Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi)

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, and is still owned and occupied by the descendants of the builder.

Lansdowne
Location17 Marshall Road, Natchez, Mississippi
Coordinates31°35′5.2″N 91°21′42.8″W
Area120 acres (49 ha)
Built1853 (1853)
Architectural styleGreek Revival
NRHP reference No.78001581[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 24, 1978

Location

Lansdowne is located on M.L. King, Jr. Road, one mile north of the Natchez city limits (The driveway into the plantation is now known as Marshall Road).[2]

History
The name "Geo Marshall" on this map just above and to the right of the city of Natchez - between the name Balfour and a Pond along the road - is where Lansdowne is located. The Marshalls also owned Wilderness Plantation, which is where the word "Pond" is on the map just to the north of the name "Geo Marshall"
Portrait of George Matthews Marshall, ca. 1855, by Louis Joseph Bahin

George Matthews Marshall, a Princeton University graduate, and his new bride Charlotte Hunt built the mansion on 727 acres previously known as the 'Ivy Tract' 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 enslaved Africans on Lansdowne; and his Louisiana plantation, valued at $119,000, had 104 enslaved Africans. [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 enslaved Africans 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 enslaved African 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
Lansdowne, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1938

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 north dependency building at Lansdowne Plantation in 1938. This building was originally built as a kitchen and wash room on the ground floor and house servants' quarters on the top floor. When servants were no longer needed, the rooms were converted to living space for the property owners.

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]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Lansdowne, Spring Pilgrimage 2013 - a special publication of The Natchez Democtat, North Canal Street, Natchez, MS
  3. Cole, Regina. "Plantation Classic". Old House Interiors. 1, No. 4 (Winter 1995): 68–73.
  4. Caroline Seebohm, Enshrining the Old South, The New York Times, February 10, 1991
  5. Official website: History
  6. Helen Kerr Kempe, The Pelican Guide to Old Homes of Mississippi: Natchez and the South, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1989, p. 52
  7. Van Court, Catherine (1937). In Old Natchez. Doubleday. pp. 53–55.
  8. Kane, Harnett T. Natchez on the Mississippi (1947 ed.). New York: Bonanza Books. pp. 174–189.
  9. Caroline Seebohm and Peter Woloszynski, Under Live Oaks, Clarkson Potter: New York, 2002, pp 144 - 157
  10. "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 978-0557091690. 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. 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. Howard, Hugh (2003). Natchez: the Houses and History of the Jewel of the Mississippi. New York: Rizzoli. pp. 137–141.
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