Description
Mammy was built by Henry Gaude (Go-day) in 1939-40. Henry had a gas station, and wanted a roadhouse that would capitalize on the then-current craze for Gone With the Wind. One tale is that Mammy was designed as a white Southern belle by Annie Davis Bost, the wife of a prominent Natchez architect — and Mammy’s shape does seem more Scarlett O’Hara than Hattie McDaniel. Henry then transformed the big lady to black from white because black was better than white in the road-food visual shorthand of 1940 Natchez, conveying ideas of nurturing and nourishment.
