Constructed between 1849 and 1860, Belmont Mansion was the home of Adelicia and Joseph Acklen. The architecture of Belmont Mansion makes it one of the most significant homes of 19th century Tennessee. Its just really weird that we both saw this happen at the exact same time. At first you think this is all in your imagination. Advertised as an event where people can experience the "hospitality of the Old South", "A Plantation Christmas" was held at the Belle Mont Mansion on Sunday evening. Is it possible that Dr. Mitchell built Belle Mont in this style, two years after Jeffersons death, to honor the late president? Nor do the sins of our forefathers nullify their many acts of virtue or the great political and cultural gifts they bestowed upon future generations. When i was 17 years old, Belle Mont Plantation house was in very bad shape and had not had any restoration done to it yet. I have heard quiet voices in the night. The Miracle Worker organ. Indeed, I wonder how many black Americans even have a deceased grandparent who could have had a memory of antebellum America. For some reason a lot of places in Tuscumbia AL are haunted. ?????? So I like have some family history about the mansion and my aunt found a man and fell in love with him and they both LOVE history and so they both had there wedding at the Belle mont mansion and I was the flower girl and I havent seen the upstairs of the mansion so Im not sure if it really is haunted I really want to find out more the reason why I started searching this up was bc my great aunt works at my school library and she started talking about it and reading us storys about it. He says, the man that lives in that house. still pointing. I havent asked in years the last I remember I think I may have heard it was being restored but privately owned and with no plans to open to the public. Owning 1,680 acres of cotton and corn, Dr. Mitchell became known as one of the largest planters in the area before he quickly sold the mansion and the surrounding land one year after its completion. She said he would come out shooting if he caught trespassers. The celebration of a Plantation Christmas is racist, the letter reads. It has a staff of three: a site director, curator, and tour guide. It was the centerpiece of a 1,760 acre cotton plantation and had one of the largest slave populations in the state. The groups who are critiquing the event in Tuscumbia believe historical sites must be honest and respectful. Belle Mont, built between 1828 and 1832, was a plantation that used slave labor. Tell Us About Your Experience(s) at Belle Mont. I have experienced some very strange things in my home. 1569 Cook Lane, Tuscumbia, Alabama 35674 View Map CONTACT Site Director: Ninon Parker Museum: 256- 381-5052 Email: bellemontmansion@gmail.com Built between 1828 and 1832 in the Jeffersonian style, Belle Mont was originally the home of Dr. Alexander Mitchell, who quickly sold the building to one Isaac Winston in 1833. Indeed, it was brutal and terrifying. In 1790, John Hipkins purchased the property from the Conway family and in 1791 built Belle Grove for his only child, Fannie. It's estimated that 40 percent of slave owners may have been white women. The Belle Mont Mansion in Tuscumbia Alabama was built around 1828 for physician and planter Alexander Williams Mitchell. The house and surrounding property are reportedly haunted by the former slaves that lived and died on the plantation. A Pinterest representative, for example, announced that the website is working on de-indexing Google searches for plantation wedding. In December, a coalition of Alabama activists protested a Plantation Christmas event held at the Belle Mont Mansion near Tuscumbia, Alabama, because it memorialized white supremacist celebrations of Christmas. You can visit the historic Belle Mont Mansion at 1569 Cook Ln., Tuscumbia, Alabama 35674. A mural of the Clotilda adorns a concrete embankment in Africatown, a community near Mobile founded by Africans illegally transported to Alabama aboard the slave ship. We might also remember that many of the most celebrated and visited historical sites in our country are Southern manors built and worked by slaves: Mount Vernon (itself a wedding venue), Monticello (another wedding venue), and Montpelier (also a wedding venue) among them. According to the letter, Christmas was a disturbing time for the enslaved. Off Campus Book Store University of North Alabama, Norton Auditorium University of North Alabama. Unlock premium content, ad-free browsing, and access to comments for just $4/month. Your CommentsHave a photograph taken from this location? To avoid this, be sure to get in touch with the property owners before visiting a haunt, and respect their hours of operation, local regulations, and rules for visiting at all times. It has a staff of three: a site director, curator, and tour guide. Last edit to this listing: 1/16/2016 (2604 days ago). Ticket options include: General Admission, Guided Tour, Curator Tour & Civil War at Belmont. In. First, there is no such thing as a slave plantation. There are cotton plantations, sugar plantations, tobacco plantations, etc., etc., but no slave plantations. Gradually, the family gatherings became less frequent until the home was completely abandoned.The abandonment of the home was the largest cause of its deterioration and the vandalism that occurred at Belle Mont. Your email address will not be published. She was caught due to a news story that came out in the local paper about the travesties of vandalism happening to the historic landmark by local youth. Click "thumbs up" if you think its haunted, or "thumbs down" if you think its all just a tall tale. The Belle Mont Mansion in Tuscumbia Alabama was built around 1828 for physician and planter Alexander Williams Mitchell. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), NPS Investigation & Research Education Resource, World Institute for Scientific Exploration (WISE), http://www.mystery411.com/Landing_bellemonttuscumbia.html. At the time, the name of the plantation was not Gay Mont, but Rose Hill. Will NOT be displayed. 2008-2023 AlabamaHauntedHouses.com. Visiting here is an opportunity to explore one of the few 1850s era homes still standing in Nashville while learning about the place and the people -- both free and enslaved -- who make this site worth understanding. For more information, click here. Slaves in the plantation generations were members of what Berlin calls "slave societies," where slavery was the primary source of labor. Surely, we do not want to pretend these places dont have a violent, racist past. If such locales have tragic histories, this is all the more reason to reimagine them in ways that both recognize and overcome that past. Jonece Starr Dunigan | jdunigan@reckonmedia.com, hired a black historian to research the site's enslavement history, Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. Contact the museum for current rates, policies, and an application. Four bedrooms surround the rear or south courtyard, forming its U-shaped brick exterior. Belle Mont also illustrates Jeffersons reverence for the neoclassical architectural elements and ideas of the Italian Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio,. Belle Mont Mansion, known for its architecture, was built in 1828 for Alexander Williams Mitchell. Not sure if it did or not but sure does fit. Black people dont have happy memories of the antebellum period and plantations, where our ancestors were beaten and tortured, said senior campaign director Jade Magnus Ogunnaike. What do you think? The letter was signed by social justice groups Project Say Something, Standing in Power, of Decatur, and Beyond the Women's March. Yes, its true that some historical artifacts across Americas landscape are honored in ways that belittle or demean our fellow countrymen. We have located just two first-hand accounts of slavery at Belmont. However, the staff continues to research as we endeavor to tell the stories of all who lived at Belmont. Over the years, this historic mansion has been restored to its original pre-Civil War appearance. Clicks to Website: 293 . Although the actual design of Belle Mont is a mystery, this particular relationship provides a clue about the original designer, or at least his influence.The source of Belle Monts design is shrouded in mystery, but tantalizing clues suggest the direct influence of President Thomas Jefferson, gentlemen architect of the early Republic, the official Belle Mont pamphlet states (Commission 2). All rights reserved. An example of this occurred in December, when a number of black medical students posed for a photo at a former slave plantation, a site some of them called holy. Heck, why not celebrate their graduation there? The source of Belle Monts design is shrouded in mystery, but tantalizing clues suggest the direct influence of President Thomas Jefferson, gentlemen architect of the early Republic, the official Belle Mont pamphlet states (Commission 2). Sold by the Acklen family in 1887, the house went to a developer who began one of Nashvilles early suburbs. Voice your opinion here! By the following year, in 1890, all the houses occupied by enslaved Blacks on the estate had been destroyed, leaving no physical presence for interpretation. The voices in the night are the hardest to explain away. The modern application of this practice is also redolent of any of those ancient heresies that are uncomfortable with the complicated reality that vice and virtue, spiritual and material, co-exist within the human experience. The answer will always be a mystery. The antebellum plantation experience, as lived by the enslaved, was neither happy nor joyous. A variety of factors have made researching the lives of Belmont's enslaved residents difficult. This 1860 census, also called a Slave Schedule, provides a limited picture of all who were living at Belmont and where they lived. Gradually, the family gatherings became less frequent until the home was completely abandoned. Blue Star Museum: Belle Mont proudly offers free admission to active duty military personnel and their families between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Three years later, during the middle of the. The Winston family maintained ownership and continued living in Belle Mont through the Civil War and until around 1940. Belle Mont was erected in 1828 for a physician from Louisa County, Virginia, Dr. Alexander Williams Mitchell. Visit BelmontMansionEvents.com to review options to Elope in Nashville at Belmont Mansion. n 1832. During the 1960s, star-crossed lovers camped inside the rotting mansion in the woods, and the home has long been the site of drunken high school parties. Countless Haunt Hunters have been arrested, ticketed, and reprimanded by the authorities for trespassing. How many of the great nations of human history have so actively beat their breasts over their sins, both against their own citizens and the peoples of the world? William F. Buckleys popularization of Eric Voegelins warning is apt: Dont immanentize the eschaton!. Will we need Google to warn us that searching for such places or even worse, planning a vacation to visit them are microaggressive acts, as if we are unable to contemplate both the good and bad of such places? At this time, the family decided to move to a different location but continued to hold Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in the mansion. He is the author of The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands. I grew up in Florence and my Great Grandmother lived near the mansion on Colbert Heights mountain. The home was built. At this time, the family decided to move to a different location but continued to hold Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in the mansion. The Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville hired a black historian to research the site's enslavement history and to offer tours so visitors can learn about the African Americans who were enslaved on the property. Doors open and close. Belmont Mansion, or Belle Monte as it was known in the 19th century, was not a plantation but still relied on a large number of enslaved workers to maintain the estate. As there is not formal cemetery for the slaves it is likely that they were buried on some part of the estate. In addition, volunteers from the Colbert County Historical Landmarks Foundation assist as docents for special events and participate in fund-raising activities. All of these places, despite their histories, are objectively beautiful. In its zealous desire to right previous wrongs, this goes too far in the other direction, and in the process, undermines the historical fabric of our nation. The only way to avoid offending anyone would be to stop celebrating anything, anywhere, at any time. Simply by virtue of ones social justice warrior credentials and alleged victimhood status, these people deputize themselves the cultural police of our history, our language, and now apparently our wedding venues. Belle Mont was built for Alexander Williams Mitchell, who grew up in Louisa County, Virginia, only 25 miles from Jefferson's home at Monticello. Being new to the area, none of us knew of the Belmont Mansion or its location. Belle Mont Mansion Tuscumbia, Alabama 65.4 miles from Tupelo, MS. A former slave plantation, it is believed to be haunted by slaves that lived and died here and also possibly by the ghosts of its former owners. Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Then they could celebrate their wedding reception at a Southern manor and have a hell of a good time. Belle Mont Mansion is being restored and partially furnished to reflect the antebellum, or pre-Civil War, time period. Located just outside Tuscumbia in Colbert County, the mansion is one of a few . Is it possible that Dr. Mitchell built Belle Mont in this style, two years after Jeffersons death, to honor the late president? My Dad bought it at that time. Today the Belmont Mansion Association, which was formed in 1972, owns the collection, runs the museum, and shares this unique story of 19th century Nashville with visitors from far and near. Disclaimer: Alabama Haunted Houses does not endorse or support trespassing to visit real haunts. Most Americans know that George Washington owned enslaved people at his Mount Vernon home. Contextualizing former slave plantations has been a concern across the nation. However, the pamphlet continues by claiming that, characteristics of Jeffersonian Classicism are exhibited at Belle Mont, including finely executed brickwork with contrasting woodwork and a hilltop setting.