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| Original Billiard Hall facade and porch area now enclosed as house hallways, with a floor-length shuttered window visible at the right. |
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| Billiard Hall entry seen from inside. |
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| The oldest part of the house is the Billiard Hall, originally built as a stand-alone structure in the style of a Greek temple. |
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| Ornate ceiling medallion and gasolier. |
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| Period Greek key shades. |
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| Starr and Fellows gasolier. |
· Portrait of a Dog ·
A 19th century family heirloom,
the only pet on the premises resides above the Billiard Hall mantel.
The Billiard Hall is the oldest part of this unique house. Built circa 1850 by David Stanton, whose brother Frederic built 'Stanton Hall', this luxurious stand-alone structure served as the Stanton family's private social gathering place. It stood on the grounds of 'The Elms', the David Stanton home, and was later expanded into a house to accommodate his two sons Samuel and Aaron. Both Stanton homes 'The Elms' and 'Stanton Hall' have been famous Natchez tour houses for over half a century.
The Billiard Hall consists of a single room 22 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a ceiling 13 feet high, originally surrounded on all sides by 9-foot-wide colonnaded galleries. With four columns across the front and back, and five columns along the sides, the architecture was in the style of a Greek temple. The columns were joined on all sides by a substantial wood balustrade with sawn balusters resembling an hour-glass form. At the front the single entrance is surmounted by an elaborate architrave encasing four sidelights on either side and a double transom above. Each side wall and the rear wall feature two 10-foot-high floor-length windows, with a fireplace on the rear wall centered between these walk-through windows. Heart pine comprises the floor while cypress is the primary wood used in the beams, elaborate trim, shutters and door, with the door retaining the original lockset. Both the interior and exterior walls retain the original plaster on cypress lathing, the exterior walls being scored to resemble quarried stones. The original intricate plaster medallion adorns the ceiling, featuring a period three-light gasolier mounted with shades etched in a Greek key motif. With the six tall floor-length windows that could be opened onto the surrounding galleries, this spacious edifice provided a bright, airy entertainment space for one of the most prominent social families of antebellum Natchez.
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| A view of the rear of the house showing the back wall of the Billiard Hall with two floor-length windows, the original pyramidal roof-line, and part of the colonnaded wrap-around gallery. |
When the Stantons began the house expansion across the front and down one side of the Billiard Hall, those parts of the surrounding galleries were enclosed as hallways which now contain the massive original Greek revival entry and some of the windows. The elaborate front entry architrave was replicated for the front entry to the house, as was the balustrade for the added front porch; the 13-inch-high baseboard and the style of the floor-length windows were also replicated throughout the house addition, with all the added interior door frames built in the style of the floor-length windows. Still present are the original locksets with porcelain doorknobs and brass rosettes and keyholes. The front half of the house addition was divided from the back half, (which had been the billiard hall), by two sets of large fenestrated pocket doors, stunningly ornamented with stained, etched and painted glasswork, all of which is retained today.
Contents of this page © 2007 Joseph Britton Stone.
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