The Briars House, Natchez Mississippi

Date added: October 02, 2023 Categories:

Located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River southwest of Natchez is The Briars, the most fully developed and sophisticated example of the long, low "undercut" architectural form indigenous to the lower Mississippi Valley. This regional idiom is characterized by a range of nearly square rooms placed between broad front and rear verandas which are invariably set into the building's volume. Usually considered vernacular, this form reached its most elegant architectural expression at The Briars. The residence was the setting, in 1845, of the marriage of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell.

On October 30^th, 1818, John Perkins (1781-1866) gained title to "that tract of land about 1 mile below the old Spanish Fort Panmure in the city of Natchez containing 99 acres". Shortly thereafter he began construction of a dwelling house, where he settled after his marriage that same year to a Mrs. Bynum. A native of Somerset County, Maryland, Perkins had migrated to Natchez ca. 1802, and during the next thirty years, he amassed a large fortune from 18,000 acres of cotton-producing land in the Louisiana Delta. About 1816, he was appointed parish judge of Concordia, Louisiana. Upon his wife's death in 1824, Perkins offered his house for sale, describing it as "The New and pleasant' Situation called the BRIARS." Confident of its excellent reputation, he continued, "The situation is so well known, that a particular description is deemed unnecessary" (Mississippi Republican, December 1^st, 1824). The property was not sold, however, until 1833, one year after Perkins had moved to Lowndes County, Mississippi, where he remained for the rest of his life. It was during this latter period that Perkins established three separate endowments for the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, thus becoming a noted benefactor of that institution.

From 1828 until 1850, The Briars was rented to William Burr Howell (1795-1863), New Jersey governor Richard Howell's fourth son, who moved to Natchez ca. 1815 and became engaged in merchandising and planting.

In 1823, he married Margaret Kempe, and the couple lived with her family at "Kempeton," near Natchez, until the destruction of that residence by fire in 1828 caused Howell to move his young family to The Briars. It was here that Varina Banks Howell (1826-1906) spent her childhood, and in the drawing room at The Briars, on February 26^th, 1845, Varina Howell married Jefferson Davis.

In 1853, The Briars was sold to Walter Irvine, whose descendants held title until 1927. During this period the residence fell into a state of disrepair but, fortunately, its architectural fabric remained intact. When it became the property of Mrs. Emma Augusta Wall in 1927, a restoration partially obscured the original appearance of the rear gallery. Despite this, her efforts assured the continual preservation of The Briars, and today it functions as both a popular house museum and as a private residence.

Building Description

Constructed in 1818, The Briars is a nogged frame, one-and-a-half-story structure covered with stucco on the front, or east, elevation and clapboard on the remaining sides. It is a classic example of the "undercut" form indigenous to the early architecture of the lower Mississippi Valley. Characterized by a long, low profile, the form derives its name from its gallery, which is not conceived of as an appendage but rather as an integral space within the structure's volume. Similarly, the rear gallery is "undercut" into the structure, but is flanked by small end cabinets and thus open on only one side. Between the two galleries is a grouping of nearly square rooms which share interior chimneys. The whole arrangement was an early and quite successful attempt to cope with the nearly tropical climate of the region.

Because it developed as a vernacular form, the "undercut" was rarely employed in residences of any significant architectural sophistication.

At The Briars, however, the form is greatly enhanced by its well-calculated proportions and excellent Federal woodwork. A graceful Doric colonnade divides the facade into nine bays and supports a steep roof broken by four dormers with a so-called Gothic sash. The broad entrance, with its sidelights and elliptical transom, is framed by a frontispiece composed of engaged Doric columns supporting a full entablature. Occupying the two end bays are a pair of secondary entrances topped by semicircular fans. Windows are double-hung with twelve-over-twelve glazing and are surrounded by finely molded, symmetrical architraves with corner blocks. The rear (west) elevation, fronted entirely by a narrow porch with an arched plaster ceiling, was apparently more of an open passage than a living space. Now wholly enclosed by glass, it gives access to the end cabinets as well as the open gallery between, from which it is divided by a five-bay arcade.

As is typical of the "undercut" form, the interior plan of The Briars consists of a center passage connecting the front and rear verandas and flanked on either side by two commodious chambers. From the rear veranda, which has become a large living room, twin Colonial Revival staircases ascend to the second level, which accommodates bedrooms under the eaves. Dating from ca. 1927, these stairs replaced a single flight of steep stairs along the gallery's south wall. Other, less serious, alterations to the plan of The Briars have been limited to the installation of kitchen and bathrooms in the end cabinets.

The beautifully detailed interior trim is among the finest of the Federal period in Mississippi. Doors and window panels are treated with fielded hollow-corner panels and the surrounding architraves are symmetrically molded with corner blocks. Parlor and dining room mantels were designed with engaged, wreathed columns, five-part friezes, boldly carved paterae and returned shelves. Less elegant mantels in the remaining front rooms have unusual oval columns, paneled friezes, and plain shelves. In addition, these end rooms received somewhat conservative chair rails.