Oaks House Museum

Welcome to "The Oaks," one of Jackson's oldest dwellings. This Greek Revival-style cottage was built about 1853 on four acres of land located near the center of Mississippi's capital city. The house is one of few extant structures that survived the burning of Jackson in the Civil War. The Oaks is a Mississippi Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Also known as the Boyd House, it was the home of James Hervey Boyd, Eliza Ellis Boyd, their six children, and numerous grandchildren. Mr. Boyd served his community four times as mayor. For more than six terms, he was an alderman of Jackson, his time in office including the year 1863 when Jackson was burned by Union forces.

From 1853 until 1960, various members of the Boyd family - spanning three generations - lived in The Oaks. In 1960, the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Mississippi acquired the property.

The Oaks is administered by The Oaks House Museum Corporation, whose mission is to preserve and interpret the circa 1853 Oaks House, its collection, and grounds, to depict the life of a middle-class family on a mid-19th-century urban farmstead through the story of four-term Jackson mayor James Hervey Boyd, his wife Eliza, and their family, focusing on the years 1853 to 1863.

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