The Blewett-Harrison-Lee Home & Museum was built in 1847 by Major Thomas Garton Blewett of Columbus, Mississippi. Built as a private residence in the Italianate style, the property originally consisted of the entire city block.
The original layout of the home consisted of 12 rooms with the downstairs rooms measuring 30’ x 40’ with 16’ ceilings. A large conservatory existed on the south side of the home and off the parlor. It reached to the second floor and overlooked a formal flower garden that was located where the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library now stands. The iron animals now displayed in the front yard of the home were originally in the gardens. On the north side of the home was a one and a half story wing with two large bedrooms, one belonging to Major Blewett. The hallway that once led to these bedrooms is now the kitchen. The original kitchen was separate from the main home, but connected to the home by a 20 foot covered walkway. In between the kitchen and the home was a “Roman” bath house, beautifully painted and well equipped. Also on the block were the slave’s quarters, stables, and vegetable gardens. The central home is all that remains of the original structures that once made up the whole block.
Major Blewett was born in North Carolina in 1798 and attended college at Chapel Hill. He married Regina De Graffenried (1799-1856) in 1815. Major Blewett was both a planter and an engineer. He moved to Columbus from Chester, South Carolina in 1832. The move occurred in response to the signing of The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 between the Choctaw Nation and the United States government. The Treaty opened up approximately 11 million acres of land west of the Tombigbee River and moved the Native Americans to lands in what is now the state of Oklahoma.
Major Blewett’s first plantation was located south of Columbus on the Lowndes and Noxubee county line. Eventually, he owned three plantations in Lowndes County: PeeDee, Chester, and York. In 1835, Major Blewett built his first home in the city of Columbus on the bluff of the Tombigbee River, near the present location of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
In 1844, Major Blewett purchased Blewett Square and began the construction of the current Blewett-Harrison-Lee Home. In 1856 Regina Blewett died and her husband never remarried.
During the Civil War, Major Blewett supported the Confederacy, contributing both money and underwriting his son Randle’s company. During the War, Confederate officers and staff were invited to stay in the house. Among the visitors were General Leonidas Polk (known as the “Fighting Bishop”), Daniel Ruggles of the artillery brigade made famous at Shiloh, and Lt. Gen. Stephen Dill Lee. Three of Major Blewett’s sons also served in the Confederate Army. His youngest, Randle, was a captain who was killed in Virginia in the Seven Days Fighting around Richmond on June 27, 1862. He is buried in Richmond at Hollywood Cemetery.
After Major Blewett’s death on May 2, 1871, the home and property passed to his daughter, Regina Harrison. Harrison was the widow of attorney and former member of Jefferson Davis’ Confederate cabinet, James T. Harrison. At her death in 1890, the house went to her two daughters: Mary Harrison and Regina Lee. Regina Lee was the wife of General Stephen D. Lee (founding president of Agricultural & Mechanical College now Mississippi State University). Regina died in 1902 and General Lee in 1908.
In 1909, U.S. President William H. Taft, accompanied by Judge J.M. Dickinson, came to Columbus. Dickinson, a native of Columbus, was Secretary of War in Taft’s cabinet. President Taft first attended a reception at the Lee Home, hosted by Mary Harrison and Blewett H. Lee, son of General and Regina Lee. After the reception, he spoke at the Industrial Institute and College (now Mississippi University for Women) before being led by parade through the city of Columbus.
Mary Harrison was the last family member to live in the house. After her death in 1916, the home was inherited by Blewett H. Lee. Soon thereafter, Blewett, a lawyer in Atlanta, conveyed Square 18 North of Main Street to the Columbus School Board for educational purposes.
Stephen D. Lee High School was built on the square and the house converted into a Home Economics building and cafeteria. In 1918, the wings were removed and the outbuildings torn down. The house was joined to the school building by a corridor that connected the second floors of both structures. The City of Columbus built a new Lee High School on Military Road in 1953 and the old school building became exclusively the Junior High School.
After the fire, all school classes were moved to the new High School building and members of the Association for the Preservation of Antiquities in Columbus and Lowndes County (Antiquities Association) met with local officials to discuss plans for saving the Blewett-Harrison-Lee Home. Architect William Rosamond was hired to head the restoration efforts.
In 1960, the Antiquities Association and the Columbus-Lowndes Historical Society joined forces and created the S.D. Lee Foundation. The Foundation then turned the house into a museum and culture center. Some of the original furnishings and paintings were returned by the remaining family descendants to the house. The Florence McLeod Hazard Museum upstairs also contains many family pieces and photographs. The museum in filled with historical items connected with this area, including Civil War artifacts, period clothing, and personal memorabilia.
The Blewett-Harrison-Lee Home and Museum was designated an historic landmark in 1971 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places through the U.S. Department of the Interior. To find out more about the homes historic status on the Register go to http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/research/index.htm.
In 1976, the original wrought-iron fence was reinstalled around the house where it stands today. The fence had previously been sold to the Dudley Watson family. Richard Watson gave it to the Foundation in 1970 and they in turn had it rebuilt.
On December 14, 1959, the Junior High School was destroyed by fire. While battling the blaze, fire fighters tore down a portion of the connecting corridor to prevent the fire from spreading to the house. The home was left standing, but sustained major smoke damage and was left with a large hole in its south wall.
Having not spent too many years in Columbus, but several indeed, I am fascinated by
this historical account.