Reverie is a historic

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

built circa 1858 in

Marion Marion or MARION may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Marion (band), a British alternative rock group * ''Marion'' (miniseries), a 1974 miniseries * ''Marion'' (1920 film), an Italian silent film * ''Marion'' (2024 film), a UK short People a ...

Perry County, Alabama Perry County is a county located in the Black Belt region in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,511. Its county seat is Marion. The county was established in 1819 and is named in honor ...

. It now serves as a residence and also historic house museum. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

to the West Marion Historic District and was recorded by the

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

.Historic American Buildings Survey, #AL-773 (#24), AL-772 (#133), AL-774 (#142). It is featured in Ralph Hammond's ''Antebellum Mansions of Alabama'', Gregory Hatcher's ''Reverie Mansion and Gardens'', and Jennifer Hale's ''Historic Plantations of Alabama's Black Belt''.Hatcher, Gregory, comp. "Reverie Mansion and Gardens, Genteel Memories," 2001.

History

The property on which Reverie sits was sold on February 9, 1858, for $4,000, a large sum in that day, to Joseph Thompson Whitsitt, a

planter Planter or Planters may refer to: Common meanings * A flowerpot or box for plants ** ''Jardiniere'', one such type of pot, mostly indoor types ** Cachepot, another term for the same ** Flower box, another type of planter, mostly for outdoors ** ...

(according to the census) and railroad investor. Wartime financial reverses led Mr. Whitsitt to sell the mansion on November 28, 1862, for $10,000 to Edward Kenworthy Carlisle, a wealthy cotton

broker A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither ...

who also owned one of the finest mansions in Alabama, Kenworthy Hall, located only a few miles away. Carlisle shortly sold the house again on April 28, 1863, to David Scott, a merchant and cotton, grist, and saw mill operator and manufacturer. Scott died on August 9, 1868, and left a will recording the furnishings of the mansion at that time. Harrison H. Hurt, son of a prominent merchant and planter, bought the mansion in 1871 at auction for $4,650. Mr. Hurt's daughter Nellie married Dr. R.C. Hanna and the mansion became known as the Hurt-Hanna House. After Mrs. Hanna's death in 1944, the house was sold to Dr. William T. Weissinger, who in the course of a distinguished career had been General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...

's physician in the army. Mrs. Weissinger first named the house Reverie which it has remained ever since. Since Dr. Weissinger's death in 1971, the house has been owned by a number of families, each of which maintained it as a residence. While the house was owned by David Scott in the 1860s, Union troops occupied the town of Marion and used the house as their headquarters. Some markings of these troops can be found in the attic.

Architecture

Four white Doric columns of brick, covered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

, give this Greek Revival mansion its monumental appearance. The house features a massive

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

board with

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

moldings which surrounds the entire home. Board siding and double hung paned windows are all original. A

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco * Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

with classical

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

sits atop the low-hipped roof and there is also a balcony above the entrance. The mansion is a standard four-room over four-room house with a spacious central hall and grand, unsupported staircase, but also has two story cabinet rooms on the east and west sides. These flanking rooms were unusual at the time and, together with the

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

, made the design quite distinctive. Two outbuildings survive: the original kitchen, now connected to the house, and a brick smokehouse. The interior of the Mansion includes elaborate

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

moldings and medallions, original to house, along with

inlaid Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

flooring of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...

which was added later. The ceiling height downstairs is 14' and upstairs 13' with original heart pine floors in most areas. In the garden, a

Wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae). The genus includes four species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and nor ...

arbor is thought to predate the construction of the house by several decades and may be the oldest surviving Wisteria in Alabama. There is also a

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost So ...

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, plats, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the ...

(

knot garden A knot garden is a garden style that was popularized in 16th century England and is now considered an element of the formal English garden. A knot garden consists of a variety of aromatic and culinary herbs, or low hedges such as box, planted in ...

or maze) which was probably put in sometime after the turn of the 19th century and was restored in recent decades.

History

Architecture

Gallery

References

Further reading