Longwood (Nutt's Folly)
- Jay Brothers
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
140 Lower Woodville Rd. Natchez, MS
Circa 1859 but incomplete. 2.5-story octagonal home in Moorish style
It is surrounded by a forest. About the last large home constructed pre-Civil War. Longwood is the largest octagonal house in the United States.
Longwood was built for Dr. Haller Nutt (1816-1864) and Julia Augusta Williams Nutt (1822-1897) on 86 acres. They wed in 1840. His family owned Laurel Hill Plantation in JeffersonCo., MS. His father was Dr. Rush Nutt who was a physician, a large cotton planter, and founder of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Alcorn, MS. He also developed the Petit Gulf strain of cotton which helped his fortunes greatly. Julia's family owned Routhlands/ Dunleith.
It was started in the late 1850s and halted when the Civil War started. Debris, extra construction items and other tools remain on the upper floors where they were left when the work crew left. It is locally known as “Nutt’s Folly.” The Nutt family owned multiple plantations: Araby Plantation, Evergreen Plantation and Winter Quarters Plantation in Louisiana as well as Cloverdale, Laurel Hill and Longwood in Mississippi. The family remained in the unfinished home (9 rooms finished out of planned 32), and James and Merritt Ward, descendants of one of the children, remained there in 1940. Julia Ward Blanchard of New York City shared ownership.
Pilgrimage Garden Club purchased Longwood in 1968 and operates the home as a historic house museum. See Ker mansion NR 1969
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