Customer Reviews

Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South (Dover Architecture)

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"Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South," by J. Frazer Smith, is an informative celebration of the home architecture of the southern United States. This volume is actually an unabridged reprint; the book was originally published in 1941 with the title "White Pillars: Early Life and Architecture of the Lower Mississippi Valley Country." The book includes a foreword by Leicester B. Holland.

The book contains drawings and floor plans of many historic homes. These visual elements are accompanied by a generous text. Smith not only profiles important homes, but also illustrates the evolution of the southern home from a single one-room cabin into "dogtrot" homes, and eventually into larger structures.

Some of the homes presented in the book are Cragfont (1820) of Tennessee, with its impressive second-floor ballroom; Andrew Jackson's "the Hermitage" (1831); the Forks of Cypress (1820), an Alabama house with a 2-story wrap-around portico; and the Walter place (1855), a Mississippi home with twin octagonal towers.

Unfortunately, a perspective drawing and floor plans are not included for every house presented in the book. Also, an unpleasant racist subtext shows up at points in the book. Holland's foreword notes that the book "is a survey of the habitations of man of the Caucasian race [...] of the south." Elsewhere in the book are offhand or patronizing references to "niggers," "darkies," and an "old Mammy."

Since this book is an historic reprint, I believe that these racist remarks should be placed in proper context (but not ignored or excused). But if you want to see the majestic Greek-inspired pillars, covered porches, imposing staircases, and other elements that characterize classic southern architecture, check out this book.

The author speaks of the pleasing cream color used on the stucco walls of a particular home, but we are looking at an ink drawing. There are no actual photograhs in the book. I didn't enjoy trying to "imagine the color" at all.

I found it hard to recognize homes such as "Oak Alley" which I have actually visited. The line drawing did nothing to impress me at all. The artist line drawings do not do any home in the book any justice. It's unfortunate that after reading a small part of the book, I put it aside because I don't have a photo reference of the house I'm reading about.

This book would be better left on the shelf. Don't waste your money.

I bought this book hoping to see beautiful photos, but found black and white sketches which are very tastefully done and serve the purpose of the book, which is a textbook in architecture. The author travelled the South visiting these old mansions, some of which are now gone. So his sketches have preserved valuable information. I enjoyed the knowledge about the types of architecture and how it evolved from region to region and period to period. The basic thing I took away from this book is that architects were not professionals in the United States when these homes were being built. Many owners hired architects from France and Italy and you can easily see that in their forms. Also, some of the homes, though huge and beautiful, were not well-designed. I learned about types of staircases and which types were prominent in which regions, the types of brick used and how the skilled builders were hired from New York and Pennsylvania and lived on the plantation until the home was done. The slaves were used only to do the rough work such as molding bricks, digging basements etc. The sketches of the grounds and the garden layouts were most intriguing. This is a good book for those who want to know how a beautiful white-pillared mansion was built. For those who want glossy photos, there are better products out there.

Very well written, although all drawings are in black and white, this just adds to the book itself. It is done so well, I plan on making some models of the information provided. For color, just go into the internet or use your public library when looking for accuracy. Using one's imagination and this book, one can create a wonderful model and layout of the plantations in 1850 if you have a basic knowledge of model making. Side note, I picked up my copy in a used book store for $5.00, well worth the money, just for fun I checked the internet and found someone on Ebay is asking $956.00!!!!! Same book, same year, like new (just like mine) Just thought this was a fun bit of information that someone would expect to get that kind of money for this book. Great book.

The book is great and has good detail. Even though it was originally published in 1941. There are many details about the individual mansions.

This book has been instrumental in my research on Plantation architecture and floor plans of the antebellum south. The write-ups are the next best thing to being there.