Spinks Plantation, Magnolia Mississippi
The family cemetery located about a mile to the east of the family home provides a history of the Guy-Spinks family who lived on the plantation. The Guys were early settlers of Pike County who migrated from North Carolina the early 1800s. The family cemetery establishes that the family was settled on the plantation by 1843, the date of the earliest burial. Like most early settlers, the Guy family engaged in subsistence agriculture, hunting and trapping, and later by raising cattle and hogs.
It is likely the family erected shelters earlier than the current buildings. However, those structures are no longer standing. By c. 1875, the family built a small timber framed structure that rested on large cedar blocks. Now designated the kitchen, based on historic use, it is likely the building is the oldest of the extant structures. The joists are vertically sawn rather than hand-hewn. This suggests that milled lumber was available from a local source, possibly on the property. The interior beadboard finish of the main room also suggests it was more than a workspace.
By the turn of the century, the Guy and Spinks families had intermarried. The family had probably increased in size and wealth. Around 1900 they built the main house, with four rooms on the first floor and two rooms on the second floor. By 1900, circular sawn lumber was available and was used in the balloon framing of the main house. Some degree of affluence is reflected in the simple classical mantel and narrow planks used in the parlor space. Within a short period of time, the house was again expanded adding additional rooms on the first floor and a larger space on the second floor. Although no records are available to confirm it, the family store was built at or near the same time and may have been the source of the capital necessary for the new construction.
Local tradition, and the recollection of older residents of the area, establishes that the store opened around the turn of the century. The store sold dry goods, food staples, homemade furniture, such as parson's benches, willow branch chairs, and headboards, farming implements and tools, grain, and seeds. Although there is no documentation, older residents in the area also remember the store serving as a rural postal station.
Besides being a commercial center for residents of western Pike County, the store also served as a social center. The rural community, located eight miles from the nearest town, met in the store and discussed the weather and local news. Even with the advent of the motor age, the store continued to serve as a local community meeting place. The general store operated until the early 1960s.
Building Description
The Spinks Plantation is located in a rural area of western Pike County, about ½ mile north of the intersection of Muddy Springs Road and Irene Road. The site is near the Tangipahoa River, not far from the Pike County and Amite County border. The three surviving structures are grouped closely together in a lightly wooded area about ¼ mile off Irene Road. The main house is a 1 and ½ story balloon frame building with a gable roof. The freestanding kitchen, a one-story gable timber frame building, is attached to the main house by a covered walkway. The one-story balloon frame store building is located a short distance to the west.
The kitchen is the oldest of the three buildings, built in c. 1875. The main house was built in two phases beginning with a four-room hall and parlor with a two-room loft constructed c. 1900. The second phase, approximately 1910, added two rooms to the east on the first floor and enlarged the east room of the second-story loft. The front porch was extended at that time. The store building was also built c.1910.
The building now designated as the "kitchen" was built in approximately 1875. It is a one-story timber frame building with board and batten siding and a gable roof, now covered with tin. The building rests on large hexagonal cedar blocks which support hewn sills and 12x2.5" vertically sawn joists. The front facade, facing south, presents a gable end with a room centered between two open porches covered by the eaves of the main roof. The western porch connects to the main house, located shortly to the south, by a covered walkway. The western porch extends approximately half the length of the building and wraps about 1/5 across the south facade. The deck is covered by planks with two supporting posts holding the roof and connected by a single rail. Steps descend to the west. The center room on the south facade has one small 6/6 window. The east porch extends about 1/3 of the length of the building and wraps 1/5 across the south facade. There are no posts or rails. The south wall under the porch contains a 3/1 window.
The east porch is open on the east elevation. The east wall under the porch has one door opening into an interior room. Two small 3/1 windows, located on the east exterior wall adjacent to the porch, are the only openings on that elevation. The north elevation has one door without steps. A small shed roof projection separates the door from two 6/6 windows. The west elevation has one 6/6 window in the exterior wall. Under the porch area are a 6/6 window and a board and batten door.
The kitchen consists of five interior rooms. A southern room, located between the porches, may have been a parlor. There are plank floors with unfinished horizontal plank walls and ceilings. The south wall has beadboard paneling. The room has two windows, both with simple surrounds. Doors open to the porches on the east and west walls. An interior door opens to a large room to the north. This room has vertical plank walls separating it from other interior rooms. The north interior wall has horizontal planks. A counter with a sink, certainly a later addition, sits between the two windows visible on the north exterior elevation. A cook stove, almost certainly a later addition, is on the southern interior wall. A doorway with no door opens to the west room. There is an empty transom which probably had a six-light window. The western room has a single window. Opposite the doorway to the western room is a similar doorway to the east rooms. This doorway contains a six-light transom. There are two rooms to the east, one with a door to the north, and an adjacent room with two windows.
The one-and-one-half-story main house sits on an east-west axis. The primary facade faces south. An undercut gallery extends across the south facade. Although it originally extended across the entire south elevation, the southeast corner was enclosed at some point to create a room. The roof is supported by six posts and there is a simple rail between the posts. Toward the west is a 6/6 double-hung window and two side-by-side four-panel doors. The western door provides access to the first floor while the second door opens to an interior stair to the upper floor. The south elevation also has paired double-hung 6/6 windows and a single 6/6 double-hung window, both covered by the porch. A single door enters the room on the east end from the porch while the south exterior wall of the addition contains no openings.
A brick chimney dominates the east elevation, a gable end, has a brick chimney, slightly offset to the left. There is a small six-light window in the room added to the porch. On the first floor, there is a single 6/6 double-hung window on the south side of the chimney and two double-hung 6/6 windows to the north. Smaller 4/4 double-hung windows flank the chimney on the second floor.
The north elevation has a covered door near the east end adjacent to a single 6/6 double-hung window. Paired double-hung 6/6 windows are centered in the north elevation. A door leads from the north face to the covered walkway leading to the kitchen with a single 6/6 double hung window located to the west.
The west elevation has a brick chimney, slightly offset to the south. Single 3/3 Double-hung windows flank the chimney on the first floor while smaller 6/6 windows flank the chimney on the second floor.
The entire exterior is clad in machine-cut clapboards. A seam is apparent on the clapboard on the south elevation where the house was enlarged in c. 1910. The roof is covered in tin.
The interior consists of seven rooms on the first floor and two rooms on the second floor. The original four-room section is accessed by the western door which opens into a large room that was probably a formal parlor. The floors have narrow tongue-in-groove planks, while the walls are finished in five-inch horizontal planks. A fireplace in the western wall has a standardized catalog mantel. A door to the south leads to a short hall with a rear door leading to the rear kitchen. A room opens off the hall to the east. A second door in the north wall of the parlor opens to a smaller corner room. Both of these secondary rooms have floors with broader planks than the parlor.
A door on the east wall of the parlor opens into a room of nearly the same size. It also has plank floors, but these are also a bit broader than the planks in the parlor. An enclosed stair occupies the southwest corner of the room. A door in the east wall leads into another large room in the c. 1910 addition with a fireplace in the east wall. A much simpler mantel adorns the fireplace. A door on the south leads into the room added to the porch, probably for an early interior bathroom. A door in the north wall leads to the rear room which has an exterior door. All the interior rooms have horizontal plank walls and plank ceilings. All the walls and ceilings remain unpainted. Interior doors are four-paneled.
The second floor is reached by a stair through the eastern door off the porch. There is no interior access to the second floor. The stairs lead to a large room that extends to the east wall. The floors, walls and ceilings are covered with unpainted planks. A seam in the floor, walls and ceilings shows where the house was enlarged. The second floor exterior wall was completely removed during the addition. A door in the west wall leads to a smaller room with the same interior finish. A panel in the south wall of the large rooms allows access to the eaves where the circular sawn 5x2 joists are visible.
The store building is located to the west of the house. It is a one-story balloon-framed building with clapboard siding and a tin gable roof. The south facade has a single door under a rough shed roof. The east elevation has a center single door with a window covered by board and batten shutters. There are no openings along the north elevation. A centered double door is flanked by two windows on the west elevation.
The interior consists of one large room with plank floors, walls and ceiling. Several wooden counters remain affixed to the exterior walls. Heat was provided by a cast iron stove with a tin flue.
Three support buildings remain on the property. These include a smokehouse, a storage shed and an outhouse. The date of construction for these buildings cannot be verified and they are severely decayed.
