The Burn

The Burn, built in 1834 is a beautifully detailed and proportioned suburban structure, and is the oldest documented Greek Revival residence in Natchez.

It was built as the residence of John P. Walworth, a wealthy planter, merchant, banker, and politician. Walworth, a Scotsman, commissioned T.J. Hoyt of New York as the architect and named his home The Burn, for the brook that ran through the property- the Scottish word for brook is “burn.” Originally built on 100 acres today she sits on approximately two acres of beautiful maintained grounds.

The Walworth family lived in The Burn for three generations until the 1930s when it was sold to the Laub family, who did much to restore the home and the gardens.

From the front, The Burn appears to be a one-and-a-half story home, but the rear view reveals a full three stories. The main house has approximately 9,000 square feet. It has been said that the house was built in such a manner that it did not appear ostentatious.

One of the outstanding architec- tural features of The Burn is the staircase, which rises in a short straight flight along the southerly hall wall before making a graceful half-circular turn through space to terminate in the upstairs hall. The newel is composed of a series of turned balusters, and the stair is adorned with orna- mental brackets.

The home is furnished in period antiques by the current owners, who have a high sense of style and 19th century interior design. The only original furniture that remains in the house is the dining room table. John Walworth came to Natchez by way of Ohio. He acquired three plantations, served as president of Planters Bank and served as an alderman and mayor of Natchez. By the year 1860, his real estate holdings totaled $300,000 and his personal property was valued at $26,000, making him one of the wealthiest men in Natchez.

In 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg, Natchez was occupied by Union troops. The family was given 24 hours to vacate their home. The Union army took The Burn and used it for a hospital. The family was not allowed back into their home until 1866.

One of the most important and historically intact homes in Natchez., still owned and occupied by the descendants of the original builder. It contains most of the original furnishings and its decorative finishes including the original French scenic Zuber wallpaper are intact. The rare interior has been carefully preserved for over 160 years.

Designed in the Georgian Revival. The exterior is deceiving, given the scale of the rooms once inside, you enter into a 65-foot long center hall. The great size gives it a more extravagant feel than is found even in many of the larger Natchez mansions.

To the left of the hallway is a spacious drawing room with an exquisite white marble mantel carved in a calla lily design. Behind the mantel is a large mirror in an Adams frame; resting on the mantel is a Sevres clock and two matching urn-like ornaments, all under glass domes. The front parlor contains one of the most complete and well-preserved Rococo Revival style interiors in Mississippi from the era.

Over the windows are gold leaf cornices from which hang replicas of the original lambrequin window coverings. The original rare and delicate artifacts were donated to the decorative arts collections of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, a branch of the Smithsonian. The walls still display the original handblocked French Zuber wallpaper. The house contains Cornelius and Baker of Philadelphia bronze chandelier gasoliers, originally fitted and supplied by a gas plant built on the grounds of Lansdowne.

Being in the same family since 1853, the house has many layers of heirlooms and furnishings. The bedrooms of Lansdowne are quite large. The front bedroom is furnished with an original set of large, hand-carved rosewood furniture made by Prudent Mallard of New Orleans.

At the rear of the house is a large brick courtyard. On opposite sides of this courtyard are two brick dependencies, each two-story, which originally contained the kitchen, washroom and enslaved servants’ rooms in one, and a large billiard room, office, schoolroom and governess’ quarters in the other.

Lansdowne is truly a must-see property, a private home it also offers Bed & Breakfast accommodations.

Auburn is located in Duncan Park in a setting of huge moss-draped oaks, magnolias and pines. The magnificent red brick mansion is owned by the City of Natchez and operated by the Auburn Antebellum Home, an all-volunteer group who operate and manage Auburn for the city, and have done extensive work in restoring the beautiful interior of the house and in bringing back some of the home’s original furnishings. In 2016 extensive work to repair damage to the roof, floor and interior of the independent kitchen and slave quarter building was completed. These type of “dependency” or support buildings are rare significant architectural buildings visitors will want to see.

As the home of the first Mississippi Attorney General, Lyman Harding, this National Historic Landmark is famous for establishing the style of the columned portico in the South and boasts an exquisitely designed freestanding spiral staircase. Auburns architect, was the talented Levi G. Weeks, who as a young man in the year 1800, made headlines in New York as the accused in the first court recorded murder trial in the United States. Weeks was acquitted, but now infamous he left NY for Natchez and became a well-respected architect and builder of fine homes. Auburn is con- sidered a master work of Weeks, and is believed to be the first house in the Mississippi territory to utilize the orders of architecture. Upon Harding’s death, the home was sold and greatly expanded in 1820 by Steven Duncan who added wings to Auburn and furnished the home exquisitely, where the family entertained national celebrities.

In 1911, Dr. Duncan’s descendants, deeded Auburn and its surrounding grounds to the City of Natchez as a memorial to the family. Its grounds which form Duncan Park were put to good use as a city park, and are used for golf, tennis, baseball, nature trails, picnicking and other recreational activities. Historic preservation in America was still in its infancy in this early period of the 20th century and the idea of keeping an historic sites period furnishing intact was rare, and so the city not knowing better, thought an empty house might more easily be maintained and sold all of the historic furnishings off. The house was not as easy to manage and only opened periodically to the public, when in 1972 the city entered into a lease with the Auburn Antebellum Home group to operate and restore the home and to be opened to the public where they welcome visitors from across the globe now.

Green Leaves is best rec nized as one of the most valuable national documents of mid-nineteenth century taste in the South, with its remarkable and extensive preserved memorabilia and furnishings. The interior is notable for both its original integrity and includes many period architectural features, along with period decorative arts and contents which together make it one of the most significant historic interiors in Natchez.

The carpet, wallpaper and rosewood and mahogany furniture have not been changed since the early 1850s. Of particular note, throughout the home sports Cornelius, Baker, and Company light fixtures and chandeliers, original gasoliers from one of the most prestigious lighting companies of the era, they remain intact and electrified.

Perhaps no house in Natchez is more suitably named than Green

Leaves, it has been occupied since 1849 by six generations of the Koontz-Beltzhoover family since George Washington Koontz came to Natchez from Washington, Pa., in 1836 at the age of 20.

The name was inspired by Lyle Saxon, author of several books about the Deep South. In the 1920s, when the late Ruth Audley Beltzhoover was president of the local garden club, Saxon was in Natchez getting material for his book, “Old Louisiana.” He asked to see Mrs. Beltzhoover’s gardens. When she said, “It is only a garden of green leaves,” his reply was so eloquent that she named the home Green Leaves.

Appropriately, the house is set in the midst of live oaks, magnolia, cypress, azaleas and camellias. The 400-year-old oak in the rear courtyard spreads a canopy of living green over the grounds.

This National Register home was built by E.P. Fourniquet in 1838 at the then exorbitant cost of $25,000 and further embellished by George W. Koontz in the mid-19th century. A raised cottage, it is approached from Rankin Street by two flights of steep steps.

On each side of the front columned porch are wings with lacy iron balconies, added by Koontz. The stately front door of cypress is set in a monumental frame with Corinthian pilasters on each side.

The sidelights are of alternating circular and diamond-shaped panels.

Across the rear of Green Leaves is a wide gallery with large columns and banisters. The rooms on the back all open by jib windows onto the gallery. Forming the rear courtyard are the bedroom wing added by Koontz and the two-story brick kitchen building, which in the 19th century was joined to the house by a covered passageway.

Soon after George Koontz arrived in Natchez he became affiliated with William Britton and, in time, he became president of the Britton & Koontz Bank. In 1845, he married Mary Roane Beltzhoover who became parents to eight children, whose descendants still live at Green Leaves.