Natchez, MS. 3/20/2014

On the road again Thursday March 20

 Melrose is a 15,000 square feet mansion in Natchez, MS.  This is a National Historic Site.

The Mansion is under renovation.  The pillars are brick covered with stucco.

Bricks under stucco.

Left: dairy & laundry building, center: the back of the mansion,  right: kitchen.

Front view of laundry and dairy (where cheese & butter were made & dairy items stored) building.

Cistern

Entry of the mansion.  Replica of the original flooring is in the corner.

The finest of everything...24 karst gold on valence, even the wallpaper.

Huge pocket doors.  The ceiling is 14 feet+.

One of a kind "game table and chairs."  They are connected at the bottom but can be detached.

Huge punkka over the dining room table.

Exclusive china.

The hall between the sitting room, ladies room, library and dining room.

Ladies  room.

Library

Master bedroom

Son's bedroom.

Wallpaper of the son's bedroom.  It was redecorated for him and his bride,  the new wife felt so at home because of the soft decor.

The daughter's room.

Chidlren's room

Hall on second floor.  also called family room.

St Mary's Basilica

William T. Johnson (1809-June 17, 1851) was a free African American barber, who lived in Natchez, Mississippi.  His home is a National Historic Site.

Johnson was born into slavery, but his slaveholder  emancipated him in 1820. 

He was a barber in Port Gibson, Mississippi. He also was a successful entrepreneur with a  bath house, bookstore and land holdings. His diary of 16 years recounts his daily activities giving insights to events in 1835 to 1851.  Johnson spent free time enjoying hunting and fishing trips, buying and selling goods at local auctions, gambling at horse races, and raising his family.  Anecdotes of parades, fires, natural disasters, and political rallies nestle among the humdrum accounts of business and jottings of daily events.

 Traveling the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway.  

If roads could share their stories, few would have a better tale to tell than the Natchez Trace Parkway. Stretching diagonally from the Mississippi River into the Tennessee Valley, this 8,000-year-old pathway has felt the tread of early Indians, marching armies, intrepid pioneers, and Spanish conquistadors. 50 mph speed limit and lack of commercial traffic make for a wonderfully lazy Southern sojourn.  We traveled the length 3 years ago (to the week) so didn't make many historic stops.

The Windsor Ruins, at Port Gibson are stark and skeletal testimony to what was once the grandest antebellum home in Mississippi.

23 of columns remain.  The columns were 45 feet in height.

The mansion survived the Civil War but was destroyed by fire in 1890.

Plaster and mortar over the bricks.

Over 25 rooms, each with its own fireplace

Just amazing.

 Kudzu vines over the ground and trees.

We dry camped at Rocky Spring Campground along the Natchez Trace Parkway.  Chatted with others staying here:  a couple from Germany,  one from Los Angelos, but originally from Finland and 

a couple from Ontario.  There were about 15 RV's.