Natchez is the oldest city on the Mississippi River known for
its mansions. Before Mississippi was acquired by the US in the Revolutionary War,
Natchez was the capital of the territory of Mississippi. This hop on hop off tour
had a few more stops on its itinerary than yesterdays. There were more markets,
boutiques and antique stores. The Rosalie Mansion, Magnolia Hall and Stanton Hall
were a few of the places on the tour.
The Rosalie Mansion is a 3-story brick mansion built in 1823
by Peter Little that inspired the designs of many other Greek Revival mansions
and helped shape Antebellum architecture. In 1863 the mansion was the main
headquarters for Walter Gresham and the Union during the Civil War.
Magnolia Hall is a Greek Revival mansion built in 1858 by
Thomas Henderson and is one of the last mansions to be built before the Civil War.
The exterior of the house was constructed to resemble brownstone which was very
prestigious at the time. It’s actually stucco layered over brick. This mansion is
known for its costume collection and the Parterre Garden on the grounds is a
must see.
Stanton Hall is a 2-story mansion that takes up a whole 2-acre
city block. This hall was built in 1851 by Frederick Stanton and is a replica
of his home in Ireland. Fredrick died of yellow fever 6 months after it’s
completion. This was supposed to be his dream and spared no expense in making
it so. These guys were that “indoor plumbing” rich that I talked about in my other
blog post. Fredrick Stanton was a cotton broker. The interior of Stanton Hall
is elaborately decorated with marble, wall-to-wall carpet, giant mirrors and gasoliers
made of brass and gold. The interior was used for the mini-series, North and
South with Patrick Swayze.
After we completed our hop-on-hop off tour we went back to
the ship for lunch and headed out to a few of the stops that we skipped the
first time around.
We finally made it to the specialty restaurant today. It wasn’t
much different than the regular sit down restaurant. The food they served was
just a different variation on the food in the sit down restaurant with better
wine.
The entertainment headliner tonight was Henry Rhodes who
performed mainly blue tunes with a couple of Christmas songs sprinkled in. He
started out with Got My Whiskey, On My Way, The Thrill Is Gone, I’ll Play the
Blues for You, Down Home Blues, Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Hole In The Wall,
Let’s Straighten It Out and ended with Superstition. After he came back out for
an encore and performed A Real Mother For Ya.
We didn’t do anything after the show… Just went to bed. Tomorrow
we continue along the Mississippi River to Vicksburg.
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