Friday, October 23, 2009
The Secret Mansion in Annesdale-Snowden
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 12:43 PM
There are some places in town that you just have to see, but you rarely get an opportunity to do so. You know what I'm talking about ... historic mansions behind huge brick walls, the viewing area at the apex of The Pyramid, the upstairs of Graceland.
This morning, as I was motoring down Lamar Avenue, I stumbled on just such an opportunity: An estate sale at the historic Snowden home.
In 1850, Dr. Samuel Mansfield built an Italianate mansion on 200 acres on the outskirts of Memphis. Nineteen years later, Colonel Robert C. Brinkley bought the estate as a wedding gift to his daughter, Annie Overton Brinkley, and her husband, Colonel Bogardus Snowden. At that time, it was dubbed Annesdale, for Annie's Dale.
The sale's webpage says:
"Architecturally, the house, with its square tower, bracketed cornice, round-arched porch, and asymmetrical plan, was absolutely up-to-date for the mid-1850's. Although the name of its designer is unknown, details of the exterior and elements of the plan quite possibly were derived from a "Norman Villa" designed by the Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloane."
The entry fee for the estate sale is $5 and all proceeds benefit the Church Health Center. It's well worth the fee: The home is beautiful and when else are you going to be able to go inside? Most times when you drive by, the gate is closed, and you can't even see the house from the street.
I didn't have time to do a lot of exploring but the grounds are amazing — very Secret Garden-y, if you're into that sort of thing. Oh, and the sale continues the rest of the weekend.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
Thanks for posting - I've been wanting to see the grounds and inside of this house for about 18 years - it was amazing and absolutely worth the entry fee. It's sad to see the Snowden family belongings being sold off, though...
like
dislike....it needs to Be put as an Historic Site in Memphis history. If the Winchester House in California can Be classified as Historic, so should this "Fantastic", work of art in a city that needs Beauty, style and class.
nah. let's tear it down and put up a parking lot surrounded by razor wire in its place. That would be so Memphis.
Beautiful home and grounds! I toured it this morning. Only $5.00 to visit this museum-quality residence!
It was wonderful to see, but sad to think that it might get disappeared by developers. Does anybody know what's going to happen to the two dogs that i used to see by the gates every day on my way to work. One was in a kennel at the rear of the house and looked quite shaken up and bewildered by the whole affair. It made me sad to think they might lose their home, too.
B - my friend asked several of the estate sale workers about the dogs. There were some conflicting stories. One said that family members are living in the house, another said family members come by every day to check on the dogs (supposedly there were three - I only saw one). Yet another said that she first saw the kenneled dog Thursday evening and as of Saturday afternoon, it looked like it had not moved at all.
One of the workers assured my friend that he would check on the dogs situation.
Seeing the house was awesome, but the sale made me sad.
I was told that family members were going to be living in the house, and that the family had gotten the stuff from the house they wanted and were selling off what they didn't. Of course, that was hearsay and not really on the record, but that's what I heard.
There is a good bit of additional information as well as photographs of the house at the Library of Congress. Here is a link-
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/P…
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