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Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi)

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Coordinates: 31°35′5.2″N 91°21′42.8″W / 31.584778°N 91.361889°W / 31.584778; -91.361889
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Lansdowne
Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi) is located in Mississippi
Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi)
Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi) is located in the United States
Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi)
Location17 Marshall Road, Natchez, Mississippi
Coordinates31°35′5.2″N 91°21′42.8″W / 31.584778°N 91.361889°W / 31.584778; -91.361889
Area20.5 acres (8.3 ha)
Built1853 (1853)
Architectural styleGreek Revival
NRHP reference No.78001581[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 24, 1978

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 a 727-acre antebellum plantation.

Location

It is located on Marshall Road, one mile north of the Natchez city limits.[2]

History

George M. Marshall, a Princeton University graduate, and his new bride Charlotte Hunt built the mansion on their Lansdowne Plantation in 1852-1853, having been given the land by Charlotte's rich, planter, father David Hunt (1779-1861).[3][4][5][6][7] The plantation was named after the couple's English friend, the Marquess of Lansdowne, probably because it made them feel like English landed gentry.[3] Lansdowne adjoined Homewood Plantation, which belonged to Charlotte's sister Catherine.[8] Before the American Civil War of 1861-1865, Lansdowne Plantation's cash crop was cotton.[9] The plantation was 727 acres in size.[10] Not being one of David Hunt's biggest plantations, he gave Charlotte and George another plantation across the Mississippi River in Louisiana as well.[8] Their Louisiana Plantation was Arcola in Tensas Parish near the Mississippi River town of Waterproof.[11]

George Marshall had twenty-two slaves on Lansdowne; and his Louisiana plantation, valued at $119,000, had 104 slaves.[12][13] In 1860 his Louisiana and Mississippi property was valued at $319,000.[10] This did not include much of his earned and inherited assets.[10] His father was Levin R. Marshall, a Natchez millionaire planter who owned 1,058 slaves just before the Civil War.[14] Levin R. Marshall lived at the suburban Natchez estate known as Richmond.[15] Portraits of Levin R. Marshall and George M. Marshall, painted by Louis Joseph Bahin, hang in the dining-room at Lansdowne.[16]

George Marshall fought in the Civil War.[9] He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, returned home, and paid someone else to fight on in his place.[9] During the War on January 8, 1865, eleven Union soldiers broke into Lansdowne to rob the Marshalls.[9] They did not get much because the butler, Robert, had hidden the Marshall's silver under the floor of the mansion.[9] In frustration the soldiers took a few pieces of the Marshall's fine china and smashed it along the road as they left.[9]

Without the slave labor from before the war, the Marshall's wealth began to decline.[8] Generally, Charlotte 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.[8] At times the Marshall descendants only had the small income from the sale of butter and eggs from their farming operation to keep them going.[5] Beginning in 1932, charging tourists for tours of the antebellum Natchez planters' homes during the annual Pilgrimage tours brought in much needed money to keep the homes going.[17] A cotton plantation scene from the movie Show Boat (1951 film) was filmed on Lansdowne Plantation.[18] During the 1950s the Marshall descendants sold off the last of their cotton lands.[3] Lansdowne has been added to the National Register of Historic Places since July 24, 1978. In 1995 Devereaux Nobles and her brother George Marshall IV - both great-grandchildren of George Marshal I - owned Lansdowne.[3] The mansion and 120 acres still belong to the Marshall descendants.[5]

Architecture

The mansion, built ca. 1853, was designed in the Georgian Revival architectural style.[6][10] The exterior of the mansion is deceiving, given the scale of the rooms within.[19] It has high ceilings, and a 65 foot long center hall.[2] The great size of the hall gives it a more extravagant feel than is found in many of the larger Natchez mansions.[7] When entering from the front door into the center hall, to the south of the center hall are three bedrooms.[19] To the north of the center hall are the drawing room, dining room and butler's pantry.[2][19] A stairwell in the butler's pantry leads to storage rooms in the attic and basement.[10] The attic is finished off nicely with gaslight fixtures.[3] The basement had wine and dairy cellars.[3] Due to the impending Civil War, the Marshalls finished the mansion quickly, leaving off the planned second floor.[8] Because of this, the planned library became the middle bedroom instead.[5] Two dependency structures flank the rear courtyard behind the house.[2] During antebellum times, the north dependency housed the kitchen, wash room, and servant's rooms, while the south dependency housed the billiard room, office, schoolroom and governess's room.[2][10]

The mansion is important because it contains most of its lavish original interiors and furnishings with many items having been imported from Europe.[2][10] The front parlor contains one of the most complete and well preserved Rococo Revival style interiors in Mississipp from the mid 1800s.[10] The home contains rare Zuber & Cie wallpaper, rosewood and mahogany furniture, and Egyptian marble mantelpieces.[4][10] The rosewood parlor set and Zuber & Cie wallpaper were purchased by George Marshall I on a trip to France.[3] Various cypress base boards are painted to resemble oak and marble.[3][10] The bronze chandeliers used to be powered by gas made in the plantation's gas works.[10]

To keep the house livable, in the early 1900s a bathroom was added on the south end of the rear porch.[10] Electricity was added in the 1940s.[10] In 1962 a kitchen was installed in the butler's pantry and a second bathroom was added to one corner of a bedroom.[10] This was done with as little damage to the original interiors as possible.[10]

Outside, the grounds span 140 acres, including Spanish moss, streams, and woodland.[4]

  • Photo of the Lansdowne Plantation main house in 1938
    Photo of the Lansdowne Plantation main house in 1938
  • The north dependency building at Lansdowne Plantation in 1938
    The north dependency building at Lansdowne Plantation in 1938

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lansdowne, Spring Pilgrimage 2013 - a special publication of The Natchez Democtat, North Canal Street, Natchez, MS
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cole, Regina. "Plantation Classic". Old House Interiors. 1, No. 4 (Winter 1995): 68–73. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. ^ a b c Caroline Seebohm, Enshrining the Old South, The New York Times, February 10, 1991
  5. ^ a b c d Official website: History
  6. ^ a b Helen Kerr Kempe, The Pelican Guide to Old Homes of Mississippi: Natchez and the South, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1989, p. 52 [1]
  7. ^ a b Van Court, Catherine (1937). In Old Natchez. Doubleday. pp. 53–55.
  8. ^ a b c d e Kane, Harnett T. Natchez on the Mississippi (1947 ed.). New York: Bonanza Books. pp. 174–189.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Caroline Seebohm and Peter Woloszynski, Under Live Oaks, Clarkson Potter: New York, 2002, pp 144 - 157
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "National Register of Historic Places Inventory -- Nomination Form". National Park Service. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  11. ^ Wilkerson, Lyn (2009). Slow Travels - Louisiana. Lulu.com. p. 58. ISBN 0557091691. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  12. ^ Blake, Tom. "TENSAS PARISH, LOUISIANA LARGEST SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES". http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 12 July 2016. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  13. ^ Jordan, Winthrop D. (1995). Tumult and Silence at Second Creek. LSU Press. p. 125.
  14. ^ Scarborough, William (2006). Masters of the Big House. LSU Press. p. 15.
  15. ^ Historic Resources Inventory: Richmond
  16. ^ Official website: Tour
  17. ^ Hasty, Frances. "Mansions of the Mississippi". fayobserver. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  18. ^ "Show Boat Filming Locations". IMDB. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  19. ^ a b c Howard, Hugh (2003). Natchez: the Houses and History of the Jewel of the Mississippi. New York: Rizzoli. pp. 137–141.
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