The front porch of the Taylor Grocery is the perfect spot to sit, while you
wait to go inside and taste the delicious catfish, that is a "must have"
on your visit.

 

"Come Sit On The Porch A Spell..."
In Taylor, Mississippi

by: Bobby McDonald

 

The Taylor Grocery, home of "world class" catfish.

 

Are you looking for a place to go, with plenty of quaint attractions and delicious food and music? Then, "drag out the map" and consider Taylor, Mississippi.

Taylor, located in Lafayette County, Ms, is an incredibly vibrant and unique small village in North Central Mississippi. Located eight minutes south of Oxford, Taylor has long been known for its family-oriented lifestyle and, of course, the artists. Over twenty-five years ago several artists located in Taylor and one by one others have followed.

 

Downtown Taylor, Mississippi.

 

Today, dozens of artists live in the downtown Taylor area. Painters, sculptors, potters, photographers, woodworkers, furniture makers, and writers give Taylor its unique flavor.

 

Taylor may be best known for Taylor Grocery, the world-famous catfish restaurant. Featured in dozens of publications over the past ten years, Taylor Grocery offers the best fried catfish and down home atmosphere you can find anywhere. Live music and great food Friday-Sunday nights sometimes creates a two hour wait to get in the door.

 

 

 

In 2006 the "Big Truck Theater" opened to the public. Somebody called it a cross between the Bluebird Cafe and the old Louisiana Hay Ride. Big Truck offers four hours of live music in an old barn, performed on the back of an old flat bed truck right in the heart of downtown Taylor. Add in two art galleries, an antiques outlet, and Taylor offers something for everyone.

 

The "Big Truck" Theater in Taylor, MS.

 

 

All roads lead to Taylor, Mississippi.

 

The arts play an integral role in the concept of the Plein Air neighborhood. We celebrate the arts. We believe the arts make life better, more rich, and create lasting memories. Art lessons, events, lectures and showings will be plentiful at Plein Air. Plans call for an artist-in-residence rotating between painters, photographers, potters, and woodworkers. Plein Air is the neighborhood for artists and those who love the arts.

 

 

 

Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's Home, is located in nearby Oxford, MS, with a world of
information about the famous Southern author.

 

Travel the 8 miles to Oxford, Ms, and you're sure to want to visit Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner, where many of his classic novels were written, and the town that served as an inspiration for much of his work.

In 1930, Faulkner purchased what was then known as "The Bailey Place", a primitive Greek Revival house sitting on four acres of hardwood and cedar. Colonel Robert Sheegog, an Irish immigrant planter from Tennessee, had built the home when he settled in the tiny frontier settlement of Oxford in the 1840's. Faulkner renamed it Rowan Oak after the rowan tree, a symbol of security and peace.

Faulkner then optioned the surrounding acreage known as Bailey's Woods, and settled in with his wife, Estelle, and her two children from a previous marriage, Malcolm and Victoria. Within a few years, their daughter, Jill, was born. Rowan Oak was the family home of the Faulkners until 1962, the year of William's death.

 

 

In 1972, Jill Faulkner Summers sold the house to the University of Mississippi to secure it as a place for people worldwide to learn about her father and his famous works.

Faulkner's years spent at Rowan Oak were productive as he set stories and novels to paper, ultimately winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, and the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1954 for A Fable.

The large eastern red cedars lining the walkway to Rowan Oak were planted after the yellow fever epidemic that swept the South in the 1870's. It was believed that cedars "cleansed" the air. The eastern red cedar is not native to Mississippi, but thrives in the sandy soil found around the property that leads to the Faulkner Home.

 

Come to the town square, "sit and spit," visit the sites, and make it a day or week long visit, as you absorb the southern charm and atmosphere. There's plenty to do in Oxford and the entire Northern Mississippi area, from Civic War battlefields to fishing on the banks of one of Mississippi's famous rivers.

You might just decide to stay for a lifetime!

 

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