The House & GardenA home full of light, letters, and legacy.
Eudora Welty lived, wrote, and gardened at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson, Mississippi for most of her life. Step through its doors and you’ll find rooms preserved exactly as she left them — books stacked by her favorite chair, photographs tucked into drawers, and the quiet hum of a writer at work. Outside, her beloved garden still blooms, a living canvas of color and care.
Visiting the house is more than a tour, it’s an invitation into the daily world of a writer whose imagination changed American literature.
TOURS & TICKETS
Guided tours of the Eudora Welty House and Garden are available throughout the week. Tours last approximately one hour and offer a glimpse into both Eudora’s creative life and her personal world.
HOURS:
All tours are guided and require admission
Tuesday–Friday: 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., & 3 p.m.
Saturday: 1 & 3 p.m.
RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED
tickets:
$10 adults
$8 seniors age 60+, teachers, military, Mississippi Heritage Trust and National Trust members
$5 students / $3 student groups (of 10+)
FREE: student chaperones, children under 6
reservations:
Tours are limited in size; advance reservations are recommended.
RESTORATION STORIES
Preservation is an ongoing act of love. From restoring original furnishings to repairing the garden’s winding brick paths, each project is a chance to honor Eudora’s world. With care, curators have pieced together details from photographs, letters, and family accounts to ensure the house looks just as it did during her lifetime.
furniture & artifacts
Original pieces have been painstakingly restored, from the desk where she typed to the shelves filled with her well-worn books.
the garden
Seasonal restoration keeps the garden blooming with the same roses, camellias, and seasonal flowers that Eudora tended.
letters & archives
Preservation extends beyond the home itself, encompassing thousands of letters, photographs, and manuscripts that reveal her wit and humanity.
The garden
Eudora once wrote that she “learned to observe from flowers.” The garden she and her mother tended together remains a cornerstone of the experience. From spring azaleas to summer roses, each season brings new life to the paths she walked daily. Visitors are welcome to explore the garden with or without a house tour.
a house with history
The Tudor Revival–style home at 1119 Pinehurst Street was built in 1925, and Eudora spent most of her life within its walls. Here she wrote nearly all of her published works, including The Optimist’s Daughter, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2004 and remains one of the nation’s most intact literary homes.
Books About the House & Garden
Several notable books explore Eudora Welty’s home and garden and their influence on her life and work. One Writer’s Beginnings offers Welty’s own reflections on her childhood in Mississippi and the experiences that shaped her as a writer, while One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place focuses specifically on the house and garden, highlighting how these spaces—especially the garden created by her mother—informed her daily life and creativity. Eudora Welty: A Biography by Suzanne Marrs provides a comprehensive look at Welty’s life and literary legacy, offering important context about her home, relationships, and enduring connection to place.
Eudora Welty Research Fellow
The Eudora Welty Research Fellowship supports original scholarship using the Eudora Welty Collection housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson. Awarded annually, the fellowship provides a $5,000 grant to a graduate student enrolled at an accredited college or university to encourage in-depth research on Welty’s life, work, and legacy. The Welty Fellow conducts on-site research within the archival collection, contributing to a deeper understanding of Welty’s literary, historical, and cultural significance while advancing their own academic work
WHY IT MATTERS
Preservation is not about freezing time. It is about making sure the house, garden, and stories Eudora cherished remain touchstones of creativity, generosity, and Southern literary life. Every repair, every digitized letter, every bloom in the garden is part of a larger promise: that her legacy will continue to grow.