During the early days of Jacksonian America, I wrote a post about Andrew Jackson Donelson’s home in Bolivar County, Mississippi. Recently, Bob Lovinggood, a descendant of Captain J.T. Lovinggood, contacted me about photographs of the home. Captain Lovinggood owned the home after the Donelsons and sold it to the Yates family in 1912.
Much of the information on the house can be found in NRHP nomination form on the MDHA website, which includes two photos. It had Greek Revival elements to it and as late as 1976 was described on the nomination form as “[retaining] most of its original woodwork which, remarkably enough, is fairly well preserved.” The form also notes that the house had experienced “many years of neglect” and had “reached the final stages of deterioration.” The form optimistically states that “the current owners are willing to encourage a public restoration program.” Unfortunately, as you can see below, that effort either was never undertaken or was abandoned almost immediately.
Mr. Lovinggood was kind enough to give me permission to post a couple of pictures of the home that he took in 1990. He also passed along other information and photos of the home. I’m posting the photos in chronological order below to give you an idea of the deterioration of the Donelson home over the decades. Unless noted otherwise, all photos came from Mr. Lovinggood.
It’s a sad sight.
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