Bellevue Plantation
{{short description|Historic house in Florida, United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Bellevue Plantation
| image = Bellevue Plantation house - Tallahassee Museum.jpg
| caption = Bellevue today, at the Tallahassee Museum
| location = Leon County, Florida
| nearest_city = Tallahassee, Florida
| coordinates = {{coord|30|24|45|N|84|20|41|W|display=inline,title}}
| area =
| built =
| architect =
| architecture =
| added = March 11, 1971
| refnum = 71000238{{NRISref|2010a}}
| visitation_num =
| visitation_year =
}}
File:Bellevue historical marker - Tallahassee Museum.jpg
Bellevue Plantation was the U.S. home of Catherine Willis Gray Murat, located in Tallahassee, Florida. It was purchased in 1854 after Catherine's second husband Prince Achille Murat (son of Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law and King of Naples from 1808 to 1815) died in 1847. Murat was the great-grandniece of George Washington. She was a daughter of Colonel Byrd C. Willis (August 29, 1781 – 1846) and his wife Mary Lewis. Mary Lewis was the granddaughter of Fielding Lewis, George Washington's brother-in-law. Through the Lewis family, she was also a relative of explorer Meriwether Lewis.
Plantation home
The home was named after the Hotel de Belle-Vue in Brussels, where Catherine and Achille had lived while in Europe.{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19991023&id=si4zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gggGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4135,6303039 | title=The princess who save Mt. Vernon | work=The Free Lance-Star | date=October 23, 1999 | accessdate=December 11, 2014 | last=Sandler |first= Roberta | page=3 |via= GoogleNews}} It has been restored and has period furnishings.
The house is now part of the grounds of the Tallahassee Museum and is located in the Old Florida section. Visitors can learn about the area's plantation communities. There are two adjacent reconstructed buildings, a plantation kitchen and a cabin for enslaved farm workers.
Plantation specifics
The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that Bellevue Plantation had the following:
- Improved Land: {{convert|470|acre|abbr=on}}
- Unimproved Land: {{convert|50|acre|abbr=on}}
- Cash value of plantation: $10,000
- Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $200
- Cash value of farm animals: $510
- Number of enslaved humans: 24 (cash value immeasurable)
- Bushels of corn: N/A
- Bales of cotton: N/A
The owners
During Catherine's years at Bellevue, she became involved in America's first successful preservation effort of Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, through the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. She was appointed Vice Regent for Florida, the title given the central person in each state organizing the association's work. The state raised $3,791 toward the restoration of Mount Vernon, the largest per capita amount raised by any of the 30 contributing states. During the Civil War, Murat participated in the local "Soldiers Aid Societies," which met as sewing circles to clothe the southern troops. Early in 1866, Napoleon III, who had come to power in France in 1849, granted Murat an annuity from the French government in consideration of her losses during the Civil War. Catherine Murat died August 6, 1867, at Bellevue.
Bellevue was sold to Captain Bloxham who owned the William D. Bloxham Plantation. In June 1883, Bellevue, now at {{convert|357|acre|abbr=on}} of land, was sold to Edward Smeaton Thomson of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.tallahasseemuseum.org Tallahassee Museum website]
Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida
Category:Museums in Leon County, Florida
Category:Florida in the American Civil War
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Leon County, Florida
Category:Plantations in Leon County, Florida
Category:Farm museums in Florida
Category:American Civil War museums in Florida
Category:Houses in Leon County, Florida