Longwood stands in a moss-tangled forest. It is a monument to a dream that was interrupted by the tragedy of the War Between the States in 1861-’65. It was to have been a gorgeous structure of Moorish design, planned by Sloan of Philadelphia, who in those days had no equal as artist-architect.

Longwood was being built for Dr. Haller Nutt. Landscape gardeners came from abroad, and even today rare imported shrubs and trees form a part of the dense growth around the unfinished gardens.

When the house reached its present point of construction, with more than a hundred thousand dollars already invested, there came the cry of war and the call to arms. Workmen laid down their tools and took their guns and never returned to the task of completing Longwood.

The deep concrete foundation, the outside framework, and some of the trimmings of the house were well under way. Today there are huge sections of carved moulding, old paint buckets and brushes, tool boxes, and carpenter’s implements scattered about the upper floors—just as they were left almost 75 years ago.

The house, begun in the late 50’s, is of brick, burned by slaves on the place, with columns and grill work of hand-carved, time-enduring cypress. The ground floor contained a nursery and an adjoining apartment for a white housekeeper and governess, a card room, a billiard room, wine cellar, and heating plant. This floor is the only part of the building that reached anything like completion. The upper floors were boarded up. All orders for materials, marble stairway, mosaic floors, and elaborate furnishings were canceled. Many of these orders had been placed in Italy and France. Some costly pieces were en route on the high seas. A few items were returned and others are now in national museums.

Dr. Nutt died in 1864, survived by his wife and a large family of children. One of the descendants of these children now occupies the finished lower floor or basement of Longwood. There is on this floor a huge rotunda and eight large rooms, surrounded by a moat. Many relics of past generations adorn these quarters, including antiques from different branches of the family.

There are several pieces of richly carved rosewood furniture, an exquisite old grand piano, and oil portraits of Dr. Nutt and his beautiful blonde wife by famous old-world artists.

James and Merritt Ward of Natchez and Mrs. Julia Ward Blanchard of New York City are the present owners of Longwood.

Planned as a palatial home for a family of eleven children and eight hundred slaves, today Longwood (often referred to as “Nutt’s Folly”) is occupied by Merritt Ward and one servant.