HISTORY & ARCHITECTURE
of Sweet Home Plantation

Sweet Home Plantation was once a 1,000 acre cotton plantation, of which we now own 100 acres. The house was built in 1840 and retains all of the original windows, hardware, mantles, and flooring, and a lot of the original furniture. The front porch, you notice, is painted with a sky blue ceiling. This was done for a couple of reasons. One being that on a hot summer day the blue was sky-like in appearance, cool to the eye, and also insects interpret it as the sky and they tend not to land on it, but to fly away and not build their nests.

The Grounds

We see on the grounds, to the left of the house as you face it, two graves. These are the graves of the builders of the home. Their names were James and Lany Story. She died in 1850 and was buried in a churchyard about a mile from here. The servants were convinced she was haunting the house and would refuse to go in it. They said they could hear her voice, hear her footsteps, things were flying off the walls, doors were slamming, etc. They convinced him to dig her up and bury her outside of what was then her bedroom. He died in 1867 and was buried beside her.

The orchard beyond the small gazebo includes apples and pears. Behind the house we see the original kitchen and a surviving slave cabin. Behind the slave cabin we see an old smoke house. The tree acre lake is full of trophy large-mouth bass and bream. The yard has a collection of fragrant, blooming plants, which include old fashion Banana Shrub, old fashion Wisteria, old fashion Gardenias, Tea Olive, and Verbena. There are also approximately 40 Camellias, several large southern Magnolias along the boxwood garden. Beyond is the guesthouse. Behind it is another surviving slave cabin.

Hallway

The hallway is typical of the Greek revival architecture in that we have thirteen-foot ceilings and an uninterrupted space through to the back door for ventilation. The hallway is thirteen feet across. As I said before, there are thirteen-foot ceilings and the length is three times thirteen or, thirty-nine feet. There are thirteen panes around the front window. This number thirteen, as architectural historians will tell us, is found a lot in antebellum architecture. In 1840 people were still flush with independence and would often incorporate this number into architecture and into furniture. Another reason, being that in the 19th century the Masons were a very powerful organization and thirteen is one of the magic numbers of the Masonic rite. Also, the ancient Greek rules of architecture involved the number thirteen in ways that I do not understand.

You notice, on your left as you come in, a side board that is southern made and from South Carolina and dates from about 1820. It is made of cherry, walnut and maple. It is remarkable in that it is a really wonderful piece of high-style , frontier furniture making. It comes from Anderson County, South Carolina. Above the side board we see a portrait by Mr. Thomas Sully, of a yet unidentified man. The painting is dated 1833. All that is known about him is that he was a Maryland planter. It has been recommended that we submit the photographs of this man to museums in Maryland in hopes that he could be indentified. Thomas Sully painted most of the important figures throughout the first half of the 19th century, including Presidents, Ambassadors, people of great wealth, etc.

On the opposite side of the room is a side board made by Joseph Meeks approximately in 1830. Joseph Meeks was a prominent New York furniture maker who had warehouses in Louisiana and much of his furniture migrated into the deep south from Louisiana. This piece was bought from a plantation in Nachez, Mississippi called Richland.

The secretary we see was made by Joseph Barry in approximately 1815. For one hundred and sixty or seventy-five years it was in the Presbyterian Manse in Savannah, Georgia. President Wilson’s father had been the minister there, and there were photographs of President Wilson signing his wedding book on this piece of furniture. Historic Savannah is considering doing a furniture collection, and has photographed and measured this piece for possible inclusion into their historic Savannah furniture collection.

Further down the hall, on the right, we see a walnut hunt board. These hunt boards are purely southern pieces and were called hunt boards in that they could be carried into the fields by servants. Men could stand at it and eat their meals, or perhaps, reach off of a horse and take nourishment. They are now very highly collectible. This was found in Alabama but probably predates the state of Alabama and probably originated in the Carolinas or in Georgia. It dates to approximately 1820.

Across from the hunt board we see perhaps the oldest piece of furniture in the house. For want of a better word, we call it a press. It is made of poplar and walnut and is a Virginia piece dating from 1770’s. It was made by Jacob Boone, who was Daniel Boone’s first cousin, in Boones Mill, Virginia. Sitting on top of the press is some stuff birds. They are all American birds and they date from the 19th century and were obtained from a plantation estate in Meriwether County. They date from about 1850-70.

They cherry sofa in the hallway comes from a north Alabama estate and dates from the 1820’s. The portraits above the sofa are of a 19th century Virginia couple. They were purchased out of a Savannah, Georgia estate.

Parlor

The old Paris vases on the mantle, which date from about 1850, were a gift from a patient whose family had a home in Greenville, Alabama. By “old Paris” we mean porcelains that were made in factories around Paris dating from 1790’s to about 1900. Many of the factories had no names but their wares are readily recognizable. Many times the women of the houses here on the frontier wanted something fancy and as far as they were concerned anything from France was fancy, and therefore, these types of vases found themselves into these homes. They were regularly sold out of the shops primarily in Louisiana. There is much old Paris in this house. You will probably find pieces in most of the rooms.

The two marble-top table you see on either side of the door into the dining room are called pier tables and are original to the house. They have mirrors below which are commonly referred to as petticoat mirrors as women perhaps checked their petticoats from below. In reality, however, these mirrors were a 19th century way of expanding light in rooms which, prior to electricity, was at such a premium. That’s why we see lustres and crystals on light fixtures, and such things as the large mirror on the mantle. The center table is also marble-topped with white marble. Marble was fashionable in southern homes as it was always cool to the touch, even on the hottest day, and white marble was always cooling to the eye. You might notice the 19th century lithographs of Martha and George Washington over the mantle which were common in the 19th century homes and also some heroes of our Confederacy including Alexander Stephens and Robert E. Lee. The small painted portrait of a gentleman between the two windows in the corner is of Judah Benjamin who was Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederacy. He was from Louisiana and when New Orleans was captured, early in the war, he sent his sisters north to LaGrange, Georgia where they remained the rest of their lives. They were Jewish and, at the time, there was a sizeable Jewish community in LaGrange.

Dining Room

In the dining room we see a large, empire, pedestal-based tablet that with its three additional leaves extends to twelve feet. It dates from the 1840-1850 period. It is original to the house. Over the mantle a large double elephant, hand-colored print of Audubon’s “Wild Turkey” which was a gift to the owners when the house was first purchased. We see a cherry side board which dates from about 1810 to 1815 which was plantation made on the plantation of Governor Issac Shelby who was the first Governor of Kentucky. We see also in the room, between the windows, a cherry Hipple-White chest of drawers which dates from about 1790 to 1800. this was a family piece that was bought by one of the owners from Kentucky. We also note a Kentucky cherry Jackson press circa 1830 which hold gold and white old Paris china.

The cockatoos on the mantle of the dining room are porcelain copies of ones that are found at Cherokee Plantation in Natches, Mississippi. We see above the side board hand-colored Indian prints that date from the 1830’s –1840’s. these were printed by McKinney and Hall who were printers in Philadelphia at that time. We notice some of the Chiefs are wearing metals of George Washington. Early in the 19th century these Indians were taken to Washington, fed, probably drunken in an effort to have them sign treaties. While there was an official portrait, painter, Mr. Bird, who did over 300 of the portraits. Unfortunately, they were lost in a fire in the Smithsonian in 1865. But because the print makes had done prints off the portraits we have the likenesses preserved. They have since become very collectable. We notice smaller versions of the prints beside the windows in the dining room. The owners collected McKinney and Hall prints and there are over 30 in the house. Above the prints we notice twelve plates which were English made by Wedgewood. They were made in honor of Georgia’s Bicentenial. There are twelve historic Georgia scenes and portraits of famous Georgians. The portrait beside the side door is of a Kentucky woman from about the 1840 period.
Kitchen

The door into the kitchen was once a window but the house was expanded in 1976. a historic preservation minded architect, Ed Neel, of Columbus, Georgia, did the addition of the kitchen and the master bathroom wings. Prior to that time the dining room was also the kitchen. When it came into the house from the original kitchen which still stands outside. This occurred about 1890. heart pine floors were installed and distressed to match the flooring in the rest of the house in the new kitchen. In this room is a very unusual 20 tin pie safe which is used now as a liquor cabinet that was found in Tennessee. We also see a collection of southern folk art and southern 19th century crockery. The churns and whiskey jugs and crocks above the cabinets are all signed 19th or early 20th century Georgia pieces. Folk artists on the walls and in the bathroom off the kitchen include Howard Finster, R. A. Miller, Mose T., B. F. Perkins among others. The kitchen table was found in Illinois.

Off the kitchen we have a mud room that opens in the back from which people can come in from the fields, and have use of a full bathroom for clean up. Also included off the mud room is the utility room.

Master Bedroom

Entering the master bedroom we see a maple, plantation made bed dating from the 1820’s which was also owned by Governor Issac Shelby. As you face the bed, to the left, we see a Jackson press which dates from about 1850 and is from Kentucky. It descends from one of the owner’s ancestors who entered the Trapist monastery in 1850 and took furniture, as many of the monks did, with him. In the 1970’s the monks deacquisitioned a lot of the furniture and it has found its way back into the family. On either side of the bed are two Kentucky made work table which serve as night stands. At the foot of the bed we see a day bed which is also Kentucky and cherry made. In antebellum times mattresses of finer beds were often tucked with feathers, and making the bed was quite an ordeal as one of the servants would use a large rolling pin device to flatten the bed out. It took quite a while to make the bed and should anyone want to take a nap, they would hardly climb back in and mess up the feather bed and would, many times, repose at the foot of the bed on the day bed. Across from the day bed is an empire sofa, which is original and once sat in the hallway. As you face the empire sofa, to the left, is a southern made empire, red painted work table. Sitting on top of the work table are Indian artifacts that were found on the plantation. Above the table is a Confederate belt buckle that was worn by on the of owner’s ancestors who was shot in his belt buckle in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. The etching over the bed of George Washington’s family dates from the 1850’s and the portrait of Washington over the belt buckle dates from about 1790 to 1800. we see, between the windows a 1700’s mirror with a painting of George Washington’s Mount Vernon and over the mantle the large portrait of Andrew Jackson. To the left and right over the mantle are small etchings from 1864 of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee that were found on a trip to Ireland. The walnut chifforobe dates from about 1850 and came from the Barnes Plantation in Meriwether County. It is very folksy in its look, the bonnet and skirt have rather exuberant cutouts.

Entering the master bath wing we notice to the right a bonus room which the owners use as an office which stores an antebellum computer and a fold-out sofa. The room was made to look turn-of-the-century in appearance, with its William Morris wallpaper in the period Wains coating. The bathroom includes a copper tub which is from the 1880’s to 1890’s from Kentucky. The bathroom sink came out of a farm kitchen in Tennessee and dates to the turn of the century. There was an attempt to make this bathroom look turn of the century which was the time which bathrooms began to enter homes. At one point there was a sleeping porch and a bathroom which enclosed the back porch. Then, in the restoration in 1975, this was all removed and this wing was added.

Upstairs

As we go up the stairs we notice a large portrait from the 1870’s of Jefferson Davis in a period frame. Along the wall we see some smaller McKinney and Hall Indian prints. At the top of the stairs we notice a Georgia pine hunt board with some Georgia churns setting under it. There is a 19th century, approximately 1860, needlepoint of Uncle Tom and Little Eva. In the bathroom we notice a claw foot tub and a cherry dry sink that dates from about 1840 to 1860. the bedroom on the left has primarily original furniture with the exception of the two slipper sofas which were purchased out of a Talbotton, Georgia plantation estate. When purchased there was a note from 1950’s pinned to one of the sofas that described how Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, had set on this sofa while courting one of the owners great, great aunts. Again, we notice the McKinney and Hall portraits.

The bedroom on the right of the stairs includes two Kentucky, 1840. tall poster beds. It was felt in the early part of the 19th century that diseases were close to the ground and the higher one slept the healthier one slept. Plus, in the southern climates, the tall beds allowed for cooling ventilation. The chest between the windows is Shaker chest that dates from about 1840 and comes from near the Pleasant Hill Shaker Community in Kentucky.