By Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation

The one-story, six-bay galleried house at 820 Grove St. was built prior to 1886 and at that time was the home of W.H. Auter, a special officer with the Y and MV Passenger Depot, and his son, W.H. Auter, who ran the lunch stand at the depot.

The house had two large additions at the rear and a stables. Shortly thereafter the house became a rental property. In May 1889, the house was listed for rent, advertised as a seven-room house with stables and a large yard, and newly painted and repaired.

In 1890, it was the home of P.W. Hilton and Capt. and Mrs. M.L. Dedman. The funeral of Betsie Hilton was in the home on Aug. 26 of that year. Advertisements in the paper stated that the house was for rent again in 1891 and 1893.

W.H. Auter, now the depot master, and his wife, Addie, were again living in the house in 1904 with relatives: H.V. Auter, a driver with American Express Company, and Richard O. Auter, a billing clerk with Southern Express Company.

By 1906, Meyer and Elka Cornblatt called the house, home. Living with them were their children Rosalie, David, Abraham, Leah and Mary. Rosalie was married to Charles Lustburg in the house on July 22, 1908, by Rabbi Nemtzov. Meyer owned a dry goods store on North Washington Street with both David and Abraham working as clerks there in 1906.

Abraham moved to Columbus, Miss. and died there of pneumonia on Aug. 24, 1922. His wife, Sarah, and small daughter, Evelyn, brought his body back to Vicksburg to be buried in the family plot in the Jewish Cemetery. The funeral took place in the house on Grove Street.

Elka died in 1924 and shortly thereafter Meyer moved and the house was listed as the home of Mrs. Ada Lewis, the widow of Silas Lewis.

By 1935, the house was vacant and was again rental property until Roberta Stamps bought it for her family, including her son, Vicksburg Fire Department Chief Derrick Stamps. The house continues to be loved and lived in by Mrs. Stamps.