We started off at Melrose Estate which is in the care of the National Park Service. It was built in 1845 and is a beautiful Greek Revival Structure. Now, I had no idea what a Greek Revival structure was, but turns out, its a really neat design. Large open rooms with a central hallway but instead of a large central stairway, the stairway to upper floors was located on one side of the home. This estate home was unique as most of the furnishings were original to the home.
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| This is the dining room of the Melrose Estate. Notice all the Green, it was very uncommon and a sign of being extremely wealthy. |
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| The front parlor of the Melrose Estate - Again notice the green everywhere. |
We next visited Longwood which was by far the most unique. This 6 story octagonal home was begun in 1860 and as you can imagine, due to the civil war, it was never completed since the Philadelphian builders left immediately on the onset of the war. The family lived in the finished main floor of the home and due to funding the rest of the floors were never completed. We did get to view the construction on the unfinished floor and it was pretty amazing. This was Matt's favorite of the day.
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| This is the front of Longwood - The floors visible are all unfinished - The only finished floor is what we would term the basement. |
We then hit the downtown area of Natchez and found it lined with wonderful old homes on every corner. Magnolia Hall was next on our list. It was another Greek Revival home with large open rooms on each floor. The unique characteristic of this house is that it appears to be built out of brownstone, however that material was not available so the stucco over the brick construction was scored to resemble brownstone.
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| The front entryway of Magnolia Hall |
Our next stop was the Rosalie mansion with its commanding view of the flooding Mississippi River. This home was built in 1823 and was a beautiful structure that was wonderfully furnished with most of the second owner's original furnishings.
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| Isn't the Rosalie just gorgeous? |
Our last stop of the day was Stanton Hall. This was the most ornate of all the homes with wonderful crown moldings and medallions on all the ceilings in the lower floor. The chandeliers were very unique and the few pieces of the original owner's furniture was very Gothic in nature. The home occupied an entire city block and was completed in 1857.
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| This is Stanton Hall - She is even more elaborate on the inside!! |
Needless to say, we were exhausted and out of time for the day. We made the drive back to Vicksburg around 6pm and had dinner at the RV.
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