Eudora Welty House

The Tudor Revival house on Pinehurst Place was Eudora Welty's home from 1925, when her family built it, until her death in 2001 at the age of 92. She wrote almost all her novels and short stories here. The house and its garden have been preserved as a writers' museum, with everything left as it was in her later years.

Tours are by reservation. The garden, restored to her mother's 1925 design, is open during daylight hours and is worth a wander on its own — Welty's mother was a serious horticulturalist and the bones of her plantings remain.

things to do sight historic house
A story
Welty wrote much of her work — including the Pulitzer-winning The Optimist's Daughter — at a small desk in the upstairs bedroom, looking out at the camellia garden her mother had planted. The house contains over 5,000 of her books, left exactly where she stacked them, including teetering piles on the staircase.