The Cotton District is Starkville's most distinctive neighbourhood, tucked between downtown and Mississippi State. It takes its name from the old cotton mill area and worker housing that once stood here, then was remade into a compact, porch-heavy district of houses, restaurants, bars, and student life.
It is not a grand historic quarter, and that is part of the point. The appeal is in the scale: narrow streets, mixed uses, and the slightly theatrical architecture of an American college town trying to be walkable before that idea became fashionable again.