The Murderous and Mysterious History of Auburn, The First Grand Mansion of Natchez, Mississippi

The Murderous and Mysterious History of Auburn, The First Grand Mansion of Natchez, Mississippi

[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
welcome my name is Matthew Charles
McGinley I am the resident dosent here
at historic Auburn and today I’m going
to give you the fascinating
architectural history of this historic
home this house was built for a man
named Lyman Harding who came down here
all the way from Boston Massachusetts he
came down to Mississippi in the year
1807 to defend Aaron Burr during his
Mississippi arraignment for treason this
house was built by a man named Levi
weeks who was a famed architect from New
York City who goes on to build several
other homes here in natches Mississippi
after he builts this one here starting
in
1811 the staircase behind me is his pce
the resistance it is a completely free
floating 360 degre spiral staircase it
does not can’t delever on the wall
anywhere and it has no Center support
structure it connects at the bottom and
then directly above it at the top it is
also one continuous piece of railing
it’s all made out of Walnut but it
starts over here on one side and then
travels all the way upstairs curves
around the nautilus shell shape and then
comes back down the other side this
staircase is a feet of architectural
engineering it is completely comprised
of Cypress and it is mortise and Tenon
construction so there is no medal in the
formation of this staircase now we talk
a lot about this staircase and that’s
because it is so impressive it is
actually only one of three here in the
United States and it is the oldest of
those three in the United States this
was constructed in 1812 The house’s
architect and Builder Levi weeks 1776 to
1819 described the construction of this
house in September of 1812 letter to his
friend epis Hoy of Deerfield
Massachusetts the brick house I am
building is just without the City Line
and is des designed for the most
magnificent building in the territory
the body of this house is two stories
with a geometrical staircase to ascend
to the Second Story this is the first
house in the territory on which was ever
attempted any of the orders of
architecture the site is one of those
peculiar situations which combines all
the Delight of Romance the pleasure of
reality and the approach of Sublimity
the owner of it is a Yankee a native of
our own State Massachusetts his name is
Lyman Harding this this house was given
to the city of natches in the year 1911
by The Heirs of The Duncan Family who
later took over after lman Harding sadly
died in 1820 now the house was left
empty for quite a long time from 1911
until about the first pilgrimage here in
1932 and while the house was empty quite
a few things ended up going missing here
if you look we have uh the ghost Mark of
where there used to be an ivory Final on
both sides of the stair case it was very
likely stolen for its very high value
and trade at the time while the house
was left empty as well a lot of the faux
boa was damaged and all of the doors as
well as everything along the staircase
except for essentially the white Plaster
was all done in a flame mahogany faux
boa it certainly didn’t make sense at
the time to have an artisan come in here
and restore the foba because that would
take a lot of money and a lot of time
and they were trying to get this house
flipped over so that it could be viewed
for one of the first pilgrimages solely
surrounding historic architecture so it
got painted white now we know of this
because we did have an architectural
conservator come here in April or May of
last year her name is Brooke Russell and
she did all of the microscopy that we
have on display here for the tours so we
know that all the doors as well as the
staircase was flame mahogany but we were
also able to decipher the original paint
campaign that was here in this t-shaped
Hall what microscopy essentially is is
when you take a chunk out of the wall
flip it over on its side and then
examine it under the microscope we can
see all the individual paint layers and
campaigns that were used in this front
hall throughout all of time 1812 to
present so in 1812 on the woodwork we
have this very light cream color and on
the plaster at the earliest layer we
have a peachy pink color that was often
described as the most flattering color
to a woman’s complexion by candlelight
it was enormously popular throughout the
federal period now the design for this
staircase came out of the British pains
padio out of
1735 so it’s already actually a Revival
period by the time it comes here to the
United States about 75 years later now
the Center Hall of this home is actually
designed in the shape of a capital T and
that is largely to show off this
incredible feat of architectural
engineering that is our staircase here
at Auburn you walk in the front door the
door swings open to the staircase and
you are immediately greeted with this
big ribbon of a staircase now if we look
up and we see the top of the tea it then
goes straight down this Hall and we can
see the barrel coved ceiling that was
essentially the calling C of Levi weeks
every single home that he designs and
natches after he builds this home in
1812 all has this Barrel coed
ceiling now that you’ve joined me here
in the formal living room I would like
to draw your attention to the Salmons
padial lond denesis we have this book
here from
1738 and these were the books that they
got all of their designs out of all the
Architects would have these books to
show to their patrons where their
patrons could have picked out their
architraves and Ur their mantle pieces
their cornis pieces every bit of
architectural element that they would
like to have in their home could be
picked out of one of these books almost
as if it was a catalog so we know that
Levi weeks had a copy of the Salmon’s
padial and denesis because he designs
the exact same architraves and ures that
are behind
you so behind me you can see those famed
architraves and ures that were very
likely carved by Levi weeks himself he
was a famed wood carver and Master wood
turner in New York City before he came
down to natches Mississippi now while
we’re talking about Levi weeks it’s
important to note that he was also a
famed murderer not only a famed
woodcarver and wood turner in 1798 he
was engaged to be married to a woman
named julma Sans who was the niece of
the boarding house owner in which he was
staying he’s seen out with her one night
and then she is not seen again until 3
days later she’s discovered in the
bottom of a Manhattan well in Manhattan
in 1798 they were very concerned about
things ending up in those Wells but they
weren’t necessarily concerned about
people there was an entire company
called The Manhattan well company whose
sole job was to guard those Wells 24/7
there was a guard at those Wells to make
sure that nothing could be thrown over
germ Theory had not yet been invented
yet and wouldn’t even come into play
until about another 80 to 90 years but
they knew that if say a stray cat were
to fall over into the well it would
spell disaster for the entire city now
major members of that Manhattan Well
Company were Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton as well as his brother Ezra
weeks so when his fiance was found dead
in the bottom of one of those Wells all
signs pointed back to Levi weeks now
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton came
to his defense because they were a part
of that Manhattan well company and it is
the first transcribed murder trial in US
history so if you’re at all interested
you can read through all of the minutes
there’s also been a novel that’s written
about it and that is called The
Manhattan wh mystery that details all
accounts of this nefarious murder trial
in 1798 in New York City it is also
actually widely mentioned
in some of the song lyrics in the show
Hamilton in New York City now being the
incredible attorneys that they are Aaron
bur and Alexander Hamilton are able to
get Levi weeks acquitted however it
ruined his reputation he was essentially
run out of New York City on a rail until
he was called upon by Lyman Harding to
come down and build this palacial
mansion in 1811 this Mansion actually
restores his reputation as a famed
architect and he goes on to build three
other houses here such says the Briar
which is actually on tour for pilgrimage
this year now this mantle that you see
over here is not original to the home
the original mantle would have been
carved out of Cypress again very likely
by Levi weeks himself and it would have
been Federal in style where this is
Greek Revival it was about 1850 to 1856
that The Duncan Family started making a
lot of major changes to this house
including the East and the west wings
that we have here now if you would
please join me in the dining room and
I’ll introduce you to The Duncan Family
now here in the dining room before
before I introduce you to Steven Duncan
I would like to point out the chandelier
now we know that there was never any
piped gas in this house we have extent
photographs from this dining room from
about 1920 to 1930 that show that the
most updated chandelier in this house
was actually a kerosene chandelier but
here we have a gasier that is Cornelius
and Baker and it’s probably around
1857 and it’s a hunter theme it was very
generously donated to this house as
there was no chandelier here at the time
but it is not exactly appropriate for a
dining room while everything that you
see on that chandelier can technically
be eaten usually themes that are
included in dining room chandeliers or
dining rooms in general are usually a
cornucopia uh either fruit or vegetable
not usually elk or dead fowl now the man
that you see behind me is Dr Steven
Duncan who came down here from Carlile
Pennsylvania in about the year 1808 and
he ended up marrying into the wealthiest
planter family here in natches
Mississippi he marries a woman named Nam
Margaret Ellis and they have two
children together but unfortunately she
ends up dying of yellow fever in 1815
and he inherits everything however the
Ellis family does take the children back
into their care and end up grooming them
into the planter way of life making him
not only an overnight millionaire but a
bachelor and widower as well now he does
marry well again he marries a woman
named Katherine bingaman who is heavily
regarded as one of the most beautiful
but also brightest people here in
natches Mississippi at the time and
together using the fortune that he
amassed from his prior wife Margaret
Ellis are able to become the wealthiest
family here in natches and later end up
purchasing this house around 1821 to
1823 now Steven Duncan was a member of
the American Colonization Society and if
you are unfamiliar with that
organization they are a very early
abolitionist group founded by men like
Abraham Lincoln they later go on to
purchase the large plot of land on the
west coast of Africa that is still
called Liberia today that was purchased
as essentially early reparations
thinking that the formally enslaved
people after emancipation was to come
into law would want to travel back to
Africa however I don’t think they
considered that traveling the ocean in
1865 isn’t exactly ideal nor the fact
that most of their family has been here
for 6 to seven maybe even 10 generations
and their culture has essentially been
stripped away from them entirely so not
a lot of people ended up taking them up
on that offer so as we enter the library
we can see that there are some major
differences in the floor construction in
the main 1812 section of the house all
the floors are made out of Cypress and
they’re actually irregularly cut and
that is because there was no lumber mill
here in 1812 so these Wings being added
on in 1856 we have the new advent of
very regularly cut pinewood floors Hart
Pine became the new popular wood of
choice at that point as well now if we
look over here we can see the portrait
of George Davis George Davis actually
lived in this house from 1863 until 1911
he became the caretaker of this house
when The Duncan Family leaves here in
1863 Steven Duncan wrote prolifically
that if Mississippi were to seced from
the union that he would never return and
in 1863 he does just that he has a union
gunboat come down the Mississippi River
pick him and his entire family up that
includes five children starting here in
1823 and moves them to New York City
where he spends the rest of his life he
later ends up dying in 1868 and his wife
Catherine shortly after but all the
while George Davis was in charge of this
house he was also overseeing a lot of
major changes and then while his two
youngest sons Henry and Steven Duncan Jr
were periodically coming back here to
essentially spend their father’s money
traveling the world and using this as a
bachelor pad uh would keep up with
George Davis and we have a letter that
was written from George Davis in 1876 to
master Steven Duncan Jr before he was
about to go over to Europe he very
politely expresses the state of the
house but then in the PS line alone is
scalding Henry for not having stayed
here long enough to mend the horse
fences because the horses kept getting
out but then also in the same breath is
asking Steven to bring him back a pocket
watch when he comes back from Europe so
a very interesting interpersonal
relationship that we see between the
former enslaved and the children of the
former slave owner
[Music]
[Music]
now if you notice in the picture that we
have of George Davis he’s standing right
here in the library he was actually
standing right behind me in front of
those Library cabinets and I’m sure you
noticed that they are painted a little
bit differently they were originally the
flame mahogany faux boa that was the
campaign that was in the main 1812
section of the house that They carried
over along with them in the 1856 period
it is awfully shameful that it was
covered up but hopefully one day that
will be uncovered now from up here we
can see how this railing continuously
runs around and then goes back down
along the other side being one
continuous piece of railing but what I
also love about this railing is it is
modern-day code height kind of De
bunking the apocryphal myth that people
were just shorter back then I don’t know
if you’ve heard this in any of your
architectural tours before this happens
a lot in New England where the ceilings
are much shorter trying to keep in heat
during the winter but here in the South
you usually have much higher ceilings
and then you would have much higher
railings it’s not so much that they were
concerned about how short the people
were because in my own personal opinion
people have been people sized for at
least the last 500 years George
Washington was about 6’4 Napoleon was
about 5’8 so if that puts anything into
perspective for you there you go but we
have this very code height railing
primarily because of this enormously
tall ceiling they were very interested
in scale and ratio during the federal
period so the federal period homes in
New England where the ceilings were say
7 and 1/2 ft to 8 ft tall from standing
far back in the room you would not want
to see your railing being half the
height of your ceiling you would want it
to be a much more pleasing ratio
somewhere around the golden ratio which
is 1 to 1/16th of the scale of the room
now one final thing about this staircase
is you’ll notice how narrow it is once
we have finally ascended and that is
largely due to the fact that the
fashionable silhouette for ladies at the
time was the Empire Waste and if you’re
unfamiliar with that you know you have
the dresses that cut right under the
bust and then fall straight to the floor
this is about 20 years before the hoop
skirt came into fashion but
interestingly this was the only
staircase in the house for the entire
time that it was a private residence for
99 years so this staircase had to
accommodate all of those large Buel
gowns cage kralin and hoop skirts
throughout the 19th century now if you
notice here we have triple sash windows
they were able to raise all the way up
to the bottom of the top sash so that
people would be able to walk straight
out onto the balcony now we don’t only
have that here but there are three
triple sash windows across the front
under this Portico and the same
downstairs on either side of the front
door now here on the second floor I want
to draw your attention to the high
ornamented architecture as you would
come up these stairs you would be
instantly greeted with the exact same
architectural elements as you saw on the
first floor which is incredibly rare
especially for this time period usually
your upstairs is not going to be a very
public space it’s going to be very
private so you would not want to spend
all the money on the architraves and ERS
and the barrel coved ceiling that we
have downstairs as well but in this
house house it’s a little bit different
our architect is coming from New York
City and is essentially designing what
he knows how to build this is the first
house he designs when he comes here from
New York city so in New York City you’ve
got all of your public spaces to the
back of the house where we have the
sitting room that’s downstairs as well
as the dining room but upstairs we have
a rare formal sitting room this was also
to be the receiving room that was
originally the design so you would have
your guests come into the house whether
or not they were familiar with the
family they would all be coming upstairs
and they would be brought into this room
that we’ll see in a moment that was the
formal sitting room this is where they
would have thrown all of their money all
of the best architraves and aures the
most intricately carved mantle pieces
and the best wall treatments would be
reserved for this room as you would have
your dignitaries and people calling on
you here in this house where you would
do all of your formal business dealings
they would likely never see any other
room in the house other than the
incredible Hall the room that they were
just in and the staircase that they
would come up and go down now here in
this upstairs sitting room or formal
receiving room as it would have been in
1812 we have another set of incredibly
carved architraves and inates that would
have been done by Levi weeks or we
suspect would have been done by Levi
weeks this is another pattern that they
likely would have picked out from a book
like the salmon padial L denesis out of
1735 the very quintessential broken
pediment at the top we have a beautiful
architrave and across the inature we
have the very highly sought after aanus
Le
now this exquisitely carved mantle
that’s behind me is the last ornately
carved mantle that we have in the house
that would have been done by our famed
murer Levi weeks this would have been
done in 1812 and it is a very high style
for the federal period um again because
this is the most formal room in the
house where you would have been having
all of your very formal business
dealings um this is what we assume that
they looked like downstairs in the
dining room and in the formal living
room though we believe the style would
have been a little bit different the
other Mar mantel that are downstairs
were already created for coal which was
the height of technology for uh burning
and keeping your house warm but this one
had to be retrofitted for coal so we
have the introduction of this marble
coming in to cover the fireplace around
that originally would have been plaster
and then we have this cast iron surround
that was built in and a new Firebox
constructed now on this window we have
the signature of our original homeowner
Lyman Harding signs this probably at
1812 but it could have been as late as
1820 was a very rare find and we were
very excited so now we are in the West
Wing that was added on in 1856 and this
is a private bedroom that was added on
in 1856 now keep in mind they started
having children in this house in 1823 by
1856 they were all young adults and of
marrying age this room was never
intended to be for a child it was likely
intended to entice the children to stay
here in this home to have their own
private families and in which case they
would need their own private bedrooms to
do so now if you’ll notice behind me we
we have a faux marble mantle piece this
is made out of scagliola and scagliola
was originally intended to be a
cost-saving measure for large municipal
buildings in the early 19th century we
can see that it is broken and we love
that because we can actually see the
original construction method we see this
very porous under concrete that was
actually put in after essentially it was
made in a giant mold kind of like a
chocolate tears mold and you would pour
in your marbled and dyed finish concrete
that was a much finer quality once that
was set and dried you could then pour in
your very poorest lesser Quality
Concrete and then flip it out and this
could be polished it was then assembled
and we have this very faux marble finish
mantle by the middle of the 19th century
this was all the rage and like other
trends that usually start as cost-saving
measures it became extremely popular for
the wealthy Elite
[Music]
now that we’re out here on the second
floor of the back Gallery we can see the
very large difference between the front
of the house which is neoclassical in
design we now have the Greek Revival
influence this double bat Gallery was
added on in the 1856 period the same
time that they started making all of the
massive changes with the wings and we
have the very very simple Greek Revival
style columns we also have the simple
Greek Revival Style on the kitchen house
over here so we do have our original
kitchen house from 1812 that also got a
very trendy facelift with The Duncan
Family it originally housed an enslaved
family below was the kitchen and to the
back was the laundry we also have our
original Larder from the 1812 period
from the back here we can also see the
Billiards Hall also added on in 1856
which was likely the brainchild of the
very smart woman named Cath bingaman
later Katherine bingaman Duncan who had
several rambunctious young boys who kept
getting in trouble under the hill she
built them a Billiards Hall so that they
could entertain their friends and not
break anything in her house but also
would not be under the hill causing
trouble well thank you for coming to
visit me at this National Historic
Landmark here in natches Mississippi um
if we did not mention it before it was
donated to the city of Naches in 1911
all 220 of its original Acres were
donated to the city then and got Right
to Work turning it into a beautiful Park
we have acres and Acres of beautiful
golf course we have a playground over
here to the right of me I don’t know if
you can hear those children playing uh
we have lots of tennis courts and even a
disc golf course that goes around to the
front of the house so if you are coming
here not only for a tour you can also
stay here and enjoy the grounds
[Music]

Auburn was built for Lyman Harding, first Attorney General of the Mississippi Territory. Harding defended Aaron Burr in his 1807 arraignment, and soon became one of the wealthiest citizens of the city during its territorial period.

The homes architect and builder was the infamous Levi Weeks. Recently arrived from New York under a cloud of scandal, Weeks was hired to design the “most magnificent building in the Territory.” Auburn introduced classical architecture to the Territory, with its classical giant-order Ionic portico, and is one of the purest forms of neo-classical Federal architecture in the city. The most outstanding feature of all the grand design is the free-standing, 360 degree staircase, one of only a few in the United States.

BECOME AN OUR RESTORATION NATION OFFICIAL CITIZEN: https://www.ourrestorationnation.com/member-areas-1

https://www.ourrestorationnation.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourrestorationnation/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourrestorationnation/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ourrestorationnation?p