Saturday Summer Hours 2013
Start 2013 with Lakeport Plantation’s new exhibits and hot cocoa. Come join us for our New Year’s Open House from 12 pm to 3 pm on Saturday January 26.
Built in 1859, Lakeport is the last antebellum plantation home along the Mississippi River in Arkansas. New exhibits installed throughout the house are based on years of restoration and research in family records, archives and oral histories. On display are artifacts found during restoration and original items donated back to Lakeport.
All are welcome to this free event.
The Season of giving is the perfect time to reflect on the gifts Lakeport has received in 2012.
In April Lakeport received nineteen of the original balusters that had been removed and placed in Helen Epstein Kantor’s Greenville home ca 1950. Read more about the balusters in the post: Balusters Return to Lakeport!
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| Balusters in Kantor house, 2008 |
In June Richard M. Johnson, brought Lakeport a number of goodies for a long-term loan. We received several books; Two books, from the 1830s, belonged to Richard’s great-grandfather Lycurgus L. Johnson; the remainder of the books belonged to Richard’s grandfather, Dr. Victor M. Johnson and included medical texts, a bee keeping manual, and literary volumes. Richard also brought Lakeport his grandmother Martha Johnson’s beaten biscuit maker, his grandfather’s bee foundation maker, and a cradle that was in use in the family from the 1870s into the 1970s. Richard also donated a love seat which needs restoration.
In September, during the opening of our exhibits, we received several donations.
Cat Johnson Pearsall, daughter of Robley Johnson, donated her father’s baby book, family newspaper clippings and her father’s final written memories of Lakeport. Inside her father’s baby book we found a lock of young Robley’s hair and his first photo from Thanksgiving Day 1908 in Greenville, Mississippi.
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| Victor & Martha Johnson with son Robley, Thanksgiving Day, 1908, Greenville, Miss. |
The 1908 photo’s location in Greenville has proved a bit of a mystery. There seems to be an iconic rose window in the background that might be a church. Victor and Martha were introduced at the First Christian Church in Greenville, a church his sisters Linnie Johnson and Annie Johnson Starling founded. But the structure in the background doesn’t seem to resemble known images of the Christian Church (like this one at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History) or any other turn of the century church in Greenville.
Bill Gamble, a Greenville resident and a descendant of Lyne Starling, donated Lyne’s 1871 Yale Yearbook. The Starlings, led by William Starling, purchased Sunnyside Plantation in 1868. Lyne’s brother Charles also attended Yale that year and married Annie Johnson at Lakeport in 1878. You can read about their sister Lollie’s memories of Lakeport in the post Laura (Lollie) P. Starling (1854-1946).
On a related note: Ben & Phyllis Starling, residents of Botha, Alberta and descendants of Charles Starling, donated William Starling’s Civil War notebook and surveyor’s hand level (ca. 1863).
Finally, two portraits were shared with Lakeport. One is a portrait of Sam Epstein, who bought Lakeport in 1927 from Victor Johnson. It is on loan to Lakeport from Lynda Festinger White, grand daughter of Mr. Epstein.
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| Sam Epstein, ca. 1940 |
Ed Warren, grand nephew of Frank H. Dantzler, Jr. donated the portrait of Mr. Dantzler’s mother, Julia Drake Dantzler. The portrait hung at Lakeport while Mr. Dantlzer managed Lakeport from 1927-1950 (Dantzler partly owned Lakeport between 1927-1940).
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| Julia Drake Dantzler, mother of Frank Dantzler, Jr., ca. 1880 |
Thank you to all the donors in 2012 and years past! Donations deepen our understanding of Lakeport’s history and create a richer experience for visitors.
Lakeport will be
We’ll resume regular hours on January 2, 2013.
Special Announcement:
We will also be closed on Labor Day, Monday, September 3.
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| Design Development: North Parlor |
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| Design Development: Dining Room & Master Bedroom |
June 2, 2012 – July 28, 2012.
Earlier this week, I received a phone call from Realtor, Dottie Collins in Greenville, Mississippi. “Blake,” she said, “your Lakeport balusters are ready to be picked up.” She was referring to the 19 Lakeport balusters, which made up the front porch balustrade, that had been in a Greenville, Mississippi home since 1953. The house had just sold and the new owner was gutting the house. Dottie informed the new owner that the balusters had come from Lakeport and he saved them. I called the new owner and rushed over to the house and found them waiting for me in a large garbage bag.
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| Original Lakeport balusters salvaged in 2012 from a home in Greenville, Mississippi |
Here’s the back story:
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| May 26, 1953, The Delta Democrat Times |
Back in 2008, while searching for information about Lakeport in Greenville’s The Delta Democrat Times, I came across an article from May 26,1953 about the new home of Mrs. Harold Kantor in the Wilzin Park neighborhood. The article recounts Mrs. Kantor’s collection of old Americana to decorate her “Early American-French provincial” home. Mrs. Kantor’s collection included “the banister posts, which are from Mrs. Kantor’s fine old home on Lake Port Plantation in Arkansas.” In two photos that accompany the article, you can clearly see the balusters referred to in the article. From the photos, they looked a lot like Lakeport’s originals.
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| Close-up of balusters in Kantor home, 1953 |
It turns out that Mrs. Harold Kantor was Helen Epstein Kantor, one of Sam Epstein’s three daughters. Sam Epstein purchased Lakeport from the original Johnson family in 1927 and, it seems, Mrs. Kantor took a number of the balusters from Lakeport for her new home in 1953.
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| Inside the Kantor home, Wilzin Park, November 2008 |
After a little research, I figured out the address of the home and saw that it was for sale through Collins Real Estate. After learning the balusters were still in the house, I was able to meet with the owner and take several pictures documenting the 19 balusters.
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| Original baluster found in Lakeport’s commissary |
Before the restoration of Lakeport, it was thought that all the balusters were missing. However, two turned up on a top shelf of the commissary. These two were used to recreate the balustrade during restoration. Now with the donation of the Kantor balusters, we now have almost 30% of the originals. These won’t ever be put back on the house, but will be kept as artifacts for display and references in case we need to make any replacements.
