Mansions

Melrose Estate

this antebellum home is owned now by the National Parks Services

12-18-14: Ranger Mike took us for a free tour of Melrose Estate and Longwood Estate. Melrose is part of the Natchez National Historic Parks and run by the National Parks Services.  It began pouring down rain when we got there.  So we got the tour of the home, but will come back another day to wander the grounds and visit the stables and slave quarters.

the original furniture still looks grand

the original chandelier used to be oil

I'd love to have this set for card playing in the camper

the original floors were oil cloth

they actually had one of the family's songbooks on the original piano

one of the children's rooms

master bedroom

one of the older children's rooms

It's estimated that Melrose has about 600,000 plus bricks -- all original & slave made. Much of the furniture is original as well.  That's incredible considering it was built around 1849.  As majestic as it all seems, it's very hard to look at these homes and plantations without thinking of the slave labor that went into building and maintaining them.  I love that I am from the south, but these cruel times were not the south's greatest moments.

very ornate Punkah over the dining table

It was here that we learned what a Punkah is.  The large fans came from India.  In the South of the U.S., it was called a Shoofly. It was attached to an ornate rope that ran over to a corner of a room.  In India, the boy pulling the rope while the family ate was known as the Punkawallah.  In the antebellum south one of the slave boys pulled it.  I imagine he got an earful during the dinner table talk from the plantation owner, family, and any guests they may have had.

the celery sticks in crystal vases were status symbols

a reproduction of an Audubon painting the family had in their dining room -- the original is with the family

The china on the dinner table was also original.  The crystal vases with celery in them were a status symbol at the time.  (we just plop some green onions in a drinking glass)

the planter was also an attorney and sometimes conducted business here in his office/library
---for confidentiality purposes,  his clients could come in and out through the jib windows

gorgeous bookcases and books -- original

One of the things we found interesting were the jib windows and the TALL pocket doors between some of the rooms. They basically went from floor to ceiling.  The jib windows could be opened as a door if need be.  Many times visitors or clients would enter through the jib windows rather than coming through the front door.

the kitchen building

looking at the dairy building and grounds from the back 2nd story balcony of the mansion

kitchen

inside the dairy

caretaker of Melrose once the family left

There were 2 beautiful outside bldgs that were mirror images of each other.  One was the dairy and the other the kitchen.  More "privileged" slaves, probably household slaves, slept upstairs in those bldgs.

the staircase that the slaves used

The mansions were structured so that servants were rarely seen.  "Fences" divided the porches and the slaves used separate staircases/hallways than the ones that the owners used.

live oak and joggling board

Outside, recreations of joggling boards were kind of inviting.  That is, they invited me to get David to try it out.  Also known as jostling boards, they were a long pliable board supported on each end by wooden stands. The board is springy and the person sitting on it can easily bounce up and down. They may have originated in South Carolina near Charleston in the early 19th century.  They were usually painted "Charleston Green" which was so dark that it looked black. It was used for exercise and just sitting around. The joggling board's popularity is coming back, mostly for deco on lawns, porches, and nostalgia.

When googling Melrose Estate, don't confuse it with the one in Louisiana.

Longwood - owned by a local garden club

After leaving, Melrose, Ranger Mike took us over to Longwood Estate.  Wow!  The owner, planter Dr. Haller Nutt, really had grand ideas in the architecture of this mansion.  He began building in 1859, however, the home was never finished.  The basement, which was the main floor, was completed and that's where the family lived. (We were not allowed to take pix on that floor.) The Civil War interrupted the completion of the top floors and then Dr. Nutt died of pneumonia in 1864.

luggage and appliances that were shipped to Longwood

some of Miss Julia's things were delivered in a crate

bathtubs that awaited an installation that never happened

Miss Julia's piano was delivered in this crate

some of the workers' abandoned materials

  Carpenter tools and appliances shipped to the family are still right where they left them upstairs, as if the builders literally just set them down and got outa there! Only 9 out of the 32 planned rooms were completed.

In the Longwood antebellum  home, we saw Louisiana Rolling Pin Beds.  They were built with a removable rolling pin in the headboard to flatten out the mattress and covers when making the feather beds. The folks of Longwood also had some pretty fancy potty chairs in their bedrooms.  They looked like a beautiful piece of furniture, but the seat could be lifted to take care of business.  There was a large painting of an unidentified woman in one of the bedrooms.  Our guide referred to it as  the Mona Lisa of Longwood. The reason is that her eyes follow viewers no matter where they go in the room, as was a common style in portraits then.  The family also had an innovative plate warmer.  They set it in front of the fireplace in the dining room.  It had a few shelves in it. Everyone could fill their plate, place it on one of the shelves, and let the fireplace warm it up. A 19th Century microwave. Longwood also had a beautiful punkah and jib windows. This mansion
was said to be structured with 700,000 - 1 million bricks kilned on the property.

looking up to the top of the home from the unfinished 2nd floor

looking up to the 3rd floor

the 2nd floor was screened in

unfinished ceiling

unfinished 2nd floor

we could stand on the 2nd floor balcony and look at the slave quarters and carriage house

love these ornamental columns

jib windows in the making

fireplace to be

Longwood was built in an octagonal design.  It is the largest octagonal home in the US. It was to include the owners' bedroom suites (plus 2 extra) on the second floor, bedrooms for the girls on 3rd floor, boys on 4th floor, guests on 5th floor, & observatory on 6th. But Miss Julia & their 11 kids had to settle for the 10,000 sq feet on the basement floor.

This home is so unique and interesting.  I know the kids in the family had fun playing hide and seek on the unfinished floors. Longwood was also used in True Bloods -- which I've never watched -- for the shots of the Vampire King's mansion.

William Johnson's home on Main Street in Natchez

owned now by the National Park Services

beautiful woodwork and the little doorknobs were very low and farther left than what we are used to now

12-27-14:  David and I visited the William Johnson House today in downtown Natchez.  What a wonderful piece of history.  William Johnson was a freed black man who had a well-respected reputation in Natchez.  He kept a diary for 16 years while he ran some barber shops in town.  His story is so interesting.

recommended book about the freed man's short life

His diary is published, but instead we've read The Barber of Natchez which summarizes his life and inserts some of his diary entries.  Tho Johnson was well-respected by both whites and blacks, he had no social standing with either.  He actually owned slaves and hired both black and white men.  He had business dealings with white aristocrats and businessmen.  But that day and time didn't allow for him to participate in white social gatherings, political events, voting, etc.  And he wouldn't have participated at "darkey parties".  But he had a strong family life and did a little traveling.

an example of an entry from his diary

replica of his house

replica of his home with slave quarters out back

his family lived upstairs while he rented out shops on the ground floor

much of the original furniture - this was his mother-in-law's room

master bedroom

parlor

loved the original chase

David's pic of the slave quarters

the kitchen was on the first floor

staircases behind his home

The Johnson Family home

His home is now a museum which houses his original diary.  We toured the upstairs living quarters for William and his family.

Some of his original furniture was there.  The Johnsons enjoyed nice, quality furniture and clothes.  (they had some of those fancy potty chairs, also).  There were slave quarters & kitchen out back.

pond surrounded by cypress trees and cypress knees at Melrose

front of the mansion with the infamous Magnolia mentioned in many letters from the lady of the family

stables

they have a small cotton garden to show guests what it looks like

Carriage house

inside the stables

slave quarters

Melrose from the the "cypress pond"

slave quarters

1-17-15:  David and I used this gorgeous Saturday off to go back and walk the grounds of Melrose.  So beautiful!  The slave quarters are well-kept by the NPS, but we were a little disappointed that we could only look through some plexiglass to see the living/dining room. It had such a glare that it was hard to see and even harder to photograph.

trying to imagine what it was like during the ridiculous days of slavery

original floors in slave quarters

But the rest of that building was set up nicely with some interesting info.

iron fence that led to the vineyards when the family lived there

maybe the largest Live Oak we've ever seen - probably planted around 1840.

perspective

the old crepe myrtles are pretty stocky here, too

After a little "joggling", we walked over to the biggest Live Oak we've ever seen!  The guide back in December told us they'd tried to get 9 people around it and they couldn't touch.  Well, I think that might be a stretch, but it is huge!

camellias

looking at Melrose from the flower gardens

I could just imagine the ladies sitting around under the magnificent Magnolias and surrounded by the Camellias. Southern ladies(including my mama) do love their Camellias!

David on the joggling board

We ended the tour of the grounds with David having a little joggle on the board.

These 3 homes are must-sees when you are in Natchez.  When David and I were headed this way he asked me how many mansions I might want to tour.  I said, "oh, one -- if that many -- will do it".  He agreed with that.  But now we are kinda hooked on the history.  Like I said earlier, not proud of it, but it is our history.

We've had a few cold, wintery-feeling days. But mostly cool to warm. LOTTA rain.
We are looking forward to more exploration of the area when weather (and the end of hunting season) permits!


Much Love from Cotton Country,

Dr. Nutt, Miss Julia, and Beau