The circa 1877 Captain Jack C. Hardy House is a rare surviving example of an Italianate town villa, one of only nine houses of this form in the state of Mississippi. The House has retained its ornate three-tiered plaster base and crown moldings, ceiling medallions, and mantelpieces.

In addition to the immediate faamily of Capt. J. C. Hardy, the house was the home of two of Mrs. Hardy's sisters and their children. One of them was Ms James Lulah Ragsdale, who was known professionally as Tallulah Ragsdale. She became one of Mississippi's first female authors. Having acquired the stature to be included in the late 1910's editions of "WWHOS'S WHO IN AMERICA" through the publicaitons of her poems and novels, she was the most glamorous of the Hardy House's mumerous residents.

Her first book, "The Crime of Philip Guthrie", was published in Chicago in 1892. A more substanial novel = "A Shadow's Shadow", came i 1893, published by the well known house of J. B. Lippincott.

Her third published novel - "Miss Dulcie from Dixie", came in 1917, published by D. Appleton & Co. and became a film made by Warner Brothers in 1919, starring Gladys Leslie, directed by Joseph Gleason.

Photographs from the movie's set remain in the house's rich archives.

Her fourth novel, "Next Besters", was published by Scribner's in 1920 and collection of her poems titled "If I See Green", was published by Henry Harrison, N.Y. in 1929.

Local folklore has it that Jesse James, famous outlaw, hid out at Brookhaven with Capt. Jack Hardy for over two years before his death in 1862.