Poplarville
Ripening rabbiteye blueberries on the bush, the crop Poplarville is named for.

Visit

Discover Poplarville

Blueberry rows, a 1918 courthouse, the oldest community college in Mississippi, and one weekend in June when the whole county comes to Main Street.

Top attractions

Start with these

Four things that explain what Poplarville is, and why people stay once they get here.

Wooden baskets filled with freshly picked blueberries lined up in the grass at a farm.
The reason for the name

Blueberry Country

Poplarville is the Blueberry Capital of Mississippi, and it earns the title. Rabbiteye blueberries ripen across Pearl River County through June, u-pick farms open their rows to the public, and the whole town throws a festival about it.

  • The Blueberry Jubilee runs the second Saturday in June, and has for more than forty years
  • Local u-pick farms include JD Farms and Pearl River Blues Berry Farm
  • The USDA's Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory sits just outside town
  • Mississippi State University runs a South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station here
  • Jubilee weekend brings a 5K, a car show, storytelling and craft booths downtown
Visit the site
Huff Hall on the Pearl River Community College campus in Poplarville, a red-brick building with white columns.
Home of the Wildcats

Pearl River Community College

The oldest community college in Mississippi has been part of Poplarville since 1909, and the campus is woven straight into the town. Drive through it - the brick and columns are worth the detour.

  • Founded in 1909; became a junior college in 1923
  • The oldest community college in the state of Mississippi
  • Ranked by CNN Money among the country's top 20 for academic foundation
  • Named to the top 150 asked to apply for the 2015 Aspen Prize for Academic Excellence
  • Listed 23rd nationally by Create a Career and 28th by BestSchools.org
Visit the site
Poplarville City Hall on Highway 26 East with a full rainbow arching over the building.
Where the town gathers

Downtown & the Town Green

A day trip in Poplarville is a walk down Main Street: donuts, specialty coffee, an old-time soda fountain inside the drug store, a gas station where an attendant still fills the tank, and the Town Green in the middle of it all.

  • Town Green at 511 South Main Street - markets, music, Christmas on Main
  • Old Time Soda Fountain inside Pearl River Drug
  • Main Street Coffee and P-Ville Nutrition for a cup or a loaded tea
  • Popa's Donuts to start the morning
  • Robicheaux's Specialty Candy, which takes tours
  • Hall's Service Center, full service, exactly as it sounds
  • The Poplarville Area Chamber of Commerce for a map and what's on
Visit the site
The Pearl River County Courthouse in Poplarville, a yellow-brick building with a tiled roof and Ionic columns.
Open sunrise to sunset

City Park & the county courthouse

City Park sits on Highway 26 West with pavilions and a gazebo the city rents out for reunions and birthdays. A few blocks away, the 1918 Pearl River County Courthouse still anchors the county seat.

  • City Park, 400 Highway 26 West - open sunrise to sunset daily
  • Pavilions and a gazebo available to rent through City Hall
  • Town Green, 511 South Main Street
  • The county courthouse is inscribed “Dedicated to all who love truth, justice, and thrift”
  • Poplarville has been the seat of Pearl River County since the county was re-formed in 1880
Learn more

Why Poplarville

A good place to land

People move here for the schools and the space, and stay for the neighbours. Here is the short version.

  • Schools that punch above their weight

    The Poplarville School District is rated “A” by state testing standards - one of only fifteen in Mississippi - and Poplarville High has been recognised by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's highest-performing schools.

  • About an hour from everywhere

    Hattiesburg, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans are each roughly an hour away, with Highway 26 and Highway 11 running straight through town and I-59 at the edge of it.

  • Small enough that people know you

    Around 2,800 people live inside the city limits. Poplarville calls itself a city of hospitality and a family-oriented community, and the Jubilee crowd of ten thousand every June suggests the rest of the county agrees.

  • Piney woods and farm country

    The longleaf pine built this place, and it still surrounds it. Blueberry rows, cattle pasture and pine plantation run right up to the city limits in every direction.

Our history

A county that had to be founded twice

Poplarville exists because a courthouse burned, a county was abolished, and a railroad came through land belonging to a man called Poplar Jim Smith.

The Southern Railway depot at Poplarville, the line that brought the town into being.

  1. 1872

    Pearl County is formed

    The Mississippi Legislature carves “Pearl” County out of Marion and Hancock Counties, naming it for the river along the Louisiana line. The county seat is Byrd's Chapel, where the Masonic Building serves as both church and courthouse.

  2. 1878

    The county is abolished

    The courthouse burns, and with the post-Civil War South short of any tax base to rebuild it, the Legislature dissolves the county and returns the land to Marion and Hancock.

  3. 1880

    Pearl River County, and a new county seat

    The Legislature re-creates the county - the single name “Pearl” could not legally be reused, so “River” is added. A site on the railroad is chosen for the seat, on land owned by “Poplar” Jim Smith, named for the stand of poplar trees on his homestead.

  4. 1884

    The railroad arrives and Poplarville is established

    Northern syndicates buy up the virgin pine forest and the railroad brings dynamic change. Sawmills that had floated timber down the slow Pearl River move to the rail line. Poplarville is established the same year.

  5. 1892

    A courthouse and a boarding school

    The first Pearl River County courthouse is built, and in the same year Poplarville gains a boarding school - the largest institution of its kind in the state.

  6. 1909

    Pearl River Community College begins

    An accredited high school is organised, becoming Pearl River Junior College in 1923 - the oldest community college in Mississippi and one of the most prominent in the country.

  7. 1918

    The courthouse that still stands

    The present county courthouse is built and inscribed “Dedicated to all who love truth, justice, and thrift.”

  8. 1960s

    NASA comes to Pearl River County

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration builds the Mississippi Test Facility, part of which extends into Pearl River County, bringing high technology to a landscape that had run on timber, dairy, cattle and tung oil.

Photo gallery

Poplarville, in pictures

Select any photo to view it larger. Photographer credits are shown with each image.

Have a great photo of Poplarville? Send it to City Hall and we may feature it here.

Baskets of freshly picked blueberries, the crop the Jubilee is built around.

Plan your visit

Come for the Jubilee

The Blueberry Jubilee lands on the second Saturday in June, with storytelling and music the Friday night before. Saturday brings a 5K and fun run, a pancake breakfast, a car show, craft and artist booths the length of downtown, tours at the USDA horticultural lab, and a puppy pageant. Bring a chair.

Blueberry JubileeSee what's on
200 Highway 26 East, Poplarville, MS 39470