This is probably the best preserved of the colonial plantation houses that epitomised the grace of America’s south before the Civil War. It’s white colonnade decked exterior is all ornate ironwork, multiple staircases and grand white gestures typifying the antebellum Italianate home Inside Nottoway has more than sixty rooms joined by miles of corridor, seven staircases and five salon galleries. Built by John Randolph to a design by Henry Howard the floor plan is quite irregular and some innovative home comforts such as hot and cold water plumbing were included. Much of the original (or carefully restored) fittings, decorations and furniture remain as well as some impressive pieces of art.

Set just back from the Mississippi River Levee, Nottoway’s much reduced grounds are a flourishing mass of oaks, peacans and magnolias.

The house survived the Civil War due to one of the officers who was on the gun boat tasked to destroy it had been a guest there and held fire once he had recognised it properly. A cannon ball remains stuck in the woodwork of the second floor staircase as a tribute to what the house survived.

As well as visiting the house as a museum you can also stay there overnight in an original suite: http://travelhouseofamerica.com/hotels/HOTEL_WHINOTPLANT.htm

Written by  Kim Marsden.

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