Longwood | |
Location | 140 Lower Woodville Road, Natchez, Mississippi |
---|---|
Coordinates | 31°32′12″N91°24′17″W / 31.53667°N 91.40472°W |
Built | 1859-ca. 1864 |
Architect | Samuel Sloan |
Architectural style | Octagon Mode, Italian Villa |
NRHP reference No. | 69000079 |
USMS No. | 001-NAT-4016-NHL-ML |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 16, 1969 [1] |
Designated NHL | December 16, 1969 [2] |
Designated USMS | November 29, 1994 [3] |
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, [4] [5] the mansion is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and is a National Historic Landmark. [2] [6] Longwood is the largest octagonal house in the United States. [7]
The mansion is known for its octagonal plan, byzantine onion-shaped dome, [5] and the contrast between its ornately finished first floor and the unfinished upper floors.
Samuel Sloan, a Philadelphia architect, designed the home in 1859 for cotton planter Haller Nutt. [8] Work was halted in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. Nutt died of pneumonia in 1864, leaving the work incomplete. Of the 32 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 and the federal ban on enslaving people brought the cotton barons' dominance to an end. Longwood survived decades of neglect and near-abandonment to become one of Natchez' most popular attractions. [9]
Longwood is owned and operated as a historic house museum by the Pilgrimage Garden Club; it is also available for rent. [10]
Longwood was featured in the Southern United States segment of Guide to Historic Homes of America, [11] an in-depth production by Bob Vila for the A&E Network.
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.
Robert Joseph Vila is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House (1979–1989), Bob Vila's Home Again (1990–2005), and Bob Vila (2005–2007).
Samuel Sloan was a Philadelphia-based architect and best-selling author of architecture books in the mid-19th century. He specialized in Italianate villas and country houses, churches, and institutional buildings. His most famous building—the octagonal mansion "Longwood" in Natchez, Mississippi—is unfinished; construction was abandoned during the American Civil War.
Gaineswood is a plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. It is the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and is one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama.
Barboursville is the ruin of the mansion of James Barbour, located in Barboursville, Virginia. He was the former U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of War, and Virginia Governor. It is now within the property of Barboursville Vineyards. The house was designed by Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States and Barbour's friend and political ally. The ruin is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Auburn is a Federal mansion in Duncan Park in Natchez, Mississippi. It was designed and constructed by Levi Weeks in 1812, and introduced academic Classical order architecture in the Mississippi territory. Its prominent two-story portico served as a model for the subsequent architectural development of local and nationally important mansions. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and a Mississippi Landmark in 1984.
Dunleith is an antebellum mansion at 84 Homochitto Street in Natchez, Mississippi. Built about 1855, it is Mississippi's only surviving example of a plantation house with a fully encircling colonnade of Greek Revival columns, a form once seen much more frequently than today. Now an inn and conference center, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Currently the original horse stable serves as a fine dining establishment with a traditional English pub in the lower levels of the structure
The House on Ellicott's Hill, also known as Connelly's Tavern, James Moore House, or Gilreath's Hill, is a historic house museum at 211 North Canal Street in Natchez, Mississippi. Built in 1798, it is the oldest surviving building in Natchez from its early territorial period. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and a Mississippi Landmark in 2001.
Melrose is a 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) mansion, located in Natchez, Mississippi, that is said to reflect "perfection" in its Greek Revival design. The 80-acre (320,000 m2) estate is now part of Natchez National Historical Park and is open to the public by guided tours. The house is furnished for the period just before the Civil War. Melrose was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.
Monmouth is a historic antebellum home located at 1358 John A. Quitman Boulevard in Natchez, Mississippi on a 26-acre (11 ha) lot. It was built in 1818 by John Hankinson, and renovated about 1853 by John A. Quitman, a former Governor of Mississippi and well-known figure in the Mexican–American War. It is one of Natchez's grandest Greek Revival mansions. It was declared a Mississippi Landmark in 1986 and a National Historic Landmark in 1988. It is now a small luxury hotel.
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.
Stanton Hall, also known as Belfast, is a Greek 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 Asa Packer Mansion is a historic house museum on Packer Road in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, United States. Completed in 1861, it was the home of Asa Packer (1805–1879), a coal and railroad magnate, philanthropist, and founder of Lehigh University. Asa Packer was also a major contributor in the Lehigh Valley Railroad system. The mansion is one of the best preserved Italianate Villa homes in the United States, with original Victorian furnishings and finishes. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.
Haller Nutt (1816–1864) was an American slave owner, cotton plantation owner, and agronomist in Mississippi. He developed a strain of cotton that became important commercially for the Deep South.
"Green Leaves", also known as the Koontz House or the Beltzhoover House, is a Greek Revival mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, completed in 1838 by Edward P. Fourniquet, a French lawyer who built other structures in the area. It was purchased by George Washington Koontz, a local banker in 1849 and has been owned by his descendants ever since. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) 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 30 years before the American Civil War; approximately between the 1830s to 1860s.
The Central City Park Bandstand is a hexagonal bandstand in Central City Park in Macon, Georgia that was built in 1871. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972. The bandstand is located at the eastern terminus of Riverside Drive in Central City Park.
Magnolia Hall of Natchez, Mississippi, is also known as the Henderson-Britton House and was built in 1858. As a Greek Revival mansion it is a contributing property to the Natchez On Top of the Hill Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lansdowne is a historic estate that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. The property began as a 727-acre, antebellum, hunting estate - like the estates of the landed gentry in England. After the Civil War Lansdowne became a cotton plantation. Cotton, corn, sheep and cattle were raised there until about 1960. The original owner's residence and 120 acres of the original estate are still owned and occupied by the descendants of the builder, who open it periodically for tours.
Glenfield Plantation is a one-level historic antebellum home in Natchez, Mississippi. Glenfield was built in two distinct architectural periods on a British land grant originally deeded to Henry LeFluer by King George III. The original 500 acres (200 ha) acres grew to a 2,000 acres (810 ha) working cotton plantation through various ownerships, circa 1774–1812, and 1845–1850.
The most fascinating house in Natchez … is the ghostly masterpiece of Longwood. The home was to include architectural features that were ahead of their time: The exterior double walls were 27 inches thick with a 5-inch air space to leave room for sliding glass windows to provide maximum ventilation. Running water was to have been brought into the house via pipes connected to the dome on the roof, in which rainwater could be stored.
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(help) and Accompanying 13 images, exterior and interior, from 1960, 1969, 1975, and undated. (4.58 MB)Longwood in its unfinished state illustrates the impact of the Civil War on the economy of the South.