt Esther and my cousins Lenore and Laura) lived for many years. Though my immediate family lived in Jackson for years, my spiritual home remained in Oxford. We spent much time with my grandparents, aunt & uncle & cousins in Oxford on holidays, sometimes much of the summer, and on overnight trips when my father would teach a class at the Ole Miss law school. Very, very fond memories…