FOR SALE: The Incredible History of This 1803 Federal Mansion! FOR SALE

Welcome back to Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin here at Our Restoration Nation and today, we're back in beautiful Natchez, Mississippi. Originally built in 1803 by Samuel Young, this beautiful home was named Bellevue. It was the first federal-style home in the Natchez Territory. When Mr. Young lived here, there was one front door flanked by two windows on each side, two rooms wide and one room deep. Only four years later, Governor Winthrop Sargent bought the home. He bought the home and 490 acres for $20,000. It was considered a suburban villa just on the outskirts of town, sitting on the Natchez Trace. He renamed the home Gloucester after his hometown in Gloucester, Massachusetts and decided to enlarge. To keep the home symmetrical, since federal style was still all the rage, he simply added another front door and two more windows. Although it looks symmetrical for over 200 years, no one has known which door to actually knock on. Also note that the side lights that the governor added aren't actually windows, merely shutters. Governor Sargent also installed the dry moat to provide light and ventilation into the full basement. It wasn't until the 1820s or 30s that the neoclassical columns were added. They had become fashionable and were added by the third owner. This was Colonel James Campbell Wilkins who had served in the War of 1812. He added the front portico with its giant order Tuscan columns and the spiderweb elliptical window on the pediment. You'll see that the back portico also received a giant order or two-story colonnade. But five unevenly spaced columns instead of four large ones. The first room we'll take a look at is the withdrawing room. Winthrop Sargent served General George Washington for eight years of the American Revolutionary War. Sargent volunteered for the Continental Army in 1775 and was promoted over time to a major. After serving in the Revolutionary War, Major Sargent fought Indians in the Ohio area and was promoted to colonel. During battle, he was hit three times by a gunshot and carried two musket balls in his hips for the rest of his life. He then became governor of the Northwest Territory, which is now Ohio, and five other Midwestern states. The mural in this room is Winthrop reading the Northwest Ordinance. The original mural is two stories tall. His next appointment was the first governor of the Mississippi Territory, which at the time included Alabama, taking it over from the Spanish. Natchez was the capital then, and when he got to Natchez, he met and married a wealthy widow named Mary Williams. She had four children from her late husband and two more from the governor. The portraits in these rooms are reproductions of a pair painted by Gilbert Stewart, the famous artist who also painted George Washington around the same time. The originals now hang in one of the U.S. State Department's diplomatic reception rooms. The governor is wearing his Continental Army uniform. Well, here we are in the formal parlor in the new section of the house. As I told you, this is that incredible African black marble, so incredibly rare here in Natchez. We have lots and lots and lots of black marble, but this is the only extant example I know that we know that is African marble sent to Italy to be carved and then transported here to the Mississippi Valley. Off of the drawing room is a cabinet room, also called the tea room. As we enter the library, let's take a look at the only Federal Period mantle left in the house. Here, you'll see another portrait of Governor Winthrop Sargent, the most famous owner of Gloucester. He is part of the reason the home is on the National Register of Historic Places. This one is a hand-painted copy of the Gilbert Stewart painting, of which you saw a reproduction in the drawing room. This copy was commissioned by the governor's granddaughter and painted around 1855 by a New York artist. It stayed with the Sargent family until 2004, when the previous owners of Gloucester purchased it for the home. In addition to being a heroic soldier, the governor was Harvard-educated, graduating in 1771. You just heard me give you the history of this room and all of the architectural details, but this is the mantle piece I just told you about. The earliest marble mantle piece in the Mississippi Valley. Now, one of these three panels is not the original marble. One of them was damaged heavily and taken out and repainted and replaced with wood and faux-marbled to match. Can you guess which one? I'm not going to tell you which one it is. You have to come to Gloucester to see it for yourself. Now, I'm going to take you into the dining room that Governor Sargent added. The dining room is part of the 1807 enlargement by Governor Sargent. The windows of this room are filled with etchings, but the favorite of the current owners has been removed and protected in this spring. You'll see the name Julia Sargent and her favorite horse, Horsey, scratched into this pane. Note the semi-octagonal ends of the building, which are not shaped the same as the other end. The 1850 Waterford Gasolier, which has been electrified, and the Greek-style fireplace. In this room, we have an original portrait of Governor and Mrs. Sargent's son, George Washington Sargent, painted by Benjamin Edward West. This was the year George graduated from Harvard at age 18 in 1820. He returned to Natchez as a grown, married man and bought Gloucester back from the Wilkins family in 1848. In 1861, the Civil War broke out, and Natchez surrendered and was occupied by Federal troops. In 1864, George Washington Sargent was murdered at his back door by five marauding Federals seeking gold. In the excitement of the moment, one of them shot George Washington Sargent through the lung, and the bullet lodged in the other. It took four excruciating days for Mr. Sargent to finally succumb to his mortal wounds. He died in an upstairs room at the age of 62. His wife was away because of the war and could not make it back before he died. It's been whispered that George Washington Sargent sometimes makes his presence known at Gloucester, even in the 21st century. Now we'll have a look at the kitchen and the back gallery. Here we are on the back gallery at Gloucester. Now, this space has caused quite a bit of contention in preservation circles over the last few years because, as you can see, it has been enclosed. We have these incredible, beautiful windows looking out onto the landscape that's just immaculate, almost unrivaled here in Natchez. But the two wings of the house have been enclosed. They've been done properly, where from the exterior, what you appear to see are jalousies that are closed, but they are closing in two ends of the gallery. Why was that done? Lots of fit-throwing has been had over why these two ends of the gallery were enclosed. Well, in the modern day and age, we need indoor kitchens, as you can see, and indoor bathrooms. And the two ends of the galleries were enclosed to accommodate those modern facilities. They were the only way to add those much-needed modern facilities without disturbing the original footprint of the home. They were done in 1926, so they now have historic significance of their own, being almost 100 years old. Now join me upstairs as we take a look at the magnificent private spaces that Gloucester holds. Well, here I am in the absolutely immaculate and unmatched gardens of Gloucester, wishing you a beautiful day and thanking you for being here with us on Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin in beautiful Natchez, Mississippi. Now, Gloucester just happens to be for sale. As always, we are not the real estate agents. We do not represent or guarantee this home in any way. We're just here to give you a peek inside the incredible history of this national historic landmark. But one of you watching today might just be the next caretaker of this home. And if you think you might be, the Zillow link is in the description below. So give that link a click, give that realtor a call, and see if you might want to join us here in Natchez, Mississippi. And you can see us while we do more Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin here at Our Restoration Nation.