Natchez Part II

Natchez, Ms.  Part II

Stanton Hall 

Friday, June 28, 2013

Today we toured Stanton Hall.  It was built in 1857 for cotton magnate Frederick Stanton.  This home has silver door knobs and hinges! It also has two of the largest mirrors I have ever seen.  (7‘x17’)  They came from Paris, France. This home was used in the filming of North and South.  It was the plantation home of Patrick Swayze’ character.  He stayed in the home while filming. It is very ornate and has the largest collection of one style of furniture in one place. (of course I can’t remember the designers name, I do remember that he was from New York and the furniture was a carved, curved wood.  Hows that for being technical) I wish that they would let you take pictures inside the house.

Longwood

We also toured Longwood today.  This is the largest octagonal house in America.  It was begun in 1860 for cotton planter Haller Nutt.  The octagonal rotunda is open to the entire six stories and crowning the whole is a Byzantine-Moorish dome with a 24 foot finial!  By 1861 they had completed what is seen now.  The Civil War started and most of the workers were from the north.  They dropped their tools and fled to the north.  Their buckets, oil cans, and tools are where they left them.  Mr. Nutt and some local craftsmen finished the basement.  He and  his family lived in the basement.  He died in 1864 and his wife lived there until her death in 1897.  This was my favorite home that I have seen. It’s odd shape and design was fascinating.  It was designed so that a light tunnel went from the top dome to the basement.  These “windows” were to be designed into the floor pattern.

The boxes on the floor cover the light tunnels so that you can see where they would have been in the floor.  The alcoves in each corner was going to be for statues.  All of the brick would have been covered with plaster.

I am looking up to the unfinished floors above.  This is just as it was left.

This is the second floor plan.

This is the front door entrance that was never used.  All of this brick would have been covered.

These bottom columns and the porch below are the only parts of the house that have the plaster over the bricks. It would have been painted and scored to look like large marble blocks.

Make sure you see this if you are in the area.  

Later