A Week of Southern Mansions



Bouvoir after Katrina



Our week in Biloxi, MS and Vidalia, LA turned into a week of mansion and plantation tours. In Biloxi, we toured Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, the reluctant president of the Confederacy. He wrote his book "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" in one of the outbuildings that he converted to a library/studio. The house sits just a few hundred feet from the Gulf, and was badly battered by Hurricane Katrina 7 years ago, losing its porches, part of its roof and 30 of the 60 foundation support pillars. It has been restored to its original splendor through some fairly amazing historical research and restoration. The trompe l'oeil ceilings are something to behold.



Bouvoir today; Living room ceiling at right -
what looks like moldings and plaques is just paint!

 

In Vidalia we were guests at the FMCA Texas Roadrunner's chapter rally, and met some very warm and friendly folks. The first night of the rally, we were treated to Gringo Pie from Fat Mama's Tamales, a scrumptious dish of small spicy tamales topped with chili and cheese. We had lunch at Fat Mama's a couple of times when we were in Natchez in 2010 and had planned to return, but instead they came to us. Over the next two days, we toured Stanton Hall, Rosalie, and Longwood in Natchez, MS and Frogmore Plantation just west of Vidalia, LA. Boyce and Lisa Eldridge from Tyler, TX carpooled with us, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. Since Natchez had no rail line, it was not of particular importance to the Union during the war. Many of the plantation owners who lived in Natchez were anti-war, and they agreed to allow the Union to occupy the town on the proviso that it not be burned, as were the towns along the river where resistence was met. Had the town resisted, the incredible mansions we toured would undoubtedly have been destroyed. Unfortunately, none of the mansions we toured in Natchez allowed interior photography, so our photos were limited to exteriors.



Stanton Hall front view



Finished in 1857, Stanton Hall is noted to be "one of the most palatial residences of antebellum America." In typical Southern style, it has very high ceilings and rooms on either side of a long, wide central hallway. This design, with tall windows that opened to the floor and large, high doors, ensured good air circulation during the long hot summers. Many of the original Stanton family furnishings have been returned by descendants - all dark rosewood with ornate carving. I'm not sure how people lived with all of the rich fabrics, floral designs, and heavy furniture that filled this house. We had lunch at the Carriage House restaurant on the grounds of Stanton Hall - Tom had their signature fried chicken, but Barbara went for the daily blue plate special, soft shell crab - which turned out to be the biggest soft shell we've ever seen. Both dishes were very good with crackling crisp breading - and reasonably priced as well.

Rosalie, which was finished in 1820 and served as the Union Army Headquarters during the Civil War, sits on a high bluff above the Mississippi river - the view from the second floor veranda looking upriver is spectacular. Although smaller than Stanton Hall, Rosalie has the same floor plan, with rooms opening onto a wide, high central hallway. The valuable furnishings were stored in the attic during the Union occupation, as the commander of the troups did not want them damaged during his tenure. We were therefore able to see the house as it was in its antebellum days of splendor. The picture here is one Tom took in April 2010, on a sunny day with the azaleas in full bloom.

Longwood, which was partially constructed in 1860-61, sits still unfinished on its spacious grounds. The architect and carpenters were from Philadelphia, and when war was imminent, they departed never to return. Fortunately, the exterior was finished, as were the 9 rooms on the basement level of this unique octagon-shaped structure with its onion-shaped dome. The family lived in great luxury on that first level, and many of the original furnishings remain. Dr. Haller Nutt, the owner of Longwood plantation, died of pneumonia in 1864, and the building was never completed. Each level was to have had eight rooms and 4 verandas surrounding a central rotunda. The rotunda was open to the dome from the principal floor upward. Had it been finished, this home would have had 32 rooms on 6 levels, and totaled 30,000 square feet. The finished basement level was 10,000 square feet - so it certainly didn't feel like a basement. The Haller children probably had a great time playing on the unfinished main floor, where they could run in a complete circle through the unfinished rooms.



As usual, if you click on this photo you can see an enlarged version of the planned bottom 4 floors



On a cold, blustery Saturday, we visited Frogmore Plantation, a still-working cotton plantation 14 miles west of Vidalia. As we sat in the early 1800's plantation chapel with its original pews, owner Lynette Tanner provided a history of cotton cultivation and plantation life, and the changes resulting from Eli Whitney's cotton gin, the 1884 Munger steam gin, and further developments up to the modern 900-bale-a-day gin that is still the mainstay of Frogmore. Interestingly, the Tanners do not charge farmers for ginning their cotton - they just keep the cotton seeds, which are valuable for oil, feed, fertilizer, and many other applications. We toured the well-preserved, rare Munger steam gin, and several of the early 1800's plantation buildings - the overseer's cabin, slave cabins, and kitchen house. Tom only took photos of the plantation store front and interior. 

At the plantation store, we bought a most interesting book, "Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup, a free black man  from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. He was rescued in 1853 and narrated his experiences in the following year. This book is considered by many scholars to be the most accurate accounting of lower Louisiana plantation life, as Solomon was a educated man who provided a most detailed accounting of the daily life on cotton and sugar plantations in the mid 1800s.

We've spent the last week in Greenville, MS and West Memphis, AR - subject of the next post in this blog!