House Tour: 1790 Linden Antebellum Home

Welcome to Linden, one of Natchez Mississippi’s finest mansions. Initially constructed in 1790 this beautiful historic home continued to evolve through the antebellum period.

Linden is of extreme architectural importance both in the city and in the nation. Linden is a large frame and brick structure facing north in a park-like. The principal block, which is the oldest section of the house, is five bays wide and two stories high with a three-bay, two-tiered portico placed on the center axis. Although the portico bears some relation to the two-tiered porticoes popular in the Palladian phase of Georgian architecture, the absence of a well-defined entablature and the steep rake of the pediment illustrate a misunderstanding of classical architecture typical of vernacular building. Flanking this block are one-story wings with hipped roofs behind wide colonnades topped with balustrades. The most notable and ambitious feature of the exterior is the elaborately carved entrance frontispiece. Engaged columns flank the side lights and door and support a frieze with geometric guilloche carvings and a returned cornice. From this springs an elliptical arch containing a glazed fanlight with radiating mullions. Flanking the entrance in the principal block are double-hung, twelve- over-twelve windows, while the one-story wings are treated with six-over-six jib windows. The entire wall area sheltered by the colonnade is stuccoed and scored to give a more finished appearance than clapboard.

The rear (south) elevation is formed into a U-shaped courtyard by a two-
story brick dependency behind the west wing and the turning of the east wing to form an east rear wing. As is typical of many Natchez dwellings, verandas run along the three faces of the courtyard and are equipped with secondary stair-cases and, more interestingly, with fixed blinds as a measure of protection against inclement weather.

The principal block is arranged in a simple single-pile plan with an
open-well staircase rising from the center passage. Mantels in the east
(library) and west (parlor) chambers are designed with paneled pilasters,
friezes decorated with the chevron motif, and shelves. Window aprons in
the library repeat the chevron design but are missing in the parlor, due,
most likely, to the installation of a Colonial Revival window on the south
wall and the general “improvements” made to the room in the early twentieth century. Federal woodwork is also preserved in the east wing, believed to be the earliest addition, and in the two-story brick dependency. Greek Revival woodwork, typical of the 1830s, is apparent in the west wing, which houses the dining room. Hanging from the dining room ceiling is a large punkah, a wooden fan manually operated by a system of ropes and pulleys. Although there are other punkahs in the Natchez region, the one at Linden is considered one of the finest and most graceful. The fan is designed with twocurved stiles framing a paneled area below an open comb-like set of vertical spindles. This apparatus pivots from a ceiling mount which is treated with S-shaped brackets and a shallow, paneled soffit.

Long considered one of the great Natchez mansions, Linden is a signifi-
cant example of vernacular Federal architecture, noted particularly for its
rare two-tiered portico and its splendid entrance frontispiece. With the
additions made during the Greek Revival period, Linden reached its present
picturesque form. Several features installed with the additions, such as
the extensive galleries, some protected by fixed blinds, the jib windows,
and the punkah, are important examples of the domestic architecture characteristic of antebellum Natchez.

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