Song sung by Alison Krauss
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00:00 I don't pick up the mail
00:00:05 I don't pick up the phone
00:00:12 I don't answer the door
00:00:19 I'd just soon be alone
00:00:28 I don't keep this place up
00:00:33 I just keep the lights down
00:00:41 I don't live in these rooms
00:00:48 I just rattle around
00:00:55 I'm just a ghost in this house
00:01:00 I'm just a shadow upon these walls
00:01:08 As quietly as a mouse I haunt these halls
00:01:20 I'm just a whisper of smoke
00:01:26 Welcome folks to the largest dining room that was ever built in this town.
00:01:32 This room is about 35 by 22 feet and it's still used today for all kinds of events.
00:01:37 Thankfully I think it's going to be a while before we have any so we've been able to keep the table set for tourism for a good while now.
00:01:44 The set on the table is no ordinary 19th century set.
00:01:48 Folks at this set could talk and have a lot to say.
00:01:50 This is the family's actual set they ate off of.
00:01:52 We've done a little over 70 pieces of all these old Paris patterned porcelain.
00:01:56 This was all individually hand painted and some of it's got a good amount of nevel work on it too.
00:02:01 China's in fantastic shape for its age to be honest.
00:02:04 It didn't return to the house alone though because at the same time the writing this beautiful American Rococo revival sideboard came with it.
00:02:11 As part of a diner we said that we believe the family bought after Frederick's death.
00:02:15 Stanton Hall has a total of 14,000 square feet.
00:02:20 As you tour the house today you're going to see a lot of original furniture.
00:02:26 All of the furniture in the house is not original but it is period.
00:02:31 There are no reproductions of furnishings but reproductions of fabrics.
00:02:36 Today we're bringing you a peek behind the curtain at breathtaking Stanton Hall.
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00:03:41 Welcome back to Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin.
00:03:43 We're back in glorious Natchez, Mississippi.
00:03:45 We have a spectacular surprise for you today.
00:03:48 We're giving you a behind the scenes look at Stanton Hall, the jewel of Natchez, Mississippi.
00:03:53 It was this home and the ladies of the Pilgrimage Garden Club who in the 1930s started the renaissance of this incredible city.
00:04:01 The ladies acquired this beautiful property and subsequently restored it to the glory you're going to see today.
00:04:06 And they've maintained it for decades.
00:04:08 This home is open for tours daily.
00:04:10 And so today we're going to let local tour guide and Pilgrimage Garden Club member, Miss Judy, take you on a tour of beautiful Stanton Hall.
00:04:18 (Music Playing)
00:04:21 Welcome to Stanton Hall. I'm Judy and I want you to enjoy this beautiful home today.
00:04:26 It's owned today by the Pilgrimage Garden Club.
00:04:29 And you will learn a little bit more about the original owners as we get inside.
00:04:34 But the property here is a city block and the trees are beautiful.
00:04:38 And the Corinthian columns here are made from pie shaped brick and mortar.
00:04:43 And I'd like to welcome you to come and see Stanton Hall.
00:04:46 It's one of the largest completed mansions in Natchez.
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00:04:51 This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Spring Pilgrimage Tours down in Natchez, Mississippi.
00:04:57 Where private homeowners open their doors for public tours of their historic property.
00:05:02 From grand museum homes like Stanton Hall to quaint townhomes like Greenleafs.
00:05:07 This year's 90th anniversary tours not only emphasize the historical significance of the enslaved people in Natchez's history.
00:05:14 But also the atrocities that they faced as well as their many achievements and contributions before, during and after the Civil War.
00:05:22 Shaping this small town into what it is today.
00:05:26 So many people have different ideas about the South.
00:05:32 And this kind of gives them a true feeling.
00:05:35 I just think it's good. Anytime you can travel and gain knowledge.
00:05:40 Stanton Hall is one of the many antebellum homes that stands tall today in the city of Natchez.
00:05:46 Built in 1857, Frederick Stanton, a wealthy cotton merchant and slave owner, spent nearly $83,000 on this home.
00:05:55 Most well known for its large mirrors and intricate attention to detail.
00:05:59 Much of which has to do with the contribution of the enslaved people who lived here.
00:06:03 Jessie Carlisle, one of the current owners of this breathtaking mansion, says that more and more people over the years have visited Natchez to learn more about the rich history of these homes.
00:06:14 We can accredit to the amount of people coming to town with the boats on the river.
00:06:20 We have a lot of people that had never heard of Natchez before that are exposed to it now.
00:06:31 Scaling down a little smaller in size, but not in historical significance, Green Leaves is a carefully preserved townhome with unique carpet, wallpaper and furnishings dating back to the 1800s.
00:06:44 This house, everything that was constructed here was slave labor. So you've got to kind of appreciate that.
00:06:51 Passed down through six generations, the beautifully historic artifacts that filled this home, from hand-painted china to intricately crafted silver, were made by slaves themselves, whose names were seldom to be recorded in history.
00:07:07 We're trying to do a lot of, trying to emphasize the role that these people play, acknowledge that, because, you know, we have a history of all these different relatives, the names, those people, their names weren't recorded, there, you know, nothing much about them.
00:07:24 We like doing them, we like having something that you can see, that you see the work of these people and appreciate it and acknowledge it.
00:07:32 Anna Caroline Barker, Hotty Toddy News.
00:07:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:08:01 Welcome y'all to Stanton Hall. At over 14,000 square feet, this is the largest completed antebellum townhouse in all of Natchez.
00:08:09 When it was completed in 1857, no other home here in town equaled it in terms of scale and grandeur.
00:08:15 Today the house is owned by the Pilgrimage Garden Club, but originally this was the dream home of Frederick Stanton.
00:08:21 Frederick was born in a little village near Belfast, what is today Northern Ireland in 1794.
00:08:26 March of 1815, he and his older brother William immigrated to America to lay the foundation for new life of the Stanton family.
00:08:34 In mid-1817, Frederick arrived here in town and started work as a merchantile clerk.
00:08:39 However, by the end of the 1850s, he had become a prominent merchant, cotton broker, and plantation owner here in Natchez.
00:08:46 In fact, in 1859, his six plantations covered over 19,000 acres in total,
00:08:52 with the majority being located right across the river in Louisiana because of its rich and fertile soil.
00:08:57 Now, it was in 1849 that Frederick bought the entire city block that this house sits on today, which is about three and a half acres.
00:09:04 He then hired Thomas Rose, a local master builder, to construct his dream home,
00:09:09 and to carry out that task, Thomas Rose would employ some of the town's finest artisans.
00:09:14 Construction officially started in 1851, and by the end of 1857, this entire house that y'all see here was fully completed structurally.
00:09:23 Upon its completion, Frederick gave the house a fitting name, Belfast.
00:09:27 While the house's construction was going on, though, the Stantons weren't too far away.
00:09:31 In fact, they were just one block away from the previous home, a house called Cherokee today,
00:09:36 which is right next to another historical townhouse known as Choctaw Hall.
00:09:40 Now, in terms of style, folks, what we have here is a classical Greek revival design with Italianate accents.
00:09:46 The exterior walls, they're 22 inches of brick that was covered with stucco to give them a nice layer of waterproofing,
00:09:52 while the interior walls, they're 14 inches of brick that was covered with plaster,
00:09:56 and they were originally painted white for light reflection.
00:09:59 Four main columns up here at the front, these are a combination of brick and mortar that was stuccoed.
00:10:04 They've got a nice fluted look, cast iron bases here at the bottom,
00:10:08 and it's difficult to see from where we are, they also have beautiful Corinthian capitals up at the very top of them.
00:10:13 By the way, there were gaps between the house's walls that gave it some insulation to breathe,
00:10:18 and in many of those gaps, there's still sections of piping that went along with all the house's gasoliers.
00:10:23 These were originally fueled by illuminating gas.
00:10:26 The system that once fueled them was originally in the house's cellar, and it consisted of three pieces of equipment.
00:10:31 First, you had a vaporizer, which turned rosin oil into gas by heating up with coal,
00:10:35 and once the gas was created, it would go through a water filtration system to remove any impurities.
00:10:40 Then finally, the gas went to the gasoliers through a gas regulator,
00:10:43 which automatically controlled the flow of gas to and from the gasoliers.
00:10:48 Barbed cypress was the choice of wood for the house's doors, and it's decorated with woodwork.
00:10:52 It was also the perfect choice, lightweight, waterproof, and in Frederick's day, this was all local timber.
00:10:58 Ross Cypress was a little gritty looking for a townhouse,
00:11:01 which is why Frederick had all of his doors originally finished on both sides to represent Golden Oak, like y'all see here.
00:11:08 Four and a half by ten feet, this is about the average size of most of the first floor's doors.
00:11:13 That's not the largest door size y'all will see on tour.
00:11:16 Well, folks, if y'all are ready, come right on in.
00:11:19 Come right in.
00:11:21 As we come in here, you'll notice we have a 72 by 16 foot hallway.
00:11:28 There's 1,100 square feet right here in the hall.
00:11:32 Stanton Hall has a total of 14,000 square feet.
00:11:37 And as you tour the house today, you're going to see a lot of original furniture.
00:11:43 All of the furniture in the house is not original, but it is period.
00:11:48 And there are no reproductions of furnishings, but reproductions of fabrics.
00:11:53 [Music]
00:12:20 As we continue in this hallway, I'm going to introduce you to the original owners.
00:12:27 And the gentleman here is Frederick Stanton.
00:12:31 He's the gentleman that built the house.
00:12:33 He was one of the richest men here in Natchez.
00:12:36 He had got his money from cotton.
00:12:38 He was from Belfast, Ireland, and the little wife of his was from Versailles, Kentucky.
00:12:45 And Mr. Stanton, sadly though, he only got to live in this house nine months.
00:12:50 He passed away from liver complications from yellow fever.
00:12:56 This is the gentleman's parlor we're standing in right now.
00:12:59 And behind us back here is the ladies' parlor.
00:13:02 [Music]
00:13:08 The carvings over the doors, the inset mirrors, the windows, the arches,
00:13:13 all of that is hand-carved cypress.
00:13:15 [Music]
00:13:18 This carpet is a recreation of an 1850 Natchez pattern.
00:13:24 And, you know, they had full carpet on the floor, wall-to-wall carpet, when the Stantons were here.
00:13:30 But it was only 27 inches wide, and you could buy it as long as you'd like to.
00:13:36 But they would roll it up whenever they had a party and polish the pine floors
00:13:41 and use this as an overflow for dancing out in the hall and in the parlor here.
00:13:47 [Music]
00:14:07 The fireplaces are white Italian Carrara marble, and they were sculptured in New York.
00:14:14 All of them down here used coal when the Stantons were here,
00:14:17 but today we have central heat and air in the house.
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00:14:56 We have two original pieces of furniture in here.
00:15:00 The chair in the corner here was Mr. Stanton's chair,
00:15:04 and there's a solid red chair in the ladies' parlor that was Mrs. Stanton's chair.
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00:16:08 Now I'm going to take you over across the hallway to Mr. Stanton's office and library,
00:16:15 and we have his original furniture in there.
00:16:18 [Music]
00:16:35 Welcome to the library. This was Mr. Stanton's office and library.
00:16:40 And, you know, sad that he only got to use it nine months because he didn't live here long enough.
00:16:46 But some really neat furniture in here.
00:16:49 The desk, the bookcase here, the desk chair, the four-side chairs, original to Mr. Stanton.
00:16:55 Renaissance revival is the style of this furniture.
00:16:59 This gasolier is original to the house.
00:17:02 They're all the way through the house. They're called gasoliers because they operated by coke gas when the Stantons were here.
00:17:09 This one is probably the most unique one. It represents power.
00:17:15 There's knights with spears at the top, then you have dragon heads,
00:17:19 and pretty much any kind of weapon up under there that you want to name.
00:17:23 [Music]
00:17:52 [Music]
00:18:02 [Music]
00:18:27 Freeze!
00:18:32 It's the doorbell of modern addition.
00:18:45 Yeah.
00:18:46 Two feet long by a little bit over 16 feet wide, and to help heat rise here on this floor, the ceiling.
00:18:52 It's all well-preserved crown and dental. The Stantons chose bronze as the primary finish for all theirs.
00:18:57 As for secondary finishes, we know they went with at least gold and copper.
00:19:01 Though they may have picked more than those two, however, it's really difficult to say
00:19:04 because these have pretty much lost all their secondary finishes.
00:19:08 Keep an eye on their themes, though, because the Stantons got quite the variety of gasolier designs for this house.
00:19:13 Well, speaking of the family, here they are. Y'all would have seen them in 1850.
00:19:17 They were from Sells, Kentucky in 1807. Mrs. Stanton came from a prominent tobacco-planting family.
00:19:23 Bob was the first to introduce her to Frederick. Bob and Tue were the party here in town in 1827.
00:19:28 And shortly afterwards, Frederick and Holda started dating.
00:19:31 The couple only dated for a few months, though, and then they got married at her family home in Kentucky that same year.
00:19:37 Tue then moved here to Natchez to live together.
00:19:40 Over the course of their marriage, the couple would have at least eight children,
00:19:43 though unfortunately, out of the eight, only five would actually make it to adulthood.
00:19:47 Your Natchez History Minute is brought to you by Natchez National Historical Park.
00:19:52 Born near Belfast, Ireland in 1794, Frederick Stanton immigrated to the United States in 1815
00:20:01 and prospered as a planter and cotton broker.
00:20:04 In 1857, he and his wife, Holda, enlisted the aid of Natchez builder Thomas Rose
00:20:11 in creating one of the city's grandest antebellum mansions.
00:20:14 Originally christened Belfast by the Stantons, the house, known today as Stanton Hall,
00:20:20 combines elements of Greek revival and Italianate architecture,
00:20:24 incorporating soaring Corinthian columns, delicate cast-iron balconies and balustrades,
00:20:30 and a belvedere that offers sweeping views of the Mississippi River.
00:20:34 When finally completed and furnished, the grand house contained magnificently ornate interiors,
00:20:40 reflecting the height of interior design in 19th century America.
00:20:44 Sadly, Frederick Stanton died on January 4, 1858, shortly after the house was completed.
00:20:51 The family remained in the house until selling it after Holda Stanton's death in 1893.
00:20:57 The house then went through a succession of owners,
00:21:00 including a stint as the home to the Stanton College for Young Ladies.
00:21:04 In 1938, the Pilgrimage Garden Club purchased the mansion
00:21:08 and committed to maintaining and refurbishing the once magnificent home.
00:21:12 Now in May of 1858, when the house's construction finalized,
00:21:17 Frederick Holda and three of their five children left Cherokee behind
00:21:20 and the Stantons settled right on into Belfast.
00:21:23 Sadly though, before Frederick, well folks, at least he got to see the house completed,
00:21:28 he's got less than eight months to actually enjoy it.
00:21:31 The yellow fever ravages this town all throughout the 1850s,
00:21:34 claiming over half of Natchez's population by the end of the decade,
00:21:38 including life of Frederick Stanton.
00:21:40 As a result of catching it, he passed away from chronic liver failure in January of 1859.
00:21:46 Fortunately for the family, he got all the affairs in order right before he passed,
00:21:50 including making sure this house's final bills wouldn't become a financial burden for Holda.
00:21:54 And they weren't, because by 1860 those bills were all fully paid off.
00:21:58 In fact, thanks to all that Frederick did for Holda,
00:22:01 I don't think she had very much to worry about when he came to this house.
00:22:04 Holda would never remarry after Frederick's death,
00:22:07 but she would go on to live here with her family for another 34 more years.
00:22:10 Initially, life went well for the Stantons.
00:22:13 That is until the advent of the nation's Civil War.
00:22:16 However, by the time the war had ended, both the family and the rest of the town
00:22:19 had weathered that storm a lot better than most places.
00:22:22 See folks, this little county voted overwhelmingly to stay in the Union.
00:22:25 Most of these families had either come from the North to begin with,
00:22:28 or they had huge northern connections.
00:22:30 Back to the Hyde and Annabelle era,
00:22:32 Natchez had in a day's money then more millionaires per capita than New York City.
00:22:36 Thanks to all of that, when the town surrendered elements of the Union Navy in May of 1862,
00:22:41 most of its citizens, this family included,
00:22:44 just took the terms of surrender they were offered right away.
00:22:47 All property of the Confederacy had to be turned over immediately,
00:22:50 but all personal property would be left completely to loan,
00:22:53 as long as citizens were simply willing to show Union loyalty
00:22:56 by preferably flying the flag of the Union above all their homes.
00:23:00 Terms were great, but in the end they didn't guarantee the safety of everyone's cotton.
00:23:04 By the end of the war, Confederators had torched most all of the town's cotton supply,
00:23:08 ruining most of these wealthy families that had had their money completely invested in it.
00:23:13 The Stantons, though, well, for the most part they were okay.
00:23:16 Thanks to the fact that Frederick was wise enough to diversify his money.
00:23:20 Though the remarkable thing is the fact that they survived the war in the decent shape they did.
00:23:23 Folks, this family also substantially recovered after the war ended, too.
00:23:27 In 1875, Hulda's son-in-law, John Raw, who by that time had made a fortune,
00:23:32 thanks to his work in the railroad industry,
00:23:34 made the decision that it was time for he and Hulda's daughter, Elizabeth,
00:23:37 to just move their whole branch of the family back into this house,
00:23:40 to help Hulda manage all of this.
00:23:42 John Raw would later go on to become Natchez's most prominent insurance and real estate salesman
00:23:46 in the post-Civil War era.
00:23:48 It's an amazing story that he fully supported this whole house on his own
00:23:51 by selling insurance and offering real estate advice to a ton of clients.
00:23:55 Hulda, though, got a great life here until her death in 1893.
00:23:58 She lived to be 86, which was great for the 1890s.
00:24:01 And she also passed away peacefully here in the house from natural causes, too.
00:24:06 Well, folks, if y'all are all ready, the house is beautiful parlor is next.
00:24:10 Most house servants never left were happy.
00:24:16 The truth of the matter was most slaves grew up in a hot, humid climate.
00:24:20 And as you transition, you just get very sick.
00:24:23 That and the Underground Railroad system never--
00:24:26 Slaves ended up going to people like John Brown, who caused massive insurrections.
00:24:32 Well, after Hulda died in 1893, the family wisely realized, folks, that it was time to move on.
00:24:37 So Belfast was stripped of all its furnishings, and the house was left to Hulda's oldest granddaughter, Mary.
00:24:42 Mary's husband was a prominent banker, and he was tasked to try to sell this house for the Stantons.
00:24:47 However, every buyer that looked at the house eventually came to the conclusion that it was too much to manage.
00:24:52 Fortunes changed for the house a year later, though, because in October of 1894,
00:24:56 its doors closed, so if they couldn't sell the house, why not make some money off of it by running this girls' school,
00:25:01 which proved to be a brilliant idea.
00:25:03 In fact, this double parlor here became their two classrooms.
00:25:06 All that was done to convert it was simple.
00:25:08 A removable iron rod was placed right up under this triple arch,
00:25:11 and then two curtain sections were draped across.
00:25:14 The school then put somewhere over 50 desks here in the parlor,
00:25:17 and they also had a piano positioned up there at the very front to teach music lessons in here, too.
00:25:21 The school was a great idea, and it would stay here until 1901,
00:25:25 when a decision was made for it to be moved a block away to Choctaw Hall,
00:25:28 which was deemed a little bit easier to manage than Stanton Hall was.
00:25:31 After the school left, though, more families would go on through this house up until 1938,
00:25:36 when the last family to ever live here, well, they lost the house thanks to the Great Depression.
00:25:41 A bank got it, and its future started looking very gloomy.
00:25:44 That is, until 15 ladies that ran a little garden club here in town
00:25:48 stepped forward and decided that they would save this house.
00:25:51 One of those women was Catherine Grafton Miller,
00:25:53 who was none other than the great-granddaughter of Thomas Rose, the house's builder.
00:25:57 She and the other 14 ladies took out loans, pulled all their money,
00:26:01 marched on over to that bank, and with full permission from their husbands,
00:26:05 well, folks, they just offered in 1938 $9,100 to help right by this whole house.
00:26:10 In case y'all are wondering, no one's quite figured out where the money came from.
00:26:15 Then again, that's not entirely true.
00:26:17 I mean, those women were the Blue-Haired Mafia.
00:26:19 Of course, y'all didn't hear me say that either.
00:26:21 [laughter]
00:26:22 We owe the Blue-Haired Mafia a lot for saving this house.
00:26:25 The garden club had their work cut out for them when they bought it,
00:26:27 because it did need some restoration work,
00:26:29 but it only took about a decade to get the house back upon its feet.
00:26:33 By 1948, work was nearing its end,
00:26:35 but the ladies needed to figure out a way to sustain it in the decades to come,
00:26:39 so they figured since they weren't ready to run it as a museum,
00:26:42 why not run it as a bed and breakfast instead,
00:26:45 which they ended up doing very successfully from 1948 to 1992.
00:26:49 During that time, the ladies filled the house with furnishings from their own homes,
00:26:53 though today y'all will mainly see family items,
00:26:56 because thanks to the descendants of the Stantons,
00:26:58 well, we've got quite the collection of furniture,
00:27:00 since they've been sending stuff constantly back since 1993.
00:27:04 Here's one of the first donations the house ever received,
00:27:06 this beautiful hand-carved walnut bar chair,
00:27:09 and an actual piece of one of the three parlors Stanton's had in his triple parlor.
00:27:13 It's not the only piece of that set we own, though,
00:27:15 because right before the COVID epidemic occurred,
00:27:17 we got another piece, that red upholstery chair right there,
00:27:20 next to that piano forte.
00:27:23 As for the majority of the rest of the furnishings in here,
00:27:26 when it comes to style, they're actually a slightly different version of this.
00:27:30 Most of what we have in here is American Road Co. co-revival.
00:27:33 This is Carl Rosewood, that was known as the "Laced Back."
00:27:37 He's got all these piercings you see.
00:27:39 Y'all are unfamiliar with the style,
00:27:41 it originated in France in the mid-1700s,
00:27:43 where it quickly became the personal preference of the notoriously feminine Louis XV.
00:27:47 Following his unfortunate death,
00:27:49 well, it lost much of its popularity in France for a little while,
00:27:53 thanks to a new furniture style,
00:27:55 one that became synonymous with the Pauline Bonaparte,
00:27:57 and one that's still quite popular among collectors today,
00:27:59 "Empire," which is the style of that piano forte there.
00:28:02 However, Road Co. co. would regain its popularity in the 19th century,
00:28:06 thanks to a series of revival movements,
00:28:08 one occurring here in America in the 1840s,
00:28:11 due to the work of a group of craftsmen who mainly operated out in New York City.
00:28:15 One of those men was Joseph Meeks,
00:28:17 and his firm made most all the furniture that's in this parlor today.
00:28:20 However, if you compare the work of Joseph Meeks to the family set,
00:28:23 no offense to Joseph Meeks and his firm,
00:28:25 but this stuff's in a whole other league.
00:28:27 For design-wise, this chair is perfectly asymmetrically balanced.
00:28:31 What you see here is the legacy of Louis XV's goldsmith, J.A. Missonnier,
00:28:36 who was considered the master of Road Co. co. in the 18th century.
00:28:39 Missonnier was the first artist to ever apply asymmetry to the style,
00:28:43 and he understood how to balance it completely.
00:28:45 He was famous for his mirrors, clocks, sword hilts, and furniture designs.
00:28:49 However, many felt his work was overcomplicated,
00:28:51 and very few ever tried to replicate it exactly.
00:28:54 In fact, I think the only guy that ever did it perfect was Chippendale.
00:28:58 But the Stantons were apparently fans of his legacy
00:29:01 because their parlor set they ordered from France
00:29:03 was done completely in Missonnier's version of Road Co. co.
00:29:06 In fact, whoever did their set was a true artist.
00:29:08 For design-wise, this is almost identical to Missonnier's original work in the 1750s,
00:29:13 even though it was made in the mid-19th century.
00:29:15 It's so perfectly balanced that its asymmetry is almost hidden at a distance.
00:29:19 Even up close, because it's so slight, it takes a minute to really see what's going on.
00:29:23 It's really neat, and it's a true work of art for that matter.
00:29:27 Now, the power of carpeting in here today,
00:29:29 this is a recreation of a real 19th century pattern
00:29:32 that was made by Axminster Mills out of Greenville, Mississippi.
00:29:35 Sadly, the Axminster plant in Greenville has run out of business,
00:29:39 but well, Axminster Carpenter in the UK is still alive and well
00:29:42 and going strong since the 1750s.
00:29:44 Fun fact--I don't know if you all know this--they make airport carpet today.
00:29:48 But they actually use the same techniques for making the airport carpet
00:29:50 when they make their period stuff, which is why they're so heavily regarded now.
00:29:54 Folks, this carpet's been here for over 20 years,
00:29:57 and it's held up unbelievably well
00:29:59 considering the foot traffic it's had during that time.
00:30:02 All the mantles here on this floor,
00:30:04 they're made of Italian-imported white Carrara marble
00:30:07 that's painted with Carrara headwood.
00:30:09 All this intricate carving work that you all see here
00:30:12 was done by some of the finest craftsmen from New York City.
00:30:15 And all the intricate carving work, it's really fantastic.
00:30:19 As for the ironwork, this was made in New Orleans.
00:30:22 They were coal-burning too, which cost them a decent amount of money.
00:30:26 But Frederick won the best for him in what he could get for the house.
00:30:29 The house has massive mirrors,
00:30:31 like the family's French Rococo furniture.
00:30:33 These came from France too, but they're unbelievably fragile.
00:30:37 In fact, Frederick learned the hard way
00:30:39 when he lost the dining room's mirrors in shipping.
00:30:41 So that occurred quite often with this type of mirror.
00:30:44 The frames, they're wooden to an extent,
00:30:46 but pretty much all the decorative work on top's plaster.
00:30:49 To make matters worse, what made these reflective
00:30:52 was a combination of tin and mercury,
00:30:54 which meant they never quite agreed well with southern humidity.
00:30:57 Over the years, humidity just battered them
00:30:59 to the point where the tin paper oxidized
00:31:01 and the mercury dried on the other side.
00:31:03 However, not all of them were affected that badly.
00:31:05 There's that mirror there, that one right there,
00:31:07 and there's a third one tucked away in the rear parlor.
00:31:10 Well, those three were built into the house's interior walls,
00:31:13 which actually protected them quite well
00:31:15 from that level of humidity damage.
00:31:17 As for this mirror here,
00:31:19 well, either the Clark family or the Garden Club got it restored.
00:31:22 We don't know which group actually did it.
00:31:24 Whoever did it, though, I think did a fine job
00:31:27 considering that frame didn't get busted during restoration.
00:31:30 In 1996, a complete panel of the Parkwood drapery
00:31:33 was discovered in an absentence attic here in town,
00:31:36 and it was immediately gifted to the Garden Club.
00:31:38 Shortly after that donation was made,
00:31:40 the ladies received a call from Schumacher & Company in New York City.
00:31:44 They had a Natchez-themed advertisement campaign coming up,
00:31:47 and they wanted that panel to be part of it.
00:31:49 So Schumacher just gave the Garden Club a deal.
00:31:52 "Why not let us have the panel for as long as we need it,
00:31:55 "and in return we'll just replicate and get you
00:31:57 "all the turkey-red materials you need for the whole house
00:31:59 "at no cost whatsoever,"
00:32:01 which is unbelievable that Schumacher even did that.
00:32:04 Folks, they're expensive in their own right,
00:32:06 but this stuff was $350 plus a yard in the 1990s.
00:32:10 In terms of appearance, though,
00:32:12 it's a flawless recreation of the Parkwood drapery.
00:32:15 The sign with the gasolines in here,
00:32:17 it's a very warm and welcoming one.
00:32:19 It features flowers, fruit, and cherries.
00:32:21 It's also interesting to note that we've got a trio of gasolines
00:32:23 here in the parlor, rarely with these organ groups of three or two
00:32:26 that are of high cost, but thanks to the trio
00:32:28 and the position of the mirrors,
00:32:30 you get the Versailles effect of making the parlor look endless.
00:32:32 It works quite well to this day,
00:32:34 even though that mirror's a little on the damaged side.
00:32:41 Well, any questions for me so far, folks,
00:32:43 before we head on through the house?
00:32:45 Well, if y'all are ready, I've got some more family furniture
00:32:50 to show y'all here in the hallway, actually.
00:32:52 ...for Bible-style paltry set.
00:33:09 They originally aided these chairs in one with the hall tree that's here.
00:33:12 We've only got two of the chairs right now,
00:33:14 but at least two more were the descendants here in town,
00:33:16 and we're about to get another two from some descendants we recently met.
00:33:19 So we've almost got the whole set accounted for.
00:33:22 Chairs, of course, are beautiful, but, well, they're not that comfortable.
00:33:26 These are really meant for waiting and decoration, though.
00:33:28 However, they're quite functional, thanks to the hidden seat design.
00:33:31 Though in terms of function, that hall tree's got just about everything.
00:33:34 You have a mirror to check your hat,
00:33:36 hat racks, coat racks, umbrella racks,
00:33:38 and don't worry about any rainwater hitting the carpet,
00:33:41 thanks to a pair of removable cast-iron water catchers on the inside.
00:33:44 It's quite a nifty design, actually.
00:33:47 We're now going to look at Frederick's library next.
00:33:50 Most of the furnishings we have in here, we believe,
00:33:56 were originally in Frederick's office in town.
00:33:58 This includes four sign chairs and this impressive throne chair here.
00:34:02 Then we've got the desk,
00:34:04 which we believe Frederick did business with as a cotton broker with in his final years.
00:34:08 Only been slightly refinished.
00:34:10 Other than that, there's not much wrong with it.
00:34:12 It's also carved all the way around, too, which is really impressive.
00:34:15 There is one piece of furniture in here, though,
00:34:17 that we believe was here in Frederick's library in 1859.
00:34:20 According to the house's inventory, that was taken right after his death,
00:34:23 there were two bookcases in this room,
00:34:25 and we believe this to be one of them.
00:34:27 Like Frederick's desk and chairs?
00:34:29 Well, hold his preference was clearly rococo.
00:34:32 Frederick's was Elizabethan, and he liked it all the way, folks.
00:34:36 This bookcase is the living embodiment of that style.
00:34:40 Elizabethan always drew from fantasy for inspiration.
00:34:43 What better thing could you have for a library
00:34:45 than Dante's divine comedy of all things?
00:34:47 You have everything from the head of Dante up here at the top,
00:34:50 the door showcasing the Greek muses who guided Dante through the entire trilogy.
00:34:54 Then down here at the very bottom,
00:34:56 you've got a horrific chimera,
00:34:58 a combination of beast and man, with this one being parquet.
00:35:01 He's got carved Solus Peoples' fries.
00:35:03 He had fangs, but they're a little worn down because he's a drawer pull.
00:35:06 And, yes, feet are the basis of the bookcase.
00:35:09 I actually wouldn't stare too deeply into old Fluffy's eyes.
00:35:12 He's quite horrific, but that carving work is top-notch.
00:35:16 As you all can imagine, Frederick certainly wanted to show his influence in here,
00:35:21 which he greatly achieved, but maybe not from a warm and welcoming perspective, eh?
00:35:25 Maybe the imposing armorial gasselier.
00:35:27 Here we've got a full treatment of the Crusades.
00:35:30 He's got a whole bunch of medieval arms and armor,
00:35:32 dragons as his arms,
00:35:34 Germanic knights are standing there to tension in the center,
00:35:36 and at the top, those shields feature on them a roaring lion motif,
00:35:39 homaging Richard the Lionheart.
00:35:42 This gasselier design was originally commissioned to go in three hallways,
00:35:45 the connected parts of the original U.S. Senate chamber.
00:35:48 Cornelis and Baker officially had three made for the Senate chamber's hallways.
00:35:53 Apparently, they had a lot of leftover parts,
00:35:56 and with that contract complete, they settled them and sold some of them commercially
00:35:59 as whole gasseliers, which is how Frederick got his,
00:36:02 though his is currently the only known surviving example
00:36:05 of a commercial version of the armorial gasselier design.
00:36:09 Right over here, two of my favorite antiques in the house.
00:36:13 These gloves date to about 1836.
00:36:16 They're not original to the Stantons, but given their rarity, I don't think it matters.
00:36:19 As long as y'all don't touch them, y'all are welcome to look a little closer.
00:36:22 They are made by Kerry of London, who's considered the world's finest glove maker in the 1830s.
00:36:27 John Kerry, the company's founder, was so obsessed with accuracy
00:36:30 that every six years when his firm released a new set,
00:36:33 he always put a guarantee below his maker's label.
00:36:35 Everything wrong with the last set had been perfectly corrected.
00:36:38 His firm achieved their goal, though, because, well, there's not much wrong with that for 1836.
00:36:44 It's made, though, in many ways, is a little more fascinating.
00:36:47 It's a little faded, unfortunately, but that's not surprising.
00:36:51 I'm sure it got a lot of use, especially considering everyone's interest in astronomy at that time.
00:36:56 Yeah, this is the heavens.
00:36:57 All the stars from that time are here, followed by all the constellations,
00:37:01 fully represented by the stars in the original Greek figures.
00:37:04 They were the finest gloves of their day.
00:37:06 They've seen better days, though, but, well, they're a wood-covered paper mache.
00:37:11 Right here, we've got what was once room service for Frederick's Library.
00:37:15 Silver-plated servants' bell bowl.
00:37:17 They don't work anymore, but every bell bowl like that one there
00:37:20 was originally connected by a wire to a receiver bell in the butler's pantry.
00:37:23 Somewhere back there was once a massive rack that all the receiver bells were on.
00:37:27 It's long gone, though.
00:37:29 Every pair of bell bowl and receiver bell, though, had their own distinctive dinging tone.
00:37:33 It just depended on what room a servant was assigned to.
00:37:36 Right over here, as I'm sure you all probably noticed, we've got an incredible book collection.
00:37:40 Many of these are attributed to Stanton family members,
00:37:42 like this very rare school edition of Alice in Wonderland.
00:37:45 It's dated around 1900.
00:37:47 It belonged to one of Holden's granddaughters.
00:37:49 We've also got a bunch of books in here that belonged to Thomas Stanton,
00:37:52 who sold his son, like this dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities.
00:37:56 Then we've got a reminder of the girls' college.
00:37:58 That's a real Stanton College event card that dates back to 1897.
00:38:02 As for the rest of the books, most came from Garden Globe members,
00:38:05 but the date range, from what I can tell, starts in the 1810s.
00:38:08 In terms of topics, there's everything,
00:38:11 from Shakespeare to a true classic, in my opinion,
00:38:14 Other People's Money.
00:38:16 [laughter]
00:38:17 I've never read it. The title's actually literal.
00:38:20 It's a neat collection, though.
00:38:22 You've got some weird contrast in here.
00:38:24 Here's a perfect example.
00:38:26 How many homes in the hearts that make them?
00:38:28 Right next to the letters on syphilis.
00:38:30 [laughter]
00:38:31 Like I said, they really had a book on everything from that time.
00:38:34 It was a very educated time period.
00:38:36 [laughter]
00:38:40 Well, Count and Sellard starts below the stairwell,
00:38:43 and the house is Belvedere at the very top.
00:38:45 This house actually has five levels in total.
00:38:47 Before we head to the second floor, though,
00:38:50 any questions for me about anything else here in Fredericks Library?
00:38:53 We'll go.
00:38:55 All right. We'll head on up and see where the family resides.
00:38:58 You'll see the river here in a little while.
00:39:01 It was the wealthiest town for a wide margin.
00:39:07 I mean, outside of New Orleans,
00:39:09 then Natchez was the wealthiest town.
00:39:14 If we had all the time in the world, we weren't in a hurry,
00:39:18 I would have had us drive the Natchez Trace
00:39:21 all the way down from Nashville.
00:39:23 If you look up there at your TVs,
00:39:25 the Natchez Trace is what we're going to kind of parallel and follow along.
00:39:32 And it starts right up there in Nashville.
00:39:35 That map is not very clear.
00:39:37 It starts right up there in Nashville where we were,
00:39:40 cuts across the tiny corner of Alabama,
00:39:42 and ends up in the town of Natchez, Mississippi.
00:39:46 And the Natchez Trace goes back a hundred million years or more.
00:39:54 Because in this pathway up there around Memphis,
00:39:59 where we--up there around Nashville, where we started,
00:40:03 and where the parkway starts,
00:40:06 there's some natural salt deposits.
00:40:09 And then there's a good source of grasses growing along the Mississippi River,
00:40:15 and there's water along the Mississippi River.
00:40:18 So go back a hundred million years,
00:40:20 and you had herds of bison that would go between the salt licks up there around Nashville,
00:40:27 down to the water and the grasses around Natchez.
00:40:30 And the reason they took that path that's highlighted on my map there
00:40:34 is because there's a natural depression along the whole path along there.
00:40:39 On both sides of that line you have hills.
00:40:42 And wildlife is just as lazy as people.
00:40:45 If we've got an option of going over a hill or just alongside it,
00:40:48 which one are we going to take?
00:40:50 And that's the way that the bison used to take to get down to those salt licks.
00:40:54 And then Native Americans, they did the exact same thing.
00:40:59 And they followed that pathway that the bison laid out.
00:41:05 Here's a sign for the Natchez Trace Parkway.
00:41:08 I'll tell you about that. I'll get to that point in just a second.
00:41:12 But the Native Americans that came through here,
00:41:17 including the Mississippian peoples,
00:41:19 who were some of the earliest inhabitants of this area,
00:41:23 they followed that same pathway going from the salt deposits up in Tennessee
00:41:27 down to the Mississippi River.
00:41:30 Flash forward to the 1700s and early 1800s,
00:41:35 before the steamboat came to the Mississippi River,
00:41:39 the river was still used for travel, but it was a one-way trip.
00:41:44 You'd jump on the Mississippi River and you'd float down,
00:41:47 but you couldn't get back up because no matter how hard you paddled,
00:41:50 you're not going to make it up the Mississippi River.
00:41:52 So the earliest boat travel on the Mississippi, outside of the Native Americans,
00:41:58 were the fur trappers and later the flatboat barges
00:42:02 that would start up there on the Cumberland River or the Ohio River
00:42:07 and come down the Mississippi River to Natchez.
00:42:10 And then when they get there, they would simply abandon their boats and sell their wares.
00:42:15 Their wares would be put on larger boats and taken overseas to Europe,
00:42:19 where you were nobody in the 1800s if you didn't have a beaver pelt hat.
00:42:24 It was the Macy's gold hoop earrings of the day.
00:42:29 [laughter]
00:42:31 So they would abandon their boats, sell their wares,
00:42:36 and then they would just hike this trail that had been in use now for 100 million years
00:42:42 that the Native Americans and the bison would use.
00:42:46 And that's how the Natchez Trace Parkway came to be.
00:42:51 Now, nowadays, it was still used up until steamboats became ubiquitous in the mid-1800s,
00:42:59 and it became cheaper to travel upriver by steamboat than it did to walk
00:43:03 because the journey from Natchez back up to Nashville
00:43:07 would take you anywhere between six weeks to three months to walk that.
00:43:12 It's about 450 miles. So what's that, about 800 kilometers versus 700 kilometers?
00:43:19 So once steamboats became ubiquitous and people could travel back up the rivers,
00:43:24 that pathway was somewhat abandoned until the 1930s.
00:43:31 During the Great Depression in America, the Civilian Conservation Corps was a group of young men
00:43:39 who were put together to just go out and build stuff anywhere they could find projects in America
00:43:45 solely for the purpose of putting young men back to work.
00:43:49 And the Natchez Trace Parkway was laid out there.
00:43:52 And now it's 450 miles long. The speed limit is 45 miles on the whole thing.
00:43:59 So that's why I was saying it would take us three, four days to do this trip along there.
00:44:04 But the interesting thing is along the whole way, there's no signage, there's no advertisements,
00:44:09 there's no gas stations, there's no billboards.
00:44:12 It passes right through downtown Jackson, Mississippi, where we are, or it's over here on our right.
00:44:18 But all they do is put up small little signs that say, you know, "Exit here for gas," "Exit here for hotels."
00:44:25 No advertising or anything along the way.
00:44:28 And it still historically ends in the town of Natchez, Mississippi, where we're headed.
00:44:33 With that, yeah, we'll follow the path of the Natchez Trace, but not necessarily exactly on--
00:44:43 Josh! Josh!
00:44:45 That's embarrassing, Josh.
00:44:47 [laughter]
00:44:54 [unclear]
00:45:02 So yeah, that's the route that we're following down to the Mississippi River.
00:45:06 And notice it will get a little less hilly as we get closer down here,
00:45:10 as we fall into the Mississippi Delta, this fresh farmland, in certain places.
00:45:16 All right, any questions?
00:45:19 No, that was great.
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01:02:22 This being the end of the...
01:02:26 the easy downhill... downriver travel,
01:02:32 what you'll find here is some of the old wooden homes and furniture
01:02:37 is built out of boats that came down the Mississippi River
01:02:41 or the Ohio and Tennessee rivers.
01:02:44 You know, they didn't have a way to get back up north,
01:02:47 so they would sell their boats down here pretty much for scrap wood,
01:02:50 and they would be turned into houses and furniture in this area.
01:02:56 [unclear]
01:02:59 Are these parts affected by the tornado?
01:03:12 Are these parts affected by the tornadoes? Yes.
01:03:15 There are tornadoes that come through here.
01:03:18 It used to be a rarity.
01:03:21 You've heard of Tornado Alley, probably.
01:03:24 Imagine the center part, Texas, Dallas.
01:03:27 From there north used to be Tornado Alley.
01:03:30 Over the last 15, 20 years, Tornado Alley has moved further east to this area.
01:03:37 So, there was a very bad tornado along the Natchez Trace Parkway just a few years ago.
01:03:45 The two largest natural disasters that have taken place in...
01:03:53 The trees are a little low, so we've got to go slow.
01:03:57 The two largest natural disasters that have affected Natchez are...
01:04:05 In 1811, there was a massive earthquake here.
01:04:09 It caused a lot of damage.
01:04:12 And then in 1927, I mentioned in Memphis,
01:04:15 there was the flood of the Mississippi River.
01:04:18 It's simply called the Great Flood.
01:04:21 The town was spared from most of the damage because, again, it's up on the bluff.
01:04:27 But everything around here, the low areas, that was all destroyed.
01:04:32 This is the...
01:04:38 Oh, not Catholic. What's above the Catholic Church?
01:04:41 The... No, it's still Catholic, but it's a higher level of...
01:04:46 Cathedral.
01:04:47 What's that? Basilica. Thank you.
01:04:49 It's the only basilica in Mississippi.
01:04:52 This is downtown Natchez that we're coming into, and it's a relatively small area.
01:05:05 Like most towns along the Mississippi, it's not connected.
01:05:09 So...
01:05:11 We'll hang out here for 10 or 15 minutes and take some photos.
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01:05:43 I can't see the ones at the very top, so everybody take a step or two down.
01:05:47 Two chin!
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01:05:57 One in the coach driver.
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01:15:12 I am such an old house freak, and I love this one.
01:15:22 I've loved it ever since I was a little kid.
01:15:24 It's called Stanton Hall, and it's in Natchez, Mississippi, on the banks of the Mississippi River.
01:15:29 Now, what I love about this house is it's a big classical house.
01:15:32 It's Greek Revival, very classical, but with an Italianate feel to it.
01:15:36 Now, what's interesting is that you can go around the corner here in this neighborhood, and you can see other houses that are earlier.
01:15:42 This was built in 1857 by Frederick Stanton, and they're houses that are maybe two decades earlier.
01:15:48 They're much more classical without a lot of the ornamentation, such as Choctaw and Cherokee.
01:15:53 Now, some of the decoration that takes this house beyond just being a classical Greek Revival house would be the side porch, as you see here.
01:16:01 You have a two-story side porch made of ornamental iron.
01:16:05 And if you'll look at the bay window, there are brackets, Italianate brackets that support the ceiling there.
01:16:10 And then here on the front, you would typically, in a classical house, have a balustrade made of spindles or balusters.
01:16:18 But what's being used here, of course, is this ornamental ironwork, which just puts that extra little touch on top of it.
01:16:29 Just look at the size of this hallway.
01:16:31 I mean, it's colossal.
01:16:33 This thing is almost 72 feet long, 16 feet wide, and almost 17 feet tall.
01:16:40 Now, what I love about this place is you could have a heck of a party here, and they certainly did.
01:16:44 In fact, this man, Frederick Stanton, is the guy who built it.
01:16:47 He wanted to create an ornament for Natchez.
01:16:49 What I find interesting about this house and many houses is that there's always a range of furniture style in a single house, which makes a lot of sense.
01:16:57 You think about it, a guy builds a big house like this, he's not gonna furnish every single room with new furniture.
01:17:03 They're gonna bring things that they have into the new house, and that's what they did here.
01:17:07 You see classical furniture here, like this pier table with a mirror below.
01:17:12 Why is there a mirror below?
01:17:13 Because in these big halls and rooms, they're always trying to reflect light, bringing light inside through the transoms and side lights around the doors.
01:17:21 If you look down the walls of the hall, you'll see classical chairs.
01:17:24 You'll also see Gothic revival, like these.
01:17:27 These are some of the originals that were in the house in 1857 when it was built.
01:17:41 Of course, over time, transitions occur, styles change, and Stanton Hall is a perfect example of this.
01:17:48 Take, for instance, the classical moldings we see here.
01:17:51 There's the egg and dart motif right at the top, the symbol of life and death.
01:17:56 And then there's that dental, that classical dental that goes around the room.
01:17:59 And then the surrounds around the mirror and the doors, you see that classic Greek honeysuckle motif.
01:18:06 But then, look at this arch.
01:18:07 This arch is, well, it's Italianate revival.
01:18:10 Look at those clusters of grapes and leaves.
01:18:13 It's becoming much more ornamental.
01:18:15 And look at this mantle.
01:18:17 It's filled with fruit and cherubs and all sorts of leaves and vines, very elaborate.
01:18:22 And if you move right on up, take a look at that mirror.
01:18:24 It's a very grand gesture.
01:18:26 And the window treatments themselves, loaded with tassels and fringe.
01:18:41 In the dining room, where there was much fun and banqueting going on, you had two sideboards.
01:18:46 One, a very clean-lined classical piece.
01:18:49 The other is Renaissance revival, much more elaborate.
01:18:52 And take a look at these two chandeliers, actually called gasoliers.
01:18:55 They were made by Cornelius and Company in the 1850s.
01:18:59 And they were called gasoliers because the flame that was held in that bowl was fueled by gas.
01:19:04 I love locally made furniture.
01:19:06 This table was made here in Natchez in 1837.
01:19:25 And when you come upstairs, you can see that the molding, the detailed architecture is really much more simple.
01:19:32 But there's still elements of transition.
01:19:34 You have the gasolier here, which also have these beautiful canopy beds from the 1820s and '30s.
01:19:40 Really, really quite extraordinary.
01:19:42 If you've enjoyed this little walk through time, make sure you subscribe to eHow Home.
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