Verandah/Curlee House Museum

Completed in the spring of 1857, the Verandah House was built for one of the two founders of Corinth, Hamilton Mask. The house is a significant example of Greek Revival architecture. As a result of the crossroads of the two standard-gauge railroads in Corinth, the area became of prime importance to both the Union and Confederacy. On the evening of April 2, 1862, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston met with Gen. Braxton Bragg in his bedchambers at the Verandah House to sign Order No. 8 to launch the Confederate counter-offensive against the Union army that ended in the Battle of Shiloh, April 6–7, 1862. Throughout the war, generals from the Confederacy and the Union were quartered in this house. Following the war, the Corinth Female Academy occupied the house for a short period of time. It was then purchased by the William Peyton Curlee, one of the founders of the Curlee Clothing Company. After Mr. Curlee’s death of yellow fever, Mrs. Curlee, a descendent of Daniel Boone, sold the house to the Leroy Montgomery, who raised a large family in the home. In 1921, Shelby Hammond Curlee, oldest son of the previous Curlee owners, bought the house. The descendants of the Curlee family donated the house to the city in 1961.