For 150 years the morning sun has been warming the white painted columns of the River Road mansion known as Nottoway. At the time this grand home was built, its third floor windows were probably the first ones in the area to catch the daylight.
This high gallery has a commanding view of the Mississippi River.
John Randolph, a wealthy cotton and sugarcane farmer, built this plantation home with his wife, Emily, near the present day town of White Castle. Randolph named his home Nottoway.
"John was born in Nottoway County, Virginia, around the Nottoway River, so he named this place after his birth place so that he could always remember where he came from," explained Jane Bryant, Nottoway tour guide.
Nottoway was built on a majestic scale. The home has 64 rooms. Its size is estimated at more than 50,000 square feet - that’s nearly the size of a football field compressed into a three-story house. Randolph’s Nottoway is the largest surviving antebellum home in the southern United States.
"Not only did he want to show off his wealth, but he had a large family: 11 children, seven girls and four boys. So he wanted a place to entertain and form them to grow up very lavishly," Bryant said.
The wood for this house came from massive virgin cypress trees that were cut a few miles away from the property. The logs were cured underwater for four years and then cut into planks and dried. The cypress was extremely durable and resistant to termites.
Nottoway has just undergone a multi-million dollar restoration. All of the original detail looks as it did a century and a half ago - the handcrafted frieze work that frames the ceilings, with different designs in each room; the elegant white ballroom, with its massive curved wall; beautiful ceramic doorknobs from Germany; and chandeliers that were fed by a gas generation plant built on the property.
"The detail and the expense that was incurred back in 1859 by Mr. Randolph, the technology that the house had was one of a kind at the time. And it’s just a very, very unique home and property. I had one lady that says, ‘this place sings to me," said Dale Huval, general manager of Nottoway.
There are guests, and some employees of Nottoway who claim they’ve experienced more than singing. Bryant tells the story of a newlywed bride on her honeymoon.
"She was up on the 3rd floor just admiring all the things in there, ooing and ahing, and she said she felt a hand grab hers and squeeze it, and so she thought it was her husband (and turned) around to see what he wanted. And he was not there. He wasn’t even in the area. She became very frightened because she said it was distinctly a hand that took hers and moved it and squeezed it."
Bryant has kept a journal of the ghost stories she’s heard during her 11 years at Nottoway. Some of the spiritual encounters were reported by housekeepers.
"She was backing out of a bathroom, just cleaning the floors, and when she turned around to face the bed, she noticed that there was a lady sitting on the edge of the bed. It looked like in her nightgown with a night cap and pushed herself up with her hands and as she did she disappeared," remembered Bryant. "We’ve also had some of the housekeepers come up to the third level to notice that there was a lady in black with her hair pinned up on her head that was walking the little hallway there."
In the third floor hallway, there hangs a picture of Emily Randolph, her hair pinned up, wearing a long black dress.
"Haunted, no. Spirits, yes"
John and Emily Randolph and some of their children are buried under the massive oaks that still shade their beloved Nottoway. The home is still a showcase of the extravagance of southern wealth, of a history that began a few years before the civil war, and perhaps a few kind spirits that are not ready to depart this grand mansion on the river.
