Final day in Nachez

Rosalie owned by the DAR was built between 1820 and 1823 for Peter and Eliza Little-a magnificent mansion, an outstanding example of antebellum architecture.

They would ring for their servants and each bell had a different sound to designate the appropriate room

What a fun and informative trip!

Day 3 in Natchez- The Towers, Monmouth Historic Inn, Twin Oaks, Dun Leith, and a play

Our first stop today was at The Towers where we were greeted by the owner-Ginger Hyland.  The decor is accented with a large collection of Victorian rococo antiques from 1840 to 1870.  Bronze animal sculptors on the grounds.

We enjoyed lunch and the beautiful gardens and grounds.

We enjoyed cocktails and appetizers at the home of Regina Charboneau- a well-known Chef in the area and articles about her have been written in The New York Times.  She has also authored several cookbooks.

A lovely dinner this evening at Dunleith with a pianist playing old favorites from Broadway and musical scores.

After dinner we attended the hilarious play "Southern Exposure" at the aptly named Natchez Little Theater. Our own Chuckles Collins, Carol Kerr and Pat Grove made their debut in the play as tacky tourists.

Day 2 in Natchez - Longwood, Hawthorne, and Brandon

What a lovely day in Natchez-sunny and 79 degrees!  

We began our day at Longwood-the largest and most captivating octagonal house in America.

Longwood, also known as Nutt's Folly, is an historic antebellum octagonal mansion located at 140 Lower Woodville Road in Natchez, Mississippi, USA. The mansion is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and is a National Historic Landmark.  Longwood is the largest octagonal house in the United States.

Samuel Sloan, a Philadelphia architect, designed the home in 1859 for cotton planter Dr. Haller Nutt.[8] Work was halted in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. Dr. Nutt died of pneumonia in 1864, leaving the work incomplete. Of the thirty-two rooms planned for the house, only nine rooms on the basement floor were completed.

Haller Nutt's never-finished Natchez home, Longwood, was the last burst of southern opulence before war brought the cotton barons' dominance to an end. Longwood survived decades of neglect and near-abandonment to become one of Natchez' most popular attractions.

In 2010, Longwood was used in the HBO series True Blood for the external shots of the fictional Jackson, Mississippi mansion of Russell Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Next we visited Hawthorne.  We were greeted by Betty Jenkins- the owner on the porch.  Her son Rusty gave us the history their house.

Built in 1814, Hawthorne is a Natchez landmark. Surrounded by majestic live oaks, this Federal style estate has grounds that are as beautiful as its interior.  The home has four identical elliptical fanlight doorways and magnificent live oaks and park like grounds.

And finally Brandon Hall.

Majestic Brandon Hall was formally a large working cotton plantation located on the scenic Natchez Trace. The land on which Brandon Hall now stands first passed into private ownership as a royal grant from the Spanish King Carlos III in 1788. In 1809 the property was sold at public auction to William Lock Chew for the sum of $7,000. Chew constructed the first permanent dwelling consisting of a three room brick house about twenty by sixty feet, built sometime between 1809 and 1820. This structure still exists as the "basement" of the present house known as Brandon Hall.

In 1833 Chew sold the property to Nathaniel Hoggatt, a successful planter whose daughter Charlotte inherited the land after his death. On October 29, 1840, Charlotte Hoggatt married Gerard Brandon III, who was the son of an early Governor of Mississippi and the grandson of a Revolutionary War Hero of the same name. They lived in this original dwelling until 1853, when they began construction of Brandon Hall which was completed in 1856.

In January 1914, the plantation, house, and land was sold to George Hightower as a result of a default on a promissory note, thus ending an 81 year chain of ownership by the Brandon and Hoggatt families. These 81 years extended from Mississippi's frontier days during the period of grace and plenty before the Civil War, and through the South's darkest hours after the war.

From 1914 until the present, Brandon Hall Plantation has had ten owners. In 1987 the home was completely renovated and restored, perfectly duplicating the original construction.

Here's the Joyful Noise group in Natchez!

Tune in tomorrow for more historic southern treasures from Natchez...

Day 1 in Natchez - Southern Road To Freedom

Joyful Friends are on the road again.  Dinner at Magnolia Hall .  After dinner a very upbeat, lively Gospel program- Southern Road To Freedom.   

Natchez Spring Pilgrimage - Azaleas, Architecture & America's History

We are off to Natchez, Mississippi tomorrow for the Spring Pilgrimage!  A little bit about Natchez:

Established by French colonists in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley; it later served as the capital of the American Mississippi Territory and then of the state of Mississippi. It predates Jackson, which replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, by more than a century. The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, ensured that it would become a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of ethnic Native American, European, and African cultures in the region, for the first two centuries of its existence.

In U.S. history, it is recognized particularly for its role in the development of the Old Southwest during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace, with the northern terminus being Nashville, Tennessee. This was used by many pilots of flatboats and keel boats, to return overland to their homes in the Ohio River Valley after unloading their cargo in Natchez or New Orleans. (It was not until the implementation of steam power that travel northward on the Mississippi River could be accomplished by boat.) The Natchez Trace also played an important role during the War of 1812. Today the modern Natchez Trace Parkway, which commemorates this route, still has its southern terminus in Natchez.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the city attracted wealthy Southern planters as residents, who built mansions to fit their ambitions; their plantations were vast tracts of land in the surrounding lowlands of Mississippi and Louisiana, where they grew large crops of cotton and sugar cane using slave labor. Natchez became the principal port from which these crops were exported, both upriver to Northern cities and downriver to New Orleans, where much of the cargo was exported to Europe. Many of the mansions built by planters before 1860 survive and form a major part of the city's architecture and identity. Agriculture remained the primary economic base for the region until well into the twentieth century.

Stay tuned!