Castle” and carried away many valuable relics. A guard was finally
placed over the place to prevent souvenir hunters from taking the
remainder of the valuable pieces. Public sympathy was aroused, and for a
short time Dana and Miss Dockery were lionized. They seemed to take a
new lease on life. They improved in personal appearance. They often came
to town, but conditions in “Goat Castle” changed little.
Goats roam the place in undisturbed joy. Chickens roost on the foot of
the great mahogany bed while Dick plays his old piano for curious
tourists who pay twenty-five cents to see the old aristocrat, and Miss
Dockery tells stories of the former wealth and prestige of her friend,
who desired to withdraw from the world.
Glenwood is falling. Neglect and age are causing decay. The stables and
outhouses are piles of mortar and decayed timbers, though the grounds
are still beautiful with majestic moss-draped oaks and flowering
magnolias.
[Illustration: GLENWOOD (known today as “Goat Castle”)]
_Gloucester_
[Illustration: Gloucester]
A mile drive from the city limits of Natchez, along a roadway where
moss-draped boughs overlap into a verdant shelter, brings one in view of
a stately red brick mansion. It is Gloucester. Still half concealed by
giant oaks and tropical growth, it seems a great ruby in a gray-gold
setting.
Gloucester is surrounded by 250 acres of farm land and virgin timber. It
was built about 1800, and is of solid brick construction. Huge
Corinthian columns support spacious galleries across the broad front.
The windows are iron barred and shuttered.
This mansion is of historic interest. It was the home of Governor
Winthrop Sargent, who was the first Governor of Mississippi Territory.
Front twin doorways are an unusual feature. Inside these doors are the
heavy wooden bars, the original fastenings against unfriendly Indian
tribes and traveling bandits, who were not infrequent during the early
days of life at Gloucester.
The twin doors open into a wide hallway which contains a graceful
curving stairway leading to hall and bedrooms above.
Gloucester has a splendid library of rare first editions and valuable
old books. The drawing room contains Colonial furniture and paintings by
masters.
Upon the death of Governor Sargent, Gloucester became the property of
his wife, who, in turn, willed it to her son, George Washington Sargent.
During the occupation of Natchez by Federal troops, the young Sargent
was called to the doorway of Gloucester, and shot by two soldiers to
whom he had given greeting. Stains of the life-blood of this George
Washington Sargent are still visible on the doorway of Gloucester. The
murdered boy was buried beside his father in the family burial ground
across the road from the home.
[Illustration: GRAND HALLWAY OF GLOUCESTER]
In the Negro quarters there are weird tales of ghosts wandering over the
premises. “Two tall ghosts, in uniform, carrying guns, come on dark
rainy nights when the owls hoot in the oaks above the graves.”
Records show that in 1877 Gloucester was sold to James Surget, who was
one of Natchez’ earliest and most affluent citizens. This home was
continuously owned by the Surget family for sixty years, until the
recent death of Mrs. Katherine Boyd Surget, when the property was
bequeathed to its present owner, Lenox Stanton.
Mr. and Mrs. Stanton hold dear every Gloucester tradition and take pride
in maintaining the home and grounds in their original state of
perfection.
_Hawthorne_
[Illustration: Hawthorne]
On the famous Natchez Trace Highway, within calling distance of the
Lower Woodville road, through a narrow gateway flanked by giant oaks, is
a quaint little cottage, “Hawthorne”.
It is the old Southern Planter type home, a story-and-a-half.
A beautiful double front door with panels of early period thin glass and
an exquisitely wrought fanlight above give an atmosphere of friendliness
to the entrance.
Architects interested in the unusual find charm in the hand-hewn
stairway which rises from the broad back hall to the rooms above.
“Hawthorne” more than a century ago belonged to a family named Overaker
who sold the place with its sixty acres of wooded land to the Dunbar
family, under whose regime this quaint old home sheltered and
entertained the elite of the South as early as 1837. It is believed that
Hawthorne was built by the Tichenor family about 1825.
For many years this old place was vacant. Lumber mills and grist mills
crowded too near, but the property was recently bought by the family of
William McGehee, who are reclaiming “Hawthorne”. Every line of the
period architecture is being followed, and “Hawthorne”, its meadows and
gardens, will soon be restored as in stage coach days to greet today its
motor car visitors. The history of Hawthorne is a sad story with a
hopeful ending.
_Hope Farm_
A few years ago when “Hope Farm” fell into the hands of Mr. and Mrs.
Balfour Miller it was truly “getting a break” for rehabilitation. Today
when one steps into this old Spanish house, built about 1775, there
breathes from every crevice and corner the true atmosphere of the Old
South.
The original portion of Hope Farm, its English wing, is believed to have
been built by Marcus Haller. The front, the straight, low, Spanish
portion, was built by the Spanish Governor, de Grand Pre, about the year
1790.
The low sweeping roof extending over a broad portico across the entire
front of the house is upheld by seven hand-hewn cypress columns. Broad
steps lead from the driveway to the terraced yard. This yard is a
veritable bouquet of old-fashioned small flowers, bordered by boxwood
and flanked by syringa, japonica, and other old-fashioned evergreen
shrubs. A radiant variety of orchid-like irises dot the entire approach
to the old brick steps of the terrace.
For ninety years Hope Farm belonged to the Montgomery family; of the
last generation of ten children (seven girls and three boys) two of the
sisters lived in spinsterhood at Hope Farm until within the last few
years when the property was acquired by the Millers.
Restoration of exterior and interior has been done with exceeding care
to hold every line of the original house. There were no nails in the day
when Hope Farm was built and its timbers are held together by wooden
pegs.
The front door leads directly into a huge living room, which opens
through an archway into a large dining room. These two rooms extend
across the entire front.
The welcoming gate of Hope Farm opens at the intersection of Homochitto
street on the drive to Duncan Park.
[Illustration: Hope Farm]
_Homewood_
[Illustration: Homewood]
It required five years to build this palatial mansion of brick, cement,
and iron grill, and until recently “Homewood”, exterior and interior,
was in a perfect state of preservation—just as it was the day of its
completion, more than 75 years ago. Homewood was destroyed by fire,
January 2, 1940.
By reason of its solid masonry (built to withstand the storms), its
architectural lines, and the grace and magnificence of its iron
trimmings, architects of note from all over the country came to inspect
and to study “Homewood”.
One million home-burned brick were used in the main structure. Copper
pipes laid in cement supplied the huge cisterns throughout the years
with cold drinking water. This construction represented the work of
hundreds of slaves. All locks, hinges, and door knobs were of silver.
The fluted Ionic columns and grill work were imported from Spain.
Approaching Homewood by the magnificent forest driveway, it was a
wonderfully imposing structure with a front of thirty-foot columns, an
upper balcony of cast iron grill, and massive double panel entrance
doors flanked on either side by expensive ruby glass which was imported
from Belgium.
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]
There were six rooms on the ground floor, connected by huge sliding
mahogany doors, making it possible to open the entire floor into one
immense room, 80 feet long. Leading to six rooms and cross halls above
was a fan spread stairway. The top floor was a peculiarly constructed
octagonal hall surrounded by eight large closets or storage rooms with
cedar linings.
The mantels in Homewood attracted much attention because of their
delicate beauty and apparent value. In the drawing room the mantel was
of white marble, while in the dining room stood one of pink marble with
deep rose tracings.
Homewood had no historic interest but it was an outstanding example of
the advanced architectural ideas of the builders of Southern ante-bellum
homes. It was built for a gift from David Hunt to his daughter,
Catherine, and her husband, William L. Balfour.
The most recent owners, Mr. and Mrs. Kingsly Swan, spared no expense in
maintaining this magnificent home and its spacious grounds in model
perfection.
Homewood was the scene of the famous double wedding so effectively
described in Stark Young’s _So Red the Rose_.
[Illustration: MAJESTIC RUINS OF HOMEWOOD]
_Inglewood_
[Illustration: Inglewood]
A Southern planter’s typical home, “Inglewood” stands today as the
perfection of a beautiful dream recalled from crumbling ruins of years
long gone. More than a century ago this quaint old story-and-a-half
house was built by Gustavus Calhoun, who practiced medicine in Natchez
Territory in 1829—back in the days when calls were made on horseback and
the doctor carried along his miniature drug store in his “saddle bags”.
Dr. Calhoun was a friend and contemporary of Dr. Stephen Duncan of
“Auburn”.
In 1858 “Inglewood” became the home of Edward M. Blackburn through his
marriage into the Calhoun family. It has been for many years known as
“the old Blackburn place.” Here the last member of the Natchez Blackburn
family lived until the old house was about to tumble down. Then the
place was purchased by Dr. Wallace Smith, a young physician who came
with his bride to reclaim and rebuild Inglewood along the exact lines of
its original architectural design.
The old gardens of Inglewood were once as famous for beauty as those of
“Arlington” and “Melrose” but the gardens too passed with the old
families. Doctor and Mrs. Smith are replanting, and are replacing walks
and borders of old-fashioned boxwood, everything to conform as nearly as
possible to original design.
Inglewood, like all Natchez homes, is off the highway, secluded by
forests, and only by careful observation can one glimpse the gleaming
white outlines of this beautiful old plantation home.
The approach to the house is marked at the public highway by a wrought
iron replica of the old-fashioned doctor’s horse and buggy. Inglewood is
today, as it was originally, the property of a practicing physician’s
family.
_Jefferson College_
[Illustration: Jefferson College]
Founded in 1802, Jefferson Military College is the oldest college for
boys in the State of Mississippi, and one of the oldest in the United
States.
It was here that the South’s beloved Jefferson Davis, who became
President of the Confederacy, attended school when he was ten years old.
After the battle of New Orleans Gen. Andrew Jackson rested his
victorious army on the campus of this college, which is located six
miles from the city of Natchez.
Mississippi was a territory when the college came into existence. On the
spot where the constitution of the State of Mississippi was adopted is a
marker commemorating the birth of Mississippi as a State. The marker was
erected May 14, 1935, the 119th anniversary of the State.
Near the front gate of the college there are two giant gnarled liveoaks,
known as the Aaron Burr oaks because they stood in front of the old
courthouse where Aaron Burr was tried for treason against the United
States. The old courthouse was demolished ages ago but the oaks stand
sentinel with wide spreading boughs marking the spot famous in history
and in story.
_King’s Tavern_
[Illustration: King’s Tavern]
In the days when Indians roamed the territory of Natchez, block houses
were built by the white settlers who came that way. These were sturdy,
well-fortified houses built to protect occupants against Indian
outbreaks. Such is King’s Tavern—an inconspicuous, faded, old wooden
structure on a high brick foundation.
Although unostentatious, King’s Tavern is important. According to the
records it is the oldest building in this part of the South. Parts of
St. Augustine, Florida, are somewhat older. Its very atmosphere breathes
of days and people long dead; of Indians, of Spanish and English and
French noblemen; of weary travelers over foot paths or by river boats,
wandering into the old Tavern, resting, and then departing, disappearing
from the face of the earth.
The house is more than 170 years old. Records show that “the first
United States mail brought over the Natchez Trace was delivered to
King’s Tavern by an Indian runner and was distributed from this point.”
The timbers are held together by wooden pegs and beams. The heavier
timbers are of the type used in the construction of large ships of that
period. Ceilings in the rooms are low. Doors and windows are heavy with
narrow frames. The sills and sleepers of the building show the rope
holes, again indicating that timbers came from old sailing vessels.
The earliest official record of transfer of this property shows 1789 as
the year it was granted to Richard King, a member of the King family of
Long Island, New York, and by him it was given the name “King’s Tavern”.
Formerly it had been known as the Bledsoe House.
For a period of about 115 years the property has been owned and occupied
by the descendants of Mrs. Elizabeth Postlethwaite.
An interesting relic of bygone years is a portrait in oils of the late
Samuel Postlethwaite III, who was Mayor of Natchez in 1825 when the
great Lafayette visited the little village. This portrait is signed by
the artist, Benjamin West.
Mrs. A. C. Register and Mrs. Jean Register Modsett, descendants of the
Postlethwaite family, are the present owners and occupants of King’s
Tavern.
_Legend:_
At night, when all’s dark and quiet at King’s Tavern, ghosts of Indian
warriors, in full dress of their native tribe, wander through the old
Tap Room, loll and lean against the old bar, peer out through small
crevices, and then disappear through the heavy doors which lead onto
the street.
[Illustration: Main Door at King’s Tavern Where Indian Runners Left
the Mail
Bullet holes in the door are from an Indian attack during the early
days of Natchez.]
_Lansdown_
[Illustration: Lansdown]
Lansdown has been the home of the Marshall family for more than
eighty-five years. Like many other magnificent plantation homes around
Natchez, Lansdown was a wedding gift to Mr. and Mrs. George Marshall,
whose descendants of the same name own and occupy today this comfortable
Georgian type house.
Lansdown is an unpretentious but quite substantial structure with a
broad front portico enclosed by artistic grill bannisters fashioned in
Greek pattern. Broad, spreading steps lead down to a brick walk, and on
each side stand the old carriage blocks of yesteryear.
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]
Portraits by famous artists of earlier generations of Marshalls,
including a portrait of Levin R. Marshall by Sully, look down on
gorgeous rosewood and mahogany furnishings of their own selection placed
in Lansdown.
The china and silver in this home are the pride of the present
generation of Marshalls. Much of the original china is in use today.
Many pieces of the original Robert E. Lee furnishings of “Stratford
Hall” are now in Lansdown. Within the past few months the younger
generation at Lansdown discovered several pieces of silver bearing the
unmistakable mark of Robert E. Lee.
Lansdown came to the Marshalls through Mrs. Charlotte Hunt Marshall.
Natchez had a great benefactor in David Hunt, the father of Charlotte
Hunt Marshall. It was he who made possible the Chamberlain-Hunt Military
Academy at Port Gibson, Mississippi, one of the first schools for boys
in the Southland. It is still an excellent school for young men.
Today Lansdown is owned and occupied by George Marshall III and Mrs.
Agnes Marshall Ward, lineal descendants of the original owner, who named
the place “Lansdown” by virtue of his friendship for the celebrated
Marquis of Lansdown, England.
_Linden_
[Illustration: Entrance]
The origin of Linden seems lost to history although it is known to have
existed as early as 1790. It came to ancestors of the present owners a
hundred years ago, and has been owned and occupied by the A. M. Feltus
family for several generations.
Nature seems to exert herself to give to Linden a perfect setting.
Surrounding the magnificently constructed house, with its 98 feet of
gallery, are dozens of oak trees, draped in long gray moss which sweeps
the very eaves of the dwelling. Standing in the artistic entrance of
Linden one sees the outside world through growing draperies of swaying
gray lace.
[Illustration: Linden]
The architecture of Linden is as unusual as it is simple. The center
portion is two stories, flanked on each side by single-storied rooms. A
gallery runs the entire width of the building. To the rear of the
single-storied rooms is a long two-storied wing. Each wing is a complete
apartment.
The furnishings are rare and exquisite, producing a feeling of
restfulness and satisfaction. “Linden” has three paintings by Audubon,
and an interesting portrait of the song-bird, Jenny Lind.
The driveway through the grounds of Linden leads past the front entrance
entirely around the house and passes its beautifully kept gardens. A
circle driveway which leads out through the bricked entrance affords a
final glimpse of the stately white house in the distance, not unlike
“Mount Vernon”. The view across the hill brings “Monmouth”, a
neighboring mansion, to the eye as another delightful prospect.
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]
[Illustration: LINDEN—Dining Room With Punka]
_Greenleaves_
“Greenleaves”, built prior to 1812, is a town house—a great rambling
cottage type of architecture in the very heart of Natchez. It is as
sturdy as the old gnarled oaks which seem to hold it in their protecting
boughs. It represents comfort, luxury, and beauty without ostentation or
pretense.
The halls and rooms are palatial in size and appointments. The house as
originally constructed shows that it was built to endure. It was
remodeled in the early 40’s by the grandfather of the present owners.
A wealth of the original furnishings in solid mahogany and rosewood and
many rare museum pieces have remained in Greenleaves throughout
generations, and are today as beautiful as the day they came from
foreign shores.
The present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Melchoir Beltzhoover, the third
generation of the Koontz family to occupy Greenleaves, grace this
ante-bellum home with pardonable pride of possession.
The family of the original owners of Greenleaves was wiped out during a
yellow fever epidemic, the entire family filling one grave. Eventually
Greenleaves was bought by George Washington Koontz of Pennsylvania, who
became a leading influence, financially and socially, in Natchez.
Children of the present occupants of Greenleaves are the fourth
generation of the Koontz family to enjoy this luxurious home.
Mr. Beltzhoover’s ownership of this property is shared with his sister,
Mrs. Guy Robinson, who is a resident of New York state.
_Legend:_
Under the giant liveoaks at the rear of Greenleaves the Natchez tribe
of Indians held their annual pow-wows and decided all momentous
questions.
[Illustration: Greenleaves]
_Longwood_
Longwood stands in a moss-tangled forest. It is a monument to a dream
that was interrupted by the tragedy of the War Between the States in
1861-’65. It was to have been a gorgeous structure of Moorish design,
planned by Sloan of Philadelphia, who in those days had no equal as
artist-architect.
Longwood was being built for Dr. Haller Nutt. Landscape gardeners came
from abroad, and even today rare imported shrubs and trees form a part
of the dense growth around the unfinished gardens.
When the house reached its present point of construction, with more than
a hundred thousand dollars already invested, there came the cry of war
and the call to arms. Workmen laid down their tools and took their guns
and never returned to the task of completing Longwood.
The deep concrete foundation, the outside framework, and some of the
trimmings of the house were well under way. Today there are huge
sections of carved moulding, old paint buckets and brushes, tool boxes,
and carpenter’s implements scattered about the upper floors—just as they
were left almost 75 years ago.
The house, begun in the late 50’s, is of brick, burned by slaves on the
place, with columns and grill work of hand-carved, time-enduring
cypress. The ground floor contained a nursery and an adjoining apartment
for a white housekeeper and governess, a card room, a billiard room,
wine cellar, and heating plant. This floor is the only part of the
building that reached anything like completion. The upper floors were
boarded up. All orders for materials, marble stairway, mosaic floors,
and elaborate furnishings were canceled. Many of these orders had been
placed in Italy and France. Some costly pieces were en route on the high
seas. A few items were returned and others are now in national museums.
Dr. Nutt died in 1864, survived by his wife and a large family of
children. One of the descendants of these children now occupies the
finished lower floor or basement of Longwood. There is on this floor a
huge rotunda and eight large rooms, surrounded by a moat. Many relics of
past generations adorn these quarters, including antiques from different
branches of the family.
There are several pieces of richly carved rosewood furniture, an
exquisite old grand piano, and oil portraits of Dr. Nutt and his
beautiful blonde wife by famous old-world artists.
James and Merritt Ward of Natchez and Mrs. Julia Ward Blanchard of New
York City are the present owners of Longwood.
Planned as a palatial home for a family of eleven children and eight
hundred slaves, today Longwood (often referred to as “Nutt’s Folly”) is
occupied by Merritt Ward and one servant.
[Illustration: LONGWOOD—“Nutt’s Folly”]
_Magnolia Vale_
[Illustration: Magnolia Vale]
A few hundred feet below the city of Natchez, along the river edge, is
an extension of land on which the first Natchez was situated. This old
town was known as “Natchez Under the Hill”. The commercial center of the
old Natchez has passed into decay. The buildings that sheltered the
river men, the gambling “joints” that housed the riff-raff of those
steamboat days, have long since tumbled into the river. Driving down a
long and steep shelf of land, at the north end of what was old Natchez,
one comes to the gate of a castle-like home in the heart of a garden
which is always beautiful with blossoms. It is “Magnolia Vale”.
This house was built about 110 years ago by Andrew Brown and is owned
today by Andrew B. Learned, a direct descendant.
Andrew Brown was a native of Scotland, and a great lover of flowers.
After building a home of the early American type, with wide galleries,
handsome Doric columns, spacious halls and large rooms, he found
self-expression in creating a garden which has been famous for
generations, from St. Louis to New Orleans, as “Brown’s Gardens”.
A formal driveway, bordered with Louis Philippe roses, leads to the
mansion. Giant magnolias and evergreen laurimundi splash the landscape
with white and green. Formal flower beds, with boxwood borders, cover
the entire acreage of the foreground to Magnolia Vale.
The Mississippi River has continuously eaten into the grounds of
Magnolia Vale until much of this promontory has vanished into the
waters. Although the great house shows marked evidence of “settling”
from year to year, and is occupied now by a caretaker only, the gardens
are given constant attention. The same trim boxwood hedges, the same
formal walks and beloved flower beds, the same shrubs, the same tall
trees, and the maze of gardenia and japonica greet the visitor and shed
perfume across the broad and mighty river, which ravenously eats at the
very roots of these gorgeous plants.
_Mount Repose_
[Illustration: Mount Repose]