Port Gibson sale to offer glimpse of days gone by

The contents of this palatial mansion, once the town home of a cotton planter, later divided into family apartments and most recently restored as a bed and breakfast inn, will be sold in an estate tag sale Feb. 1-3.

It's a familiar story of family changes and moving on. Perhaps the only difference is the scale.

Bill and Martha Lum, each with family roots in the area stretching back to the late 1700s, bought Oak Square in 1976 as a retirement occupation, restoring it as a B&B that welcomed tourists through its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Bill Lum, also a merchant, was the organizing chairman for Grand Gulf State Park and remained there for decades; Martha Lum, second vice regent for the state society of Daughters of the American Revolution in the 1960s, was "the ubiquitous Southern belle," their son, Doug Lum, said.

The mansion was furnished with family heirlooms dating back more than 175 years, a collection that over the years was augmented by more 19th century furniture outfitting additional buildings on the grounds.

"When my father died (in 1995), things took a different direction," said Doug Lum.

The inn continued to operate until 2011; the customer base trended more toward extended stay, with guests housed in the other buildings on the grounds. But the main house hasn't been used as a bed-and-breakfast since the mid-1990s. It's been locked up and preserved since. 

The main house has passed to Martha Lum's late daughter's children; now 88, she has moved and is downsizing with the help of her son and his wife, Deborah Elizabeth. Her surviving daughter lives in Ridgeland; grandchildren are spread from Texas to Washington, D.C.

"Many things have gone to children and grandchildren, but there's just so much," said Doug Lum, a local architect, who lives in a restored historic home with his family of six. 

Such estates and collections demand resources and fortitude. 

"It just takes everything. Mother was of another generation. And they were willing to do it," Doug Lum said. "I'm raising children. We've got cars and gas and basketball and the things that we do."

Cartwright Estate Liquidations is handling the estate tag sale, which is the first of three on the site — a necessity because of the volume.

Second and third estate sales, which will include the contents of the adjoining properties and Oak Square's extensive attic, will be held in March and April, Paul Cartwright said.

A Gothic house stood on the site originally, probably 1850, and burned in 1905. It was salvaged and rebuilt in 1906 — a historic marker notes the dual date).

Facing Church Street for more than a century is the Corinthian-columned front, a grand focal point that beckons guests from the herringbone brick walk.

The Lums rescued Oak Square from deterioration — and also saved Temple Gemiluth Chassed, the state's oldest surviving Jewish synagogue, earning a preservation award.

"The family did a superb job of restoring the home to be the showcase it became," Port Gibson Reveille publisher Emma Crisler wrote.

In this historic town deemed by Gen. U.S. Grant "too beautiful to burn," Oak Square was the setting for the Spring Festival for several years, an Old South type pageant with women in hoop skirts and men in Confederate uniforms, participating in a Maypole Dance. It was once declared one of the Top 10 Events in the Southeast.

The main house's 15 rooms are packed with period furnishings that recall another era, too. Its elegant central staircase splits halfway up, pausing at a minstrels' gallery.

Early 1830s classical Empire library, parlor and dining room furniture includes Empire pieces by Meeks, Hall of Philadelphia, Charles Baudouine and others. Federal, Rococo and Victorian furniture in rosewood, flame mahogany and walnut that would dwarf a house any smaller, are right at home here.

The Oriental rug in the main hall measures 12 by 21.7 feet. The massive Empire mahogany dining table stretches 15 feet with all six leaves.

An 11-foot-tall pier mirror, backed by solid wood, carries a $2,500 price tag and is so heavy it will take two men to re-hang for the sale.

The Chickering rosewood box grand from the 1850s — marked $3,000 — still has the ivory keys.

"Whale ivory, I guess," Doug Lum said.

A 9- to 10-foot Rococo revival rosewood bookcase is marked toward the top end ($6,000), as is a Federal Teaster bed with turned acanthus leaf posts ($7,500).

A Gothic Louisiana armoire's chamfer cornered crown softens the play of light. Still, at 8 feet tall, "it would eat up an 8-foot room," Cartwright said.

The estate sale has attracted inquiries from about 10 states, including Alaska. About 300 pictures of pieces are up on the national website, www.estatesales.net, with more to be added later.

"The hit rate is usually 2,500 by several weeks out. We're already at 6,500 hits," Cartwright said.

Since the house has been closed 15 years, local curiosity is ripe, too. 

The market is Port Gibson, Natchez, Woodville and lower parts of the South, he said, and for the hundreds of large items, the surroundings help.

"It sells better in its original setting, rather than taking somewhere where it's out of its element."

The sale is rare both for its volume and the fact that the houseful of contents is intact. Interiors also include 19th century paintings as well as works by local artists, a half dozen Teaster beds, many history-related books, cut glass, lamps, Empire dressers, chests, side tables linens, vintage clothes and gift shop contents including Confederate memorabilia, prints and more.

Outside, the courtyard's iron patio sets that often served as outdoor dining for the bicyclists who'd tour through on their Natchez Trace travels, as well as statuary, fountains and birdbaths, are part of the sale.

Prices typically are more open to negotiation on the sale's second and third days, Cartwright said, with family members having the final say.

"It's part of the vanishing Southern landscape," Doug Lum said. "It's one place that's been intact so long. It has reached the end of its history in this particular family, in that way."

___

Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.