Plantation house in Mississippi
Miller Plantation House, Olive Branch Mississippi
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- Mississippi
- Greek Revival
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- Plantations & Farms
As the most sophisticated example of the Greek Revival style in DeSoto County, the Miller Plantation House is significant to the history of architecture. Not surprisingly, the most ambitious design element of the mansion is its portico with giant order columns and a full, well-proportioned entablature which is without a raking cornice for a pediment. While this arrangement is not uncommon, the unusual interpretation of the Corinthian order makes the Miller Plantation House virtually unique in Mississippi. Here, the Corinthian capital is produced with a single row of acanthus applied to the bell between the astragal of the shaft and the abacus. "Correct" Corinthian calls for a minimum of two superimposed rows of acanthus. The unknown builder who was responsible for this singular design betrayed his unfamiliarity with the classical orders but succeeded in producing an impressive and rich effect. He was more comfortable with the simpler joinery required for the handsome pilasters, frontispieces, and eared architrave trim which distinguish this house. A graceful spiral stair, the tour de force of the joiner's skill, is the highlight of the interior. The size and sophistication of the Miller Plantation House is unusual for its remote location. Planters who could afford a handsome mansion usually chose to live in town leaving the daily operation of outlying plantations to hired overseers. Thus, most planters of the Olive Branch vicinity lived in nearby Holly Springs, Mississippi, or Memphis, Tennessee. William Lord Miller, who had the house built in ca. 1849, was an exception. His house is unquestionably the most architecturally significant structure to survive from the antebellum period in DeSoto County history.
The Miller Plantation House is a two-and-a-half-story, frame, Greek Revival residential structure facing east in a rural environment in northeast DeSoto County, Mississippi. A shallow three-bay portico is centered on the five-bay facade.
Fluted Corinthian columns standing on octagonal bases support a full entablature which returns onto the main structure to be supported by paneled pilasters. The entrance is contained in a Doric frontispiece housing narrow side lights and a paneled door. Additional access to the interior is provided by floor-length double-hung windows which flank the entrance. A single-bay balcony with a cast and wrought iron railing is located in the central bay. On the gabled south elevation, a three-bay gallery with simple square columns and hipped roof replaced the original in ca. 1920. A simple two-tired gallery is located along the rear or west elevation and provides a covered passage to the semi-detached kitchen wing located at the southwest corner. The plan of the principal block is a double-pile arrangement with a parlor and library on the north and a bedroom and dining room opposite. The four chambers on the second floor are reached by a splendid circular stair in the central hall. Paneled doors, like the windows, are hung in battered-and-eared architraves. Except for some deterioration in the rear gallery and kitchen areas, the structural integrity of the house is quite good. The architectural integrity is excellent and along with much original furnishings, presents an undisturbed view of an ambitious Greek Revival plantation house.
View to the northwest (1980)
View to the west (1980)
