Desolate and forlorn, the once-glorious Arlington estate in Natchez, Mississippi, was considered one of the most important heritage buildings in the area. Yet despite its historical significance, the grand Federal mansion is crumbling into ruin.
Click or scroll through to unravel the home's tragic tale and discover why this alluring Southern belle has been left to languish.
Natchez, Mississippi, is a city filled with history. Named for the Natchez tribe of Native Americans, who with their ancestors inhabited most of the area from the 8th century AD through the French colonial period, it has numerous homes and landmarks from the past.
French, Spanish and British colonists all had an influence on the architecture you'll find here and much of it is from the antebellum period. The antebellum era (which ran from 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861) is marked by the prevalent practice of slavery and the societal norms it cultivated.
In the early to mid-nineteenth century, Natchez attracted wealthy farmers as residents, who built mansions across the city. Their plantations were vast, filling the surrounding lowlands along the numerous rivers in Mississippi.
They grew large commodity crops including cotton and sugarcane using slave labour. Many of the homes still stand, like the Rosalie Mansion (pictured) built for cotton broker Peter Little in 1823, and are beautifully maintained and help to educate people on the area's complex history. However, some homes were left to rot...
Just over a mile from the beautiful Rosalie mansion lies the Arlington estate. Approaching the derelict brick mansion by way of a dirt track road, which is now part of 55 acres (22.3ha) of untended grounds, it's hard not to be moved by its sorry state, as Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast discovered on a visit to photograph the space.
Details of the property's early history are sketchy, to say the least, but according to local legend, the land on which Arlington sits was acquired by local sheriff Lewis Evans in the early 1800s. It was reportedly sold on in 1814 to a real estate speculator called Jonathan Thompson.
The origins of the home are also somewhat unclear. According to Arlington's nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places, the estate may have been designed by New Jersey native John Hampton White for his wife, Jane Surget White, sometime between 1816 and 1821.
Other sources think Jane herself or indeed her father, Pierre Surget, a French immigrant, could be behind the opulent design. In any case, the property became the marital home of John and Jane, albeit for a short time.
Foreshadowing the sad events to come, the two-storey redbrick mansion (pictured here in 1934) was the scene of tragedy in 1819, around the year of its supposed completion, when John Hampton White died in a yellow fever epidemic.
One story recounts that his widow Jane passed away suddenly on her first night in the property, but the tale is contradicted by her gravestone, which shows that she died in 1825 at the age of 38.
It's only upon entering the property that the full extent of the damage becomes apparent. The entry foyer is littered with discarded wooden door frames and other debris.
Graffiti has been scrawled across the walls and the ceiling is severely damaged, a far cry from its grand heyday and the soirées hosted by Janet Surget White, who was part of one of Natchez's most affluent families.
This photograph is part of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's Pritchartt collection. Taken sometime during the 1970s, it shows how elegant the space once was.
Exquisite antique furnishings from France adorn the hallway, along with paintings by Old Masters including Baroccio, Carlo Dolci, Coccanari and Vernet, which would have no doubt impressed the many visitors that graced its halls.
Offering a closer look at part of the home's entrance hall, the amount of adornments is clear – it's nothing like the more minimalist entrance to a home today.
Two large globes stand on either side of an ornate console table, flanked by paintings and a series of decorative chairs. The far left painting of a ship coming into port could likely be by Claude-Joseph Vernet, a leading French landscape painter of the later 18th century.
The floor plan of the house consisted of a sweeping central hall stretching from the front of the property to the back, flanked by two rooms on each side, with a staircase located in a secondary hall between two of the rooms.
The ornate structure, seen here even in its exterior doors, echoes the design of other fine antebellum mansions in the area, including the aforementioned Rosalie and another estate called Melrose.
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After Jane Surget White died in 1825, the property passed to her sister, Mrs Bingaman, and stayed in the Surget family until it was bought by Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Samuel Stillman Boyd around the mid-19th century.
Many of the treasures of the house were passed from owner to owner. These include the Surget clan's French antiques and Old Master artworks, while Judge Boyd added a formidable collection of books to the house.
Just off the central hall adjacent to the library is the property's drawing room.
Like the central hallway, the space is in a dreadful state of disrepair, but glimpses of its past grandeur can be discerned from the high ceilings, fine window frames and wood panelling below the large sash windows.
Jane Surget White spared no expense decorating the opulent space. Dubbed 'the golden drawing room', the spectacular chamber would have wowed with a rich carpet, French mirrors framed in gold leaf, gilded cornices, wallpaper decorated with gold flowers and satin damask curtains.
While the estate is now a shadow of its former self, it was once home to an array of priceless possessions.
Arlington's music room, located off the main hall next to the dining room, featured one particularly sought-after piece – an antique spinet (a small harpsichord or piano) dating back hundreds of years.
Following Judge Boyd's death in 1867, Arlington is thought to have sat vacant for a long period. The mansion was purportedly snapped up in 1917 by Mrs L. S. Gillette, who lived there until 1924.
Framed by a grand columned archway, this old postcard from 1938, printed by Dexter's Press, shows how the home looked before it went to wrack and ruin.
Crumbling and structurally unsound, an inner staircase is now almost unrecognisable. In the following years, Arlington passed to Hurbert Barnum who purportedly presented it to his wife, Annie Barnham, as a wedding gift. Part of an affluent Natchez family, Annie was also the owner of the city's beautiful Monmouth mansion, however, she continued to reside at Arlington after her husband's death in 1939.
Annie is said to have diligently conserved the property and added to its prestigious collection of books by purchasing prized first editions, which she displayed in the library along with the other prized volumes.
Tragedy descended on Arlington again in 1945 when Annie Barnum's one-year-old grandchild, Gwin, died in a tragic accident at the property.
Mrs Barnum passed away in 1960 and Arlington was then left to her daughter Anne Gwin Vaughan. She lived at the property for several decades with her husband Jack and their family.
In recognition of its exceptional history, Arlington was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated a National Historic Landmark the following year. At this time, the property was in excellent condition, having been lovingly preserved by the Vaughan family.
This photograph, not dated, shows how local groups used the Arlington interiors as part of antebellum reenactments, dressing in costumes. This picture was taken in the drawing room, with upholstered furnishings and heavy drapes at the large windows.
Anne Gwin Vaughan and her husband Jack both passed away in 1991 and Arlington was handed down to their son Dr Thomas Vaughan, who is the current owner of the property.
The Jackson-based doctor chose not to live at the property and, according to local residents, the house started to deteriorate in the 1990s following Anne and Jack's deaths. This image is said to show the mansion's kitchen and possibly the slaves' and later servants' quarters.
Disaster struck once more in September 2002 when a devastating fire ripped through Arlington, destroying the roof and much of the upper floor.
Natchez firefighters Todd Rymer and David Hugg (pictured) worked to contain the flames blazing from the roof of the antebellum home. The fire, which started in the back of the 1818 landmark structure, destroyed nearly three-quarters of the building.
The ground floor, while not completely gutted, sustained serious damage too. Pictured is the exterior of the Arlington home showing just how many of its ornate windows are now missing and the darkness inside as a result of the blaze and encroachment of nature over time.
Arlington's legendary library was said by author Nola Nance Oliver in her book Natchez, Symbol of the Old South, to hold around 5,000 books. It was an extensive collection of tomes, including numerous first editions and an array of Roman and Greek classics. Fortunately, many of the home's precious antiques and books were salvaged and later restored.
Here we see the severely burnt doors just off the home's hallway, with volunteer Jim Barnett carrying a stack of books to safety. In the online essay Lessons Learned in the Ashes: The Recovery of Arlington's Library, Dr Betty Uzman Manuscript Curator for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History writes:
"Spared by the flames, many [books] still were damaged by heat, smoke, and the water from the firehoses. Over the next three days, under the direction of Ron and Mimi Miller of the Historic Natchez Foundation, we worked ... to guide teams in preparing an estimated 3,000 volumes for freezing or storage."
Unlike the saved antiques and books, the house itself hasn't been quite so lucky. While the roof has been replaced courtesy of the Historic Natchez Foundation, the building remains little more than a crumbling shell.
The once-manicured grounds surrounding the palatial property have been reclaimed by Mother Nature and debris from the fire still litters the overgrown estate.
When it went up in flames, the property lacked adequate insurance and an extensive renovation would likely cost a fortune. Left to languish, the Natchez Preservation Commission even went as far as to bring legal action against Dr Vaughan for demolition by neglect in 2018, as reported by local paper The Natchez Democrat.
According to City Planner Riccardo Giani, who also spoke with The Natchez Democrat, Dr Vaughan was initially unresponsive to requests to overhaul the mansion.
Legal proceedings began in 2021 with the City of Natchez officials taking action to restore the estate and recover the renovation costs from the owner through fines. Arlington was among a list of 26 blighted properties Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and the Board of Aldermen voted to take action against.
It was rumoured in local press that a Florida couple with a passion for historic homes launched a fundraising campaign to purchase and restore the home. It's not yet known if their efforts were successful...
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