The Robert O. Wilder Building, previously known as the John W. Boddie House and then the Tougaloo Mansion House, is a historic plantation mansion on the campus of

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yo ...

Tougaloo, Mississippi Tougaloo (TUG-a-lu) is an area in Jackson and in Hinds County, Mississippi. Its ZIP Code, 39174, is assigned to the area encompassing Tougaloo College, which is in Madison County. The U.S. Postal Service operates the Tougaloo Post Office. Educa ...

History

The house was completed in 1860 for wealthy cotton planter and slave owner John Williams Boddie who died at the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. In 1869 the 500-acre former plantation, including the house, was bought for $10,500 by the

Freedmen's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

and the

American Missionary Association The American Missionary Association (AMA) was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on in Albany, New York. The main purpose of the organization was abolition of slavery, education of African Americans, promotion of racial equality, and ...

to become the campus of a school for Black students who were recently freed from slavery. NRIS Initially the building was used for a day school and then for housing female students in the upstairs bedrooms. Later it was used as a faculty dorm and for the college president's office. The building was renamed after college trustee Robert O. Wilder to better reflect the school's mission as a

historically black college Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

by distancing itself from a slave owner. It was individually listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982 and later became 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 distri ...

to the Tougaloo College Historic District in 1998. The building underwent structural renovations in 2003 and the exterior was refinished in 2012. The interior was renovated in 2020. The rebuilding project funds came from a combination of state and federal grants.

Architecture

A large majority of the

Antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...

plantation houses are of a

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style and the house is an unusual example Italianate architecture. It was designed by local architect and builder Jacob Lamour of Canton. The building is a two-story Italianate plantation house with a

gabled roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...

, bracketed

cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, and a

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 ...

. There is a grand entrance frontispiece with a six-panel front door.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Mississippi Houses in Madison County, Mississippi Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi Italianate architecture in Mississippi Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Mississippi Houses completed in 1860 University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi Plantation houses in Mississippi Tougaloo College

History

Architecture

See also

References