Homewood Plantation (Natchez, Mississippi)

Homewood Plantation
Homewood Plantation
	Homewood Mansion in 1936
General information
Status	Burnt down in 1940
Location	Natchez, Mississippi, U.S.
Completed	1860

Last updated April 11, 2024

Homewood Plantation was a historic plantation with a mansion of the same name located on it in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. Built in 1860 as a wedding present for the Southern belle Catherine Hunt, the daughter of millionaire planter David Hunt, the mansion remained unscathed during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. By the early twentieth century, it was used as a shooting location for 1915 classic film The Birth of a Nation . The author Stark Young used Homewood as the setting of a wedding in his 1934 novel So Red the Rose (pages 414 and 415).^[1] The mansion burnt down in 1940.

Location

Homewood was located north of the Natchez, Mississippi city limits on Pine Ridge Road.^[2]

History

Homewood was the antebellum plantation home of William S. Balfour and his wife, Catherine Hunt.^[3] It adjoined Catherine's sister Charlotte's Lansdowne Plantation.^[3] The 600 acre Homewood Plantation was a wedding gift to William and Catherine from Catherine's millionaire, planter father David Hunt.^[4] William S. Balfour's father, William L. Balfour of Madison County, Mississippi, was one of the richest Mississippi antebellum planters.^[4] He was a founder of the Mississippi College at Clinton.^[4] James Buchanan had picked him to run as his vice-president in the 1857 presidential election; however, he died before the election.^[2]

William and Catherine's mansion on Homewood Plantation was the suburban Natchez equal of nearby Stanton Hall, which was in the town of Natchez.^[5] The mansion, designed by Scottish architect James Hardie, took the five years from 1855 to 1860 to build.^[6]^[7] While it was being built, William and Catherine lived on his Issaquena County, Mississippi Plantation.^[4] This 1,400 acre plantation was known as Fairland and was near the Hunt family's Issaquena County plantations.^[8] William had 177 slaves in Issaquena County in 1860.^[9] The Balfours moved to Homewood in 1860 with their six children.^[3] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, William served in the Confederate States Army as a Major, and Catherine left by carriage with her children for about one year, moving from place to place.^[3] The family returned after the war to find that Homewood was intact.^[3] Without the slave labor from before the war, the Balfour's wealth began to decline.^[3] Generally, Catherine and her siblings used Cincinnati, Ohio real estate, inherited from her father David, mortgages on their plantations, and whatever else they had to support themselves after the war.^[3]

The Balfours sold Homewood to Mr. and Mrs. William J. Kaiser of Natchez in 1907.^[2]^[7] The Kaisers ran a dairy farm on the plantation.^[2] Some scenes from the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation were made on the grounds and porches of Homewood.^[6] Beginning in 1932 Homewood became well known, because it was on the annual Natchez Pilgrimage houses tour.^[2]

When their children were grown, the Kaisers sold the mansion and 73 acres in 1937 to Mr. and Mrs. Swan of New York, who had visited Homewood on a Pilgrimage tour, for $35,000.^[2]^[10] Mrs. Swan caused a lot of talk in Natchez.^[2] She and her husband, who was much younger, spent huge sums modernizing the mansion and expanding the gardens during the last years of the Great Depression.^[2] Their dogs slept on Beautyrest mattresses.^[2] The mansion caught fire in 1940.^[2] As it was burning to the ground, Mrs. Swan, with a bottle of whiskey in her hand, slowed the firemen's efforts by ordering them off the property.^[10] People speculated that the Swans intentionally burned the mansion.^[10] The Swans, however, collected $43,000 in damages from five insurance companies as a result of the fire and returned to live in New York.^[10] The old antebellum kitchen dependency building, which survived the fire, has been remodeled for use as a residence.^[10] The plantation was later sold to William D. Meriwether, Sarah J. Meriwether, and their children. The old carriage house, which also survived the fire, has been a residence and a clubhouse for the Natchez Country Club.^[10]

Architecture

The Homewood mansion was about 72 by 96 feet.^[2] It had five floors.^[7] The basement had several rooms with fireplaces.^[4] The first floor had six rooms.^[2] The first floor rooms were divided by a center hall and a cross hall that ran just behind the two front rooms.^[7] The library, front portion of the center hall, and the parlor could be combined into a 72 foot long ballroom, when the large solid mahogany pocket doors connecting them were opened, that stretched across the front of the house.^[2]^[6] The second floor had a similar floor plan to the first floor.^[2] The attic floor had a large center room surrounded by eight small storage rooms.^[2]^[7] From the cupola and the adjoining widow's walk on top of the mansion, the town of Natchez could be seen in the distance.^[2]

The mansion had two and one-half foot thick brick walls and thirty-five foot high, metal front porch columns with Ionic capitals.^[3] The sidelight windows beside the front door had imported pink glass from Belgium.^[11] Both sides of the mansion had two-story porches with metal lace-work railings.^[3] The imported Cordovan marble fireplace mantles varied in color.^[3]^[6] The library mantle was pink and grey.^[11] The drawing room mantle was white.^[11] The dining room mantle was pink with oxblood.^[11] Each of the eight bedrooms had different shadings.^[3] The interior doors were made of three inch thick mahogany.^[11] A curved stairway with fan shaped steps and a black walnut railing was in the rear of the central hall and connected the first, second and attic floors.^[11] A spiral staircase rose from the large center room of the attic to the cupola on top.^[7]

A two-story kitchen flanked a rear corner of the mansion.^[2] The grounds also contained a two-story carriage house made of brick.^[2]

First Floor Center Hall of Homewood Mansion (1936)
Rooms Across the Front of Homewood Mansion on the First Floor (1936)
Spiral Stairway (attic to cupola) in Homewood Mansion (1936)
Rear of Homewood Mansion (1936)

Related Research Articles

Natchez, officially the City of Natchez, is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.

Windsor Ruins are in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States, about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Port Gibson near Alcorn State University. The ruins consist of 23 standing Corinthian columns of the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion ever built in the state. The mansion stood from 1861 to 1890, when it was destroyed by fire. The 2.1-acre (0.85 ha) site with the columns was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1985.

Ward Hall is a Greek Revival antebellum plantation mansion located in Georgetown, Kentucky. The main house covers 12,000 square feet (1,100 m²), with 27-foot (8.2 m) high Corinthian fluted columns.

Longwood, also known as Nutt's Folly, is a historic antebellum octagonal mansion located at 140 Lower Woodville Road in Natchez, Mississippi, United States. Built in part by enslaved people, 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.

Rosalie Mansion is a historic pre-Civil War mansion and historic house museum in Natchez, Mississippi. Built in 1823, it was a major influence on Antebellum architecture in the greater region, inspiring many of Natchez's grand Greek Revival mansions. During the American Civil War, it served as U.S. Army headquarters for the Natchez area from July 1863 on. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanton Hall</span> Mansion in Mississippi, United States

Stanton Hall, also known as Belfast, is an Antebellum Classical Revival mansion within the Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District at 401 High Street in Natchez, Mississippi. Built in the 1850s, it is one of the most opulent antebellum mansions to survive in the southeastern United States. It is now operated as a historic house museum by the Pilgrimage Garden Club. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974; a pivotal property inside the Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District in 1979; and a Mississippi Landmark in 1995.

The Burn, a house built in 1834, is the oldest documented Greek Revival residence in Natchez, Mississippi. It was built on a knoll to the north of the old town area of Natchez. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Antebellum architecture is the neoclassical architectural style characteristic of the 19th-century Southern United States, especially the Deep South, from after the birth of the United States with the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War. Antebellum architecture is especially characterized by Georgian, Neo-classical, and Greek Revival style homes and mansions. These plantation houses were built in the southern American states during roughly the thirty years before the American Civil War; approximately between the 1830s to 1860s.

Reverie is a historic Greek Revival mansion built circa 1858 in Marion, Perry County, Alabama. It now serves as a residence and also historic house museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to the West Marion Historic District and was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey. It is featured in Ralph Hammond's Antebellum Mansions of Alabama, Gregory Hatcher's Reverie Mansion and Gardens, and Jennifer Hale's Historic Plantations of Alabama's Black Belt.

The Woodland Plantation is a historic Southern plantation near Church Hill, Jefferson County, Mississippi. It retains its original antebellum 230 acre size, and has the tradition of primarily supplying hay to the area cattle. It also has a pecan orchard.

D'Evereux Hall is a mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stephen Duncan was an American planter and banker in Mississippi. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Territory in 1808 and became the wealthiest cotton planter and the second-largest slave owner in the United States with over 2,200 slaves. He owned 15 cotton and sugar plantations, served as President of the Bank of Mississippi, and held major investments in railroads and lumber.

Cherry Grove Plantation is a historic plantation in Natchez, Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi)</span> Historic house in Mississippi, United States

Lansdowne is a historic mansion that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. It was originally built as the owner's residence on the 727-acre, antebellum, Lansdowne Plantation. The mansion and 120 acres are still owned and occupied by the descendants of the builder, who open it periodically for tours.

John Carmichael Jenkins (1809–1855) was an American plantation owner, medical doctor and horticulturalist in the Antebellum South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hunt (planter)</span>

David Hunt was an American planter based in the Natchez District of Mississippi. From New Jersey in approximately 1800, he took a job in his uncle Abijah Hunt's Mississippi business. After his uncle's untimely 1811 death, as a benefeciary and as the executor of the estate, he began to convert the estate into his plantation empire. By the time of the 1860 slave census, Hunt owned close to 800 slaves. This was after ensuring that each of his five adult children had at least one plantation and had an approximate minimum of 100 slaves apiece. In fact, Hunt and his five adult children and their spouses owned some 1,700 slaves by 1860. He became a major philanthropist in the South, contributing to educational institutions in Mississippi, as well as the American Colonization Society and Mississippi Colonization Society, the latter of which he was a founding member.

Abijah Hunt (1762–1811) was an American merchant, planter, slave trader, and banker in the Natchez District.

Richmond is a historic mansion in Natchez, Mississippi. It was the nineteenth century private residence of a leading businessman and agricultural landowner in Natchez.

Levin R. Marshall was an American banker and planter in the Antebellum South. He was a founder and President of the Commercial Bank of Natchez, Mississippi. He owned 14,000 acres in Mississippi and Louisiana, and 10,000 acres in Arkansas.

The history of slavery in Mississippi began when the region was still Mississippi Territory and continued until abolition in 1865. The U.S. state of Mississippi had one of the largest populations of enslaved people in the Confederacy, third behind Virginia and Georgia. There were very few free people of color in Mississippi the year before the American Civil War: the ratio was one freedman for every 575 slaves.

References

↑ Young, Stark (1934). So Red the Rose (3 ed.). C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 414, 415. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Smith, Carolyn Vance (6 January 1985). "Mystery Shrouds the burning of Homewood". The Natchez Democrat.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Kane, Harnett T. Natchez on the Mississippi. New York: Bonanza Books. pp. 174–189.
1 2 3 4 5 Franks, Bob. "The Balfour Family". The Issaquena Genealogy and History Project. rootsweb/ancestry.com. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
↑ Miller, Mary Carol (2010). Lost Mansions of Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi: Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 15. ISBN 978-1617034213.
1 2 3 4 Moreland, George M. (January 18, 1925). "Rambling in Mississippi". The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Matrana, Marc R. (2009). Lost Plantations of the South. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 167–174. ISBN 978-1-57806-942-2.
↑ Mcfarland, A. "Map of plantations in Carrol sic Parish, Louisiana and Issaquena County, Mississippi. [Skipwith, Miss.: ?, 1860] Map". www.loc.gov. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
↑ Blake, Tom. "LARGEST SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES". rootsweb. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Smith, Carolyn Vance (13 January 1985). "Mystery Surrounded the day of destruction". The Natchez Democrat.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Van Court, Catharine (1937). In Old Natchez. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company. pp. 92–93.

External links

31°34′36″N91°22′13″W / 31.576563°N 91.370270°W / 31.576563; -91.370270

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[So_Red_the_Rose-1] Young, Stark (1934). So Red the Rose (3 ed.). C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 414, 415. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

[Burning-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Smith, Carolyn Vance (6 January 1985). "Mystery Shrouds the burning of Homewood". The Natchez Democrat.

[Kane-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Kane, Harnett T. Natchez on the Mississippi. New York: Bonanza Books. pp. 174–189.

[Balfour-4] 1 2 3 4 5 Franks, Bob. "The Balfour Family". The Issaquena Genealogy and History Project. rootsweb/ancestry.com. Retrieved 20 October 2015.

[Lost_Mansions-5] Miller, Mary Carol (2010). Lost Mansions of Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi: Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 15. ISBN 978-1617034213.

[Commercial_Appeal-6] 1 2 3 4 Moreland, George M. (January 18, 1925). "Rambling in Mississippi". The Memphis Commercial Appeal.

[Lost-7] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Matrana, Marc R. (2009). Lost Plantations of the South. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 167–174. ISBN 978-1-57806-942-2.

[issaquana_county_plantation_map-8] Mcfarland, A. "Map of plantations in Carrol sic Parish, Louisiana and Issaquena County, Mississippi. [Skipwith, Miss.: ?, 1860] Map". www.loc.gov. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

[1860_slave_census-9] Blake, Tom. "LARGEST SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES". rootsweb. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

[Mystery-10] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Smith, Carolyn Vance (13 January 1985). "Mystery Surrounded the day of destruction". The Natchez Democrat.

[Van_Court-11] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Van Court, Catharine (1937). In Old Natchez. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company. pp. 92–93.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]