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Friday, June 11, 2010

Rosalie Mansion

It's Saturday and it's time to show off favorites and go sightseeing!

Today as promised, I will show you more of the Rosalie Mansion in Natchez.I am also linking with Laurie of http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/

for A Few of My Favorite Things. Actually, what I am sharing with you are John's favorite Sevres egg collection. I am sure some of you have seen them before.

And here they are. I have them displayed on top of our home office wall cabinets.
Since they have pink flowers, they will also be my contribution for Beverly's Pink Saturday at
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/
The last 2 eggs are displayed in the formal living room.


If you follow my blog, you would know that the Mississippi Southern Belles had a get together here last weekend and we toured Rosalie. You can see the belles on top of the steps.
Rosalie was built by Peter Little in 1820. He was only 17 when he moved to Natchez in 1798. His grandfather, Col. Peter Little was George Washington's physician and was also a pallbearer at his funeral. He also has a relative representing Maryland in the US Congress. It was not clear what really brought Peter to Natchez.

He often took the ferry to cross the MS River to visit his properties in Louisiana and became friends with the ferryboat owner, Jacob Lowe. Jacob died of yellow fever and when his wife contracted the disease, she made Peter promise to take care of their daughter, Eliza. Peter did more than that. He married her when she was only 14 and sent her to school in Baltimore. She came back to Natchez very sophisticated and highly educated. Peter was 25 when he married her. They never had a child. Eliza found the Natchez Children's Home so even if they had no children of their own, many of the children found a loving home at Rosalie.

Peter died 3 years after Eliza died of yellow fever. He left a will leaving everything to his wife but since his wife died before him, the state took over and auctioned everything.
In 1857, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Wilson bought the house. They never had any children of their own either but adopted Fannie McMurtry when her parents died. The Wilsons were able to recover many of the original furnishings of the house and brought them back from the auctions.
Fannie married
Capt. Stephen Rumble and changed the life at Rosalie because they had 6 children. who were all born there. One of their daughters, Miss Annie, sold Rosalie to the Miss. State Society DAR to which it still belongs now, for $14,000 with a stipulation that she and her still surviving sister then, Miss Rebecca, continue to live there while they gave daily tours. Miss Annie died in 1958.
One thing that attracted me to this house are the gorgeous chandeliers. They used to be gasoliers and were eventually converted to electricity.

Here is Peter Little's portrait.


And this is Eliza.






They did not have bathrooms in the olden days so they used potty boxes. Do you see it by the window there?


Sorry for the pictures being dark. We were not allowed to use flash. I appreciated being allowed to take pictures because most of the other antebellum home tours do not allow it.

Most of the furniture in the entire house are original to the house.




These 2 adjoining rooms are the gentlemen and ladies parlors. The musical instruments except for the huge piano on the left are in the ladies' parlor. There is a smaller piano there too though. Can you spot Lady Katherine and Vickie's reflections in the mirror?

This has got to be my favorite room, which is the children's room. The portrait above the fireplace is Fannie's and Capt. Rumble's 6 children. Some of them did not make it to adulthood. The boy died falling from the stairs.

I love the doll furniture. They even have a tablescape on the table, lol.


Here is the dining room. The dinnerware is an Old Paris set, no markings underneath. The silver punch bowl on the top right of the mosaic was a gift from USS Alabama, if I remembered correctly. Mississippi belles, correct me if I am wrong please!


There were lots of dolls displayed in 2 cabinets.


Below is Fannie's bedroom. Miss Fannie is a very good artist/painter and the painting above the fireplace was her favorite painting. A lot of her paintings are displayed all throughout the walls in the house. She stopped painting after she got married.



And this is Miss Annie's bedroom. That's Miss Annie in the portrait. When she was younger, she was in love with a gentleman but her parents would not allow them to marry. He must have been a commoner. They went on their own ways, the guy moved away and got married to someone else and had a family but when his wife died, he came back to Natchez, looked for Miss Annie and they got married. She was in her 60's then.
Notice the shelf on the side of the bed? It is for kneeling to say a prayer before bedtime. I thought it was a step for climbing the bed.

After the tour, we went down through the steps in the back porch. There's D!



The bell was also from the USS Alabama (again, I think that's what it is). This is the back yard.


I hope you all enjoyed the tour of this antebellum mansion. BTW, for those who do not know what antebellum means, it means "before the civil war". So, these houses have to have been built before 1861 to qualify. Thank you so much for coming by.
Now, let's go visit Laurie and Beverly and their participants!

23 comments:

  1. Hi C, everytime I see John's eggs I gasp!!They are beyond anything I have ever seen. The word magnificient comes to mind!! I never get tired of seeign them. What a fun tour for your group to go to. I loved being able to see this glorious home. I have never been to that part of the country, I think it needs to go on my travel list. Thanks for the grand tour, loved it, Hugs Kathysue

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  2. Loved the tour and the history of the beautiful home - Thank you.
    I always enjoy visiting your blog - I feel I have learned something when I leave - and that is a good thing. :-D

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  3. Christine, thank you for sharing these wonderful photos. I feel like I was along on this little trip. :-)

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  4. wow Christine, these are amazing pictures. I LOVED this post.. thank you

    Sonny

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  5. lovely pics and story, you tell it so well...and thanks for teaching me what antebellum meant, i didnt know..
    thank you christine and have a great weekend.

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  6. You must have had a wonderful time, such an interesting history with this house. I love it that you could share pictures with us!

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  7. Greetings! I thoroughly enjoyed your tour - the pictures were great and you made it so interesting! And don't you love the gorgeous aqua blue French dishes in the home? Wow...
    Thanks for sharing!
    Best regards,
    Gloria

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  8. Fun tour Christine!
    I love these kind of tours, I could go on one every week!
    There was a lot of tragedy in these families, kind of sad.
    Hugs, Cindy

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  9. Oh, just beautiful Christine! thanks for sharing your get together with us!

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  10. What a beautiful and interesting tour Christine. Such a gorgeous home, I bet the gardens are amazing. The herringbone brick is so pretty. This looks like such a fun day! Kathy

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  11. Oh Christine, John's eggs still amaze me when I see them. They are something like you'd see in a fabulous museum. How wonderful to have a husband who appreciates and collects such wonderful treasures! The home tour was wonderful. When I was looking at your pictures, I was thinking that I had never been on one of these tours where they allowed picture-taking. How great that they let you take pictures at this one. I love the story about the true love returning to marry his first love. How tragic to lose a child from a fall down the stairs! Looks like you picked a great house for the M.B. to tour. Thank you for linking up to Fav. Things. laurie

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  12. What a lovely tour. I wish I could have seen it all in person. Just beautiful. Happy Pink Saturday, Char

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  13. Thanks for giving us a "tour" it feels like i was there with you and your friends. Keep us posted, have a lovely saturday.

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  14. Stunning! I was wondering at first how you where allowed to take the pictures...that is great they let you...wonderful photos.

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  15. What a great post, thank you for sharing! Happy Pink Saturday!! Esther XX

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  16. Christine,

    What a great post about a wonderful mansion. Beautiful pictures.

    Carol

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  17. I'm taking a little time, this morning to catch up. I'm so happy I stopped by. I enjoyed the tour so much. What a gorgeous place. Thank yoy for sharing the tour, Christine.

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  18. Ohhhhhhhhhh, happy sigh...

    Thank you so much for the tour. The photos and the story to go with them. Thank you so much.

    I'd love to be able to visit such a place.

    Gentle hugs..

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  19. What a gorgeous home. It's one that we missed when we were touring there 3 years ago. Thanks for sharing. Woohoo!! You got your Secret Garden sign! It's beautiful and so perfect. Stay cool!

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  20. Oops, I just realized I posted for this one on the post below! Love this, Christine!

    XO,

    Sheila :-)

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  21. Christine,
    Great post! You did such a great job on the history of the house. I'm impressed. Your pictures are great, too. Thanks!

    D

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  22. The Sevres eggs are breathtaking to look at. John has a nice collection! I love this shade of blue.

    Your tour was spectacular. You could give the tours yourself...you make each home so interesting! Some of the family stories are sad but I am sure there was a lot of happiness in Rosalie as well, especially when there were children there! A lot of laughter.

    Thanks for this interesting post, Christine!

    xoxo
    Janie

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  23. what a beautiful tour, and I'm not even tired :) I love all the history behind it.

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