Like an impressive jewel, Longwood mansion nestles atop a Natchez hillside. But the opulent Mississippi house hides a secret inside.
“It was never finished,” tour information Cindy says. “All that was ever finished was the basement and that’s where the family had to live.”
The largest octagonal home in America, Longwood was the unfulfilled dream of rich planter and doctor Haller Nutt.
The within Longwood was by no means completed, simply the basement.
“To me, it is a story of romance, tragedy, triumph and grace,” Cindy says. “When I think of Longwood, that’s what I think of.”
The story began when Dr. Haller Nutt married Julia Augusta Williams in 1840. Haller adored his spouse and determined sooner or later to shock her by shopping for the outdated home and property the place she used to play as a toddler in Natchez, Mississippi.
“Julia always had loved this place,” Cindy says. “On that day in 1850, Haller and Julia went for a drive and came out here. What Julia didn’t know was that her husband had sent servants and some of her personal possessions to the house out here to surprise her and let her know they owned it. Haller intended for it to be a summer retreat for the family.”
Haller’s purpose was to demolish the outdated home on the property and construct an ostentatious house worthy of a rich household. He employed Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan who introduced expert craftsmen from Philadelphia to start building in 1860.
Architectural masterpiece
The design of the six-story, octagon-shaped home known as for 32 rooms, every with its personal balcony. The house would have 26 fireplaces, 115 doorways and 96 columns. It would function a 16-sided cupola topped by a Byzantine dome.
For 18 months, workmen buzzed about creating the architectural masterpiece. Then one thing unexpected occurred that halted building in its tracks.
The unfinished within Longwood.
War was declared. When the Civil War began in 1861, the Northern staff deserted the undertaking, dropping their instruments the place they stopped and returning to their properties within the North.
“Haller thought the war would only last a couple months and the South would win,” Cindy says. “Then he could finish building his home.”
Instead, the battle raged on. Haller’s wealthy cotton property was burned and confiscated. Many of his museum-quality European furnishings and supplies being shipped to Longwood had been seized by the Federal blockade.
Losing his wealth and valuables, Haller and some native staff accomplished the basement stage and the household lived there. The Nutts had 11 kids however solely eight lived to maturity.
Dying of a damaged coronary heart
To add to the tragedy and household hardships, Haller obtained caught in a rainstorm and got here down with pneumonia. He died within the basement on June 15, 1864. Although the reason for demise was listed as pneumonia, many believed Haller had died of a damaged coronary heart over his unfinished dream home.
“Julia was left to carry on,” Cindy says. “She wrote that her children were going to bed half hungry… Although Julia was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she rolled up her sleeves and went to work. She planted vegetables and sold them in town out of the back of a wagon. Times were very bad for them.”
Julia and the kids continued dwelling within the cellar of the elegant shell, doing solely the fundamental requirements to take care of the good hulk looming over them. Julia died in 1897 and was buried beside her husband within the Longwood household cemetery on the property grounds.
Haller Nutt suffered from gout and used this chair for reduction.
Grandchildren owned Longwood, nicknamed “Nutt’s Folly,” till 1968. In 1970, Longwood was deeded to the Pilgrimage Garden Club and named a National Historic Landmark in 1971. About 80 % of the furnishings and different furnishings now within the basement had belonged to the Nutt household.
Popular with guests, Longwood is open year-round for excursions. If a few of the website seems acquainted, scenes from the HBO vampire sequence “True Blood” had been filmed at Longwood in 2010.
A rope-operated ‘punkah’ fan over the eating desk was typically used to maintain flies off meals throughout mealtime.
Unlike different Natchez antebellum properties, Longwood is secluded on an enormous tract of wooded land. Massive bushes are eerily draped with Spanish moss and getting into the winding driveway looks like touring again in time to go to one other world and maybe ponder what may need been.
Basement bed room
Photos by Jackie Sheckler Finch
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