House Tour: Grand Antebellum Mansion, Stanton Hall

Today we're bringing you a peek behind the curtain at breathtaking Stanton Hall. Welcome back to Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin. We're back in glorious Natchez, Mississippi. We have a spectacular surprise for you today. We're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at Stanton Hall, the jewel of Natchez, Mississippi. It was this home and the ladies of the Pilgrimage Garden Club who in the 1930s started the renaissance of this incredible city. The acquired this beautiful property and subsequently restored it to the glory you're going to see today and they've maintained it for decades. This home is open for tours daily 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. Welcome to Stanton Hall. I'm Judy and I want you to enjoy this beautiful home today. It's owned today by the Pilgrimage Garden Club and you will learn a little bit more about the original owners as we get inside but the property here is a city block and the trees are beautiful and the Corinthian columns here made from pie shaped brick and mortar and I'd like to welcome you to come and see Stanton Hall. It's one of the largest completed mansions in Natchez. All right come right in. As we come in here you'll notice we have a 72 by 16 foot hallway. There's 1100 square feet right here in the hall. Stanton Hall has a total of 14,000 square feet and as you tour the house today you're going to see a lot of original furniture. All of the furniture in the house is not original but it is period and there are no reproductions of furnishings but reproductions of fabrics. As we continue in this hallway we're going to go and I'm going to introduce you to the original owners and the gentleman here is Frederick Stanton. He's the gentleman that built the house. He was one of the richest men here in Natchez. He had got his money from cotton. He was from Belfast, Ireland and the little wife of his was from Versailles, Kentucky and Mr. Stanton sadly though he only got to live in this house nine months. He passed away from liver complications from yellow fever. This is the gentleman's parlor we're standing in right now and behind us back here is the ladies parlor. The carvings over the doors, the inset mirrors, the windows, the arches, all of that is carved cypress. This carpet is a recreation of an 1850 Natchez pattern and you know they had full carpet on the floor wall-to-wall carpet when the Stantons were here but it was only 27 inches wide and you could buy it as long as you'd like to but they would roll it up whenever they had a party and polish the pine floors and use this as an overflow for dancing out in the hall and in the parlor here. The fireplaces are white Italian Carrara marble and they were sculptured in New York. All of them down here used coal when the Stantons were here but today we have central heat and air in the house. We have two original pieces of furniture in here. The chair in the corner here was Mr. Stanton's chair and there's a solid red chair in the ladies parlor that was Mrs. Stanton's chair. Now I'm going to take you over across the hallway to Mr. Stanton's office and library and we have his original furniture in there. Welcome to the library. This was Mr. Stanton's office and library and you know sad but he only got to use it nine months because he wasn't he didn't live here long enough but some really neat furniture in here. The desk, the bookcase here, the desk chair, the four side chairs original to Mr. Stanton. Renaissance revival is the style of this furniture. This gasolier is original to the house. They're all the way through the house. They're called gasoliers because they operated by coke gas when the Stantons were here. This one is probably the most unique one. It represents power. There's knights with spears at the top then you have dragon heads and pretty much any kind of weapon up under there that you want to name. It happened what all of you have been asking for for so long. I have become a lady thanks to Established Titles, an incredible organization out of Scotland that gives you the opportunity to officially change your name to either lady or lair. It goes back to the ancient Scottish tradition of landowners in Scotland using the titles of lady or lord or laird. Established Titles allows you to buy at minimum one square foot of land in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. They also will plant a tree in your honor with each purchase and give you an official spot number. Best of all you can officially change your name to lady or laird. It makes an amazing last minute gift. Established Titles is actually running a massive early Black Friday sale right now. Plus if you use code restoration you get an additional 10% off. Go to establishedtitles.com slash restoration to get your gifts now and help support our channel. The first 200 people purchasing a title using our link will effectively be next to my plot within a few minutes of walking distance. We can create our own little restoration nation kingdom. Established Titles is a fun and novel way to preserve the natural woodlands of Scotland while helping global reforestation efforts. Its land is on a private estate in Eddleston, Scotland. They work with global charities One Tree Planted and Trees for the Future to support global reforestation efforts. Do yourself a favor. Do something magical for yourself or your loved one today. If you're like me and you find gift giving impossible because all of your friends and family already have everything that they need or want because they buy it for themselves, make them something special today. Make them a lord or a lady with Established Titles. This dining room is 35 by 22. It's the largest one in Natchez and we have three pieces of original furniture. The table and the two sideboards. The table and the sideboard here we've had back about two and a half maybe three years and this sideboard was actually made to hold the table leaves. When it's completely put together this table seats 24. Now the sideboard at the far end down here the garden club received it back in 2001. We also got back 70 pieces of Mrs. Stanton's old Paris porcelain china and old Paris is hand painted. There are no two pieces identical. They're similar but not identical. Now I'd like to direct your attention to the lighting in here. The gasoliers. The gasoliers in here reflect the American Indian culture. There's a nest with an eagle. Then you have your stalks of corn. Your Indians and the arms that hold the globes represent those beautiful oak trees out on the property. This staircase is built into the wall. 54 steps built into the wall all the way up and this is Honduran mahogany. So we're going up now to the bedroom level. We're going to see six beautiful bedrooms upstairs. Welcome to the upstairs. This is where the Stanton's spent most of their living time. The height of this level is 14 feet and the doors are nine feet. Now there's six beautiful bedrooms up here. The linen press here is original to the house. The Stanton's used for linens, tablecloths, and sheets and things like that. Now on this side of the hall are the children's rooms. The Stanton's were behind me back here. The wallpaper up here is by Zoubert. It's a French wallpaper company and the pattern is Hindustan and it reflects fact and fantasy of India. This is a beautiful wallpaper. It was put up by the garden club in the 1940s. All the walls were white when the Stanton's lived here in the house. Now this gasoleer, the garden club found it downstairs in the cellar when they bought the house and they think that it came from the old bathing chamber which was located off of the back porch. The garden club did purchase the house though in 1938. So they've had it for a very long time and done a wonderful job in here. This was the 14 year old daughter's room and there are two original pieces in here. They are located on the left over here by the sewing table. Those belong to the Stanton's. Now the gasoleer in here has cupids with bows and arrows, something that a lady or a girl would like. This was Mrs. Stanton's bedroom and we have some original pieces of furniture in here. We have her dressing table is original and we have two chairs beside the fireplace. Now this is a feather bed. This is the only feather bed that we have in the house but it is just period. It dates 1820. This room was called a fair weather sitting room and the reason why is because if you notice there's no fireplace in here. Well the Stanton's when they were here had a table for meals, a game table and maybe a sofa. The garden club did bed and breakfast after they had purchased the house and they put the beds in here. But you know if you notice this is the east side of the house and the sun does come in the window really nice in the morning so it would keep it fairly warm. This was Mr. Stanton's bedroom. We have just 1860 furniture in here. We had north and south filmed in Stanton Hall and Patrick Swayze stayed in Mr. Stanton's room while they were filming the movie and many years before General Douglas MacArthur and his wife stayed in here. They were in Natchez in March of 1952 for spring pilgrimage. We're in one of the boys rooms right now and all the furniture in here is original to the Stanton's and I would like to point out the beautiful fireplaces up here. These are black Italian marble put putoro marble and you actually saw the white ones downstairs but they have the black up here. This was the other boys room. The bed is not original it is period though and it was it's made of mahogany and it was done by a gentleman named Charles Lee from Manchester, Massachusetts. It's a half teaster half canopy is what they call it or the reason why is because they had have something at the top to hook mosquito nets to. We hope you've enjoyed this behind the scenes look at Stanton Hall. You got to cross the velvet rope today with us and take a look at all of the details up close and in person. Now we want to invite you to Natchez, Mississippi to see Stanton Hall in person. You got just a little taste of what this beautiful treasure holds. There are so many more mysteries to be discovered stories to be told here that you can only learn by coming to Stanton Hall. Stanton Hall is a do not miss on your Natchez getaway. It can be your starting point or I'd suggest maybe your ending point to a beautiful getaway weekend here in Natchez, Mississippi. So come see us enjoy the southern hospitality that you can only find here in Natchez, Mississippi and do not miss a tour of this breathtaking monument Stanton Hall. Thank you so much to the ladies of the Pilgrimage Garden Club for allowing us this behind the scenes access and we'll see you next time on Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin.