OLD AGENCY ROAD has been through a lot for Madison County. It lost some of its trees and some of its asphalt, but never any of its aesthetic or historical value.

Old Agency Road is actually on the national registry of historical landmarks. It was added to the list in 1988 and was selected for its architecture, engineering connection to historic figure Andrew Jackson, for being considered part of a settlement and exploration route, and ties to being part of the original Natchez Trace.

Due to its historic past, the road was deemed the Old Agency Road Corridor Preservation District and an ordinance was issued to protect the road’s canopy trees, road character, Choctaw Indian Agency and Greenwood Plantation Home.

The residents of the Bird Lanes, who also formed the Audubon Woods Home Owners Association, in conjunction with help from the city of Ridgeland officials, are preparing to make the historical significance and the importance of the road’s preservation public knowledge.

“A group interested in preserving the road and making the history of the road more visible requested markers be made for the road,” said the city of Ridgeland’s Director of Community Development Alan Hart. “We are in the process of trying to get landmark signs for the road.”

The group Hart accredits with much of the preservation efforts for Old Agency Road are residents of the Old Agency Road Preservation District. Two of the members or active participants in the preservation of the road are Nancy Batson and Cathy Bowles.

“We want to make sure the ordinance that is in place to protect the road is used correctly,” Bowles said. “We want to make sure that everyone knows that the canopy trees are protected.”

THE TREES THAT ENCASE the road are one of the major aspects why the road stays protected. The road is categorized as a “canopy road,” because of the trees that have grown from opposing sides of the road to become conjoined over top of the yellow lined asphalt below.

“I have lived in Audubon Woods for 26 years,” Batson said. “When my husband I bought the lot that we built our house, on it was in the middle of a soybean field with one little tree, our lot was the third sold.”

Batson has certainly seen the area change. She has watched soybeans become concrete beams that support the new Renaissance development.

“To protest for our land we had to organize,” Batson said. “We’re trying to keep commercial development out of the area, or any type of development on Agency Road.”

These women and many other residents don’t want to see high-rises over the top of their canopy trees or driveways and traffic jams in front of their pecan groves, they just want to live where the grass is literally green.

“I know we weren’t aware of ordinances and I don’t think some city officials were either,” Batson said.

The ordinance that protects the road as a historical landmark describes that the care of the road, because it is a historical landmark, is up to the discretion and care of the community and local government.

“I have worked for the past 18 years to protect that road,” Mayor Gene McGee said. “I have promoted the preservation of that road.”

One of the major concerns of promoters of the preservation of Old Agency is the ample amount of traffic that Renaissance is thought to draw. They are also concerned about the new traffic circle as a safety hazard due to the lack of knowledge people have about how to use it correctly.

“Where the circle is used to be a field with cows in it,” Bowles said. “We’d like to have kept the road the way it was 10 years ago, but now we are going to try and preserve it.”

When you explode into the sunlight from under the canopy trees on the backside of the road, the concrete and construction makes the journey into the light feel like a living version of Alice in Wonderland.

“If you don’t see a tree canopy, you’re not on Old Agency,” Bowles said.