Russ House & Visitor Center

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Joseph W. Russ Junior built it between 1892 and 1895 in a mixture of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival, and the rounded, columned front porch has been compared to the bow of a Mississippi paddlewheeler, which is a fair description of it. Five generations of the family lived here across about a hundred years. Joseph lived in the house with his mother before he married Bette Dickerson; their daughter Frances stayed in it for eighty-nine years, long after Joseph died in 1930. It went on the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 1983. The building now holds the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and the visitors center, so it is the sensible first stop for anyone working out what to do in this county: the staff know the spring seasons, the cave tour times and which trails are passable after a storm, which is information worth having before driving out to any of them