In 1857, Irish immigrant and cotton merchant Frederick Stanton began construction of a replica of his ancestral home in Ireland: a palatial Greek Revival-style mansion in the heart of downtown Natchez in Mississippi.

Stanton named his home “Belfast” and it occupied an entire two-acre city block and cost over $83,000 before it was even furnished.

The inside of the home is as opulent as the outside. Marble mantel pieces were imported from New York, ornate gas-fired chandeliers were purchased from Philadelphia and immense mirrors were imported from France.

Sadly, the home was completed only months before Stanton’s death in 1859 and was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War. The family remained in residence until 1894, at which point the building was transformed into the Stanton College for Young Ladies and re-christened Stanton Hall.

Stanton Hall is a two-storey brick structure, plastered and painted white. Its front entrance features a Greek temple portico, with four fluted Corinthian columns and delicate cast iron railings.

 

In 1938, the Pilgrimage Garden Club purchased and restored Stanton Hall to its former splendor. It was officially designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and is now furnished much as Stanton originally intended. Photographs are not permitted inside the house!