In January 1905, R. G. Partee started construction on two two-story houses on the lots at 1216 and 1214 Cherry Street. The Mann Building Company had two buildings on the lot, which had burned in late 1904, and was then-vacant. The new houses were frame Queen Anne cottages.  The home at 1216 was completed in April 1905, and the Vicksburg Post reported that Maj. (actually he was a colonel) Robert W. Durfey and his family had “arrived from Canton last night (April 18) and will make their home in this city. Mr. Durfey has taken a lease on the new elegant residence at 107 North Cherry Street.” Durfey owned a real estate agency. On Dec. 14, Robert and Laura’s daughter, Minnie Bell, was married to Frank Steele Arnold in the house.

By 1911, Leopold and Jennie Meyer lived here and Leopold is listed as a salesman with Baer and Brothers Dry Goods. By 1924, he and his wife Jennie operated a confectionary across the street from their house. The Meyers were parents of a daughter, Evelyn (Totty). They also opened their home to relatives, including Jennie’s sister Yetta Winston and her niece Ethel. Ethel died at the age of 24 and was buried from the house Sept. 25, 1931. Her mother Yetta died May 17, 1932, and was also buried from the house.  

Evelyn and her husband lived in the house with her parents in the 1940s, and their daughter Murlyn was born here in 1941. Leopold died Dec. 26, 1948, and Jennie was still living in the house on Oct. 10, 1961, when she passed away. Thereafter, the house was listed for sale in order to close out the estate of Jennie. 

In 1965, Jo’s Beauty Shop occupied the house, owned by Mrs. Joe Keithley. In 1999, the house was again listed for sale and it has had a number of occupants since then.  

The house is one of three that were built next to one another on this half of the block and is the only one that remains. The histories of the other two will continue next week.  

– Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.