Prior to the start of the American Civil War, the Mississippi town of Natchez had more millionaires per ca pita than any other American city, including New York. Since its founding in the 1700, Natchez farmers took advantage of the fertile soil and abundant rain to build wealth by planting wheat, fodder, tobacco and indigo. However, real wealth came to Natchez at the end of the 18th century, thanks to a new crop, cotton.
For perspective, in 1794 the cotton harvest of Natchez amounted to fewer than forty thousands pounds, within five years, Natchez was exporting three MILLION pounds of cotton a year. The first of Eli Whitney's cotton gins had arrive in 1795, which made cotton production more efficient, thus increasing the amount of cotton a plantation could produce. The inauguration of steamship service meant the cotton could get to market quicker and there was a worldwide demand for cotton and cotton goods, driven by explosive industrial growth that made the perfect storm for the coming prosperity boom of Natchez.
Of course all of this was done on the backs of slave labor, and the increased wealth and opulence of the upper crust of Natchez society, was underpinned by the peculiar institution of slavery. No matter how uncomfortable this makes us today, at the time there was no moral taint for being a slaveholder in Natchez, and anyone who held wealth in town could not have built it without slave labor. With that background, we come to our main character, Haller Nutt.
Haller Nutt occupied the upper crust of Natchez society, along with his wife Julia, who had actually grown up in Natchez. Haller was considered a "scientific farmer" and he and his father had both developed varieties of cotton seed well adapted to Natchez climate. Haller's vast land holdings included five plantations, 3 in Louisiana and 2 in Mississippi, along with 800 slaves to work his more than 40,000 acres.
On Christmas Eve 1859, Haller Nutt penned a letter to architect Samuel Sloan, of Philadelphia. Haller states that he feels the time has come for him to build his Natchez mansion. Haller and Julia want Sloan to reconfigure his plan number forty nine from his 1853 pattern book to accommodate them and their 7 soon to be 8 children ranging in age from 1 - 18 years. The house was to built on 90 acres of land known as "Longwood" which Haller had purchased 10 years earlier as a gift for Julia.
Their home would stand out not only for it's grand scale, but also style. Recently built mansions in Natchez were of the Iconic or Corinthian style, but their home would feature Italianate and Moorish elements. The plan for the main floor called for four feature rooms measuring 20 x 34 ft, and four more measuring 18x24 ft, and four large verandas. The most impressive spaces was the rotunda at the core, 24 ft across, the space would soar 6 stories.
Sloan, Haller and Julia all thought on a grandscale for every detail of the house. Specifications call for 115 doors, 125 windows (some 11 ft tall), 26 fireplaces, 24 closets, and dozens of gaslight fixtures.
At first construction progressed quickly. As a crew dismantled an existing home on the property and dug a mammoth new cellar hole (all by man power if you can imagine) a team of fifteen men and eight boys made the bricks onsite. Guided by four masons that Sloan sent from Philadelphia, the laborers began constructing the 27 in thick walls.
That autumn the mill work arrived from Philadelphia. The shipment included more than a hundred columns and pilasters, as well as brackets, door frames and almost two miles of molding. The walls at Longwood rose steadily, and the trim was being applied like frosting to a layer cake as Mississippi withdrew from the Union on January 9, 1861. The four masons only worked until March, when with the masonry shell nearly complete but war looming, they headed north. Though master carpenter Smith worked on, along with a tinner from Philadelphia who arrives to apply the roof and complete the buildings envelope, the last northern workers left for good in September.
Relying on his slaves and local artisans, Nutt managed over that winter to plaster and complete the interior finish on the basement level, allowing him and his family to occupy that space. However, the basement floor would be the only floor ever fully completed at Longwood, before Civil War brought death and destitution to the Nutt family.
The shell of the house would survive the Civil War, but Haller Nutt and his fortune would not. Although Haller Nutt was a Southerner, and also a supporter of the Union, his losses would come from both the Union and Confederate armies. His plantations, warehouses and other possessions were either confiscated or destroyed. (If I remember correctly from the tour he had millions of dollars worth of cotton ready to ship in New Orleans just before it was captured by the Union army. In their retreat the Confederate army burned all cotton in New Orleans to keep it from falling into Union hands, causing millions of dollars of Haller Nutt's fortune to literally go up in flames). And despite having protection from General Grant, the Union army was just as destructive to his properties. In June of 1864, at the age of only 48, Haller Nutt contracted pneumonia and died.
However, according to testimony given by Julia in the postwar years, while trying to gain reparation for her family's losses during the war: "On June 16, 1864 I buried my husband. He had gone to Vicksburg on private and public business, and was much exposed, and taking pneumonia died suddenly. It was not pneumonia that killed him. The doctor said it was not. It was his troubles. Three million dollars worth of property swept away; the labor of a lifetime gone, large debts incurred by the War, pressing on him, and his helpless wife, with either children and two other families looking to him for support. All were reared in the lap of luxury and now utter poverty stood before them. This crushed him and he died"
After the war, Julia and her children would occupy the basement of the unfinished mansion. Julia would sell land and other holdings to be able to hold onto Longwood. On the tour, we were told that she often sold various fruits, such as apples, and other items grown on the grounds in town to try and scrape by in the years after the war. I can only imagine what a shock her new life must have seemed to Julia. In a span of less than 5 years, she went from being the wife of one of the wealthiest members of Natchez Society, building their dream home where cost was of no concern, to being a widow, living in the basement of her unfinished mansion, trying to scrape enough money together to feed her 8 children. Three generations of the Nutt family would occupy the basement floor of the house, until 1968. In 1970, the house is presented to the Pilgrimage Garden Club of Natchez and it would be turned into a national historic landmark, and open to the public for tours.
Today, the house is open to the public for tours, and is operated by the Pilgrimage Garden Club. When you arrive for a tour, you will purchase your tickets, and then be guided into the house by a tour guide. The tour lasts approximately 45 min and takes you through the basement and the main floor. You will want to make sure and give yourself extra time to wander the grounds, and spend time on the porches of the house. The exterior of the home is absolutely breathtaking, and deserves as much attention as the interior of the house.
Even if you have been on a million historic house tours, you CAN NOT miss this one. This one is unlike any other in the country. It is hard to describe the sadness and loss that permeates the house. it feels as if the entire house longs to be completed, to be covered in the beauty and happiness with which it was intended. It almost feels as if the ghosts of an era gone by, and what might have been, lurk in the home. Even in it's unfinished state, the house does not fails to impress, so you can only dream how jaw dropping it would have been had it ever been finished. The most impressive area of the house is the main rotunda, which is open all 6 floors to the dome top. Intended to have a large chandelier hanging, and using a system of mirrors to reflect the light down, the dome was truly designed to impress.
No matter how hard you try, you simply can't imagine the true opulence and grandeur that was intended for the home, and seeing the dust covered bones of what might have been, gives you a feeling of loss that you will never see the true beauty of the home. And if you have that feeling after just walking into the house, imagine how Haller and Julia felt as they watched their opulent way of life and dreams go up in smoke, and how heart wrenching it must have been for Julia to daily live in the basement of the home that when construction had begun, held so much promise and excitement, and now was simply a painful reminder of her former life, and how her life had irrevocably changed forever. In a book I own that talks about the house it is said "Although the site bears a formal designation as a National Historic Landmark, Longwood, a place of personal heartbreak with its share of unquiet ghosts, become something more too: an architectural metaphor of a historic moment when the rules changed."
Many of the pieces intended for the house can still be seen throughout the house. You can even see boxes marked with "Julia Nutt, Natchez Mississppi" scattered through the house. The Nutt's had intended to furnish their house with the best, and had sourced many pieces from European before the outbreak of the war. Once the war broke out, trying to get the pieces through the Union blockade proved almost impossible, and it is rumored that many pieces were confiscated and given to museums. In fact, as railroad shipments from the north were out of the question during the Civil War, and the suite of furniture intended for the Nutt's drawing room, is instead sold to railroad magnate Asa Packer and can be found today in the parlor of his mansion in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Much of the furniture that is in the basement area of the home is original to the Nutt family and the house.
If you wish to plan your own trip to see this must see house in person, you can use this link to visit the website for the Natchez Pilgrimage Garden Club for tour information, time & tickets. https://natchezpilgrimage.com/
If you want to read more about Longwood, I would highly recommend the book Houses of Civil War America. If you wish to read more about the fall of Southern Society, I would highly recommend "Fall of the House of Dixie." Both books can be purchased using the links below.
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