The 100 Block: Southern Girl

Had a getaway with the Hubs over the weekend. We spent the night at Nottoway Plantation. It's Louisiana's largest remaining antebellum mansion, 53,000 square feet, along the Mississippi River Road. It took 8 years to build the house. It was way ahead of it's time. There were 3 indoor bathrooms and they had their own gas well to heat their water. All of the wood in the house was cut from cypress trees from the property. You can't see from this picture but on the right side is a rotunda. The cypress was soaked in the Mississippi River for 4 years in order to get the curvature of the wood.

This picture is the side of the home. See the balcony with the red ribbon. It's one of the 2 private balconies that we had with our room.

Here's a picture of our front balcony. From our balconies we could see the river. My imagination went wild thinking of what life was like back in the day. Of course in my mind everything was beautiful, romantic and life was a piece of cake. NOT...

There was no air condition and the fireplace was the only heat in the house. I can't even imagine what the
mosquitoes were like.

Here are a few pics of the inside.

This is our half tester bed. It's not original to the house but it's from the same time period. There are only a few original pieces of furniture in the home that were donated from family members.

The camellia was the favorite flower of the original lady of the house. Here is the plaster and cypress moulding in the dining room. Notice the camellia's.

Here I am in my favorite room in the house. The white ballroom. 5 of the daughters were married in this room. The windows would open up, the band would be on the balcony and you could dance in and out of the room onto the balcony.