The outside of the house is all decorated, including the front door and the rest of the front porch. Some poinsettias have also been put in the planters out front, and some of the plants have also been pruned back. Just before we went inside, I got a picture of Fred at the front door.

Inside, we found that Gary had been busy almost all night putting the finishing touches on all the floral displays and decorations, and the house really does look like a showplace.

On the back patio, Gary has arranged some wicker furniture for tour-takers to sit on had have some apple cider and cookies, which have been set out on a table by the back door where the people taking the tour will be exiting the house. Justin got dressed up to greet visitors, and we set out the refreshments. Gary also stationed Justin's aunt, Mary Ann Normand in the kitchen to explain the history of the back part of the house and then usher guests out to the patio for their refreshments. The seating area did turn out to be popular, and I had a chance to meet a number of the visitors during the afternoon as they sat for a while and enjoyed the sunlight.

Out front, by the fountain (which had been decorated with poinsettias), the photographers that Justin had engaged to take pictures of the house and the tour had set up their cameras to photograph all of Justin and Gary's relatives and friends who would be helping with the tour. That was the next thing to be done- ushering those participants, by now dressed in their period costumes, out to the fountain area to have their pictures taken.

At some point, I will get copies of the official pictures that the photographer took, and maybe I can include some of them here. But for now, let's take a look at some of the candid pictures that Fred and I took of some of the relatives and friends as they were getting those photographs made. Just click on the little thumbnails to see the full-size picture:

From left to right, we have Arleen Mayeux, a friend of Justin's and the proprietor of the Jefferson House B&B, Gary's cousin, Terri Itzig, myself, Rod Cathey, who is Gary's 1st cousin- the son of Edwin and Barbara Cathey-, Rod's daughter, Lauren Cathey, and Rod's wife, Hilda Cathey.

From left to right are Arleen Mayeux, Terri Itzig, myself, and Gary's aunt, Nobie Makar.

From left to right are Lucia Marie Creighton (back towards you), who is Justin's father's first cousin's daughter (nobody said family trees aren't complicated); Ariel Adkins, Justin's first cousin's daughter; Gayle Fitzhugh, Justin's paternal grandmother's first cousin's daughter-in-law (whew!); and, partially hidden behind the bush, Terri Itzig.

From left to right are Jennifer Threadgill (back towards you), who is Justin's first cousin; Ariel Atkins (partially obscured in back); Sydnie Threadgill, Justin's first cousin's step-daughter; and Gloria Jean Normand, Justin's father's sister (his aunt).

On the left is Gary's aunt, Barbara Cathey, and on the right is Lauren Cathey.

Terri Itzig.

On the left is Gary's cousin-in-law, Marty McCain, and on the right is Nobie Makar.

Arleen Mayeux.

The Hostesses and Photo Session While I was taking individual pictures out front, Fred made a movie of all the participants who were there, and he walked over to where the photo shoot was going on.

Breakfast at the Steel Magnolia House B&B

Once we saw that all the preparations for the tour were completed and that we would not be needed for a while, Fred and I went down the street two houses to the Steel Magnolia House B&B to sample their breakfast.

To get to the B&B, we found that we could go across the vacant lot behind the building just north of Soldini House across Demeziere St. and around into the back of the Steel Magnolia House property. As we started across Demeziere, Fred took a picture of the Steel Magnolia House property, and I have put a copy of it at left. I have also marked a couple of important locations so we can mention them shortly.

When we entered the property through the back gate, we walked across the front of the white building labeled in the picture. This building is now a garage/storage room on the first floor and a guest suite on the second. While the first floor of the building was present and used in a couple of short movie scenes, the second floor suite was added after the movie was made. This building faces away from us in this picture.

Then we crossed the parking apron and port d'cochere and into the family room via the west-facing back door. Once inside that door, we are in the room used most for filming in the movie. There are windows on the west and south and the doorway and pass‑through to the kitchen on the north end of the room. Also on the brick-walled north end is the back stairway to the second and third floors of the house, a stairway that also appeared multiple times in the movie. The east side of the room has the fireplace and an a hall that leads to the rooms at the front of the house and to the front door.

Steel Magnolias House Family Room

I have found a clip from the movie that shows all these features of the family room. You'll see Sally Field cross the family room to go through the back door, you'll see Daryl Hannah standing at the bottom of the back stairway, and the clip will end with a view through the pass-through and doorway into the kitchen.

We had some coffee in the family room with a couple of the other guests before our hostess called us into the dining room for breakfast. The dining room is on the north side of the house, east of the kitchen, with the parlor east of that at the northeast corner of the house. So we joined some other guests in the dining room for breakfast (which, I must say, was a disappointment after having had so many delicious breakfasts at Ruckman Haus in San Antonio).

After breakfast, I went up to our suite to work on a surprise gift for Justin and Gary, returning to Soldini House in the early afternoon. Fred hung around for a while and then walked three blocks to the American Cemetery, which was also used in the movie. The cemetery is two blocks east of Justin and Gary's house. We'll look at his pictures from the cemetery next, and then take the tour of Soldini House when he rejoins me there later.

At the American Cemetery

While I was working on my gift to Justin and Gary, Fred took a walk two blocks away along Demeziere St. to The American Cemetery. You can see the cemetery marked on the aerial view at left.

When Fred got to the cemetery, he began to wander around looking at the various gravestones and markers.

Just inside the entrance to the cemetery, Fred found a historical marker with the beginning date for the cemetery and a dedication of the graves in it. You can have a look at that marker here. Next to it was another plaque with a short history of the cemetery, which dates from the mid-eighteenth century. You can read that marker here.

Just inside the cemetery there was a descriptive sign with a good deal of information about the cemetery, its history and some of the important people buried there. Fred took a picture of this sign, but unless you have the capability of magnifying it, it is very difficult to read. So what I have done is put a picture of this sign below and defined clickable areas on it. If you want to read any of the text, or look at any of the pictures, just click on that portion of the sign and I will pop up a window with a magnified picture of that portion of the sign. You should be able to read the text and see the pictures without much trouble:

If you have looked at all the sections of the sign above, then you saw the small picture of the Kimball grave marker (the small picture in the lower right of the sign). Fred happened to also take a picture of the real marker, and you can have a look at it here. Fred also took some good pictures of some of the tall obelisk markers that are scattered through the cemetery; you can see two of the best ones here and here. Fred took lots of other pictures here in the cemetery; if you are interested in looking at some of them, I have put thumbnails for seven of the most interesting below. To view the full-size picture, just click on the thumbnail:

Although American Cemetery is famous historically, it is also famous for having been used in the movie "Steel Magnolias." As you can read on the marker plaque at left, the entire funeral scene was filmed here.

I actually tried to match some of the graves and markers that I could see in the film with those in Fred's pictures, but I couldn't definitively place much of that scene in relation to them. The only clue I have is that the picture seen here was taken very close to the marker. In comparing the picture to the position where Sally Field is standing when Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton and Daryl Hannah gather around her, I think I can pick out some of the markers, but I am not positive.

Perhaps you will have some better luck if you watch a clip of that funeral scene; if it seems a bit jerky in spots, that's because I edited out some sections that don't show the cemetery itself. You can watch this clip with the player below:

The Cemetery Scene from "Steel Magnolias" This clip runs from the beginning of the cemetery sequence through Sally Field's answer to Daryl Hannah's comment about "Shelby being with her King."

When Fred's walk through the cemetery was over, he returned to the bed and breakfast to collect me, and we went back to Soldini House. After all, I wanted to take the tour, too.

The Soldini House Tour

Now it's time for you to tour Soldini House. I walked the tour route from the front verandah all the way through the house, upstairs and down, and finally out through the kitchen and out to the back patio and some refreshing cider and cookies. Why don't you come along with me, and I'll try to show you all the things I saw and photographed, and also introduce you to the various Cathey/Normand relatives and friends who performed host and hostess duties in the various rooms.

The Front Verandah

The tour and the wealth of fascinating information about Soldini House and its human history began the moment I walked along the sidewalk past the new fountain decorated with poinsettias and up to the front steps.

Greeting me on the Verandah were: (front, left) Arleen Mayeux (Justin and Gary's neighbor and proprietor of the Jefferson House B&B), (rear, right) Rod Cathey (Gary's first cousin) and (front, right) Sam Welch (Justin's cousin and son of Lucia Marie Creighton). Helping out throughout the house was (rear, left) Melissa Robinson (friend of Justin and Gary and Tour Chairman of the Natchitoches Historic Society).

For the first encounter guests had with tour guides, Gary scripted a very nice introduction, and I will just reproduce it here:

Sam: "Hello! I am Sam Welch, and I am the great-great-great-grandson of J.H. Williams, who bought this house in 1916 for his daughter, my great-great-grandmother. On behalf of our family, I would like to welcome you to Soldini House!" Rod: "This is the 164th Christmas that this home has looked forward to a visit from Santa Claus. This residence was designed by Anthonese Triscini and built in 1847 by Joseph Soldini as his own residence. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places along with six other structures designed and built by that team- including the Lemee House and the famous "Steel Magnolia" House next door. The United States Department of the Interior designated this home as "Pivotal" to Natchitoches being named only the second National Historic District by the United States Congress. In the past 163 years, a great deal of history has passed by this verandah. You could have seen both Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant as they stopped in Natchitoches with their regiments, on their way to fight in the Mexican War. In 1863, you could have witnessed the Union Army headed south in retreat after their defeat at the Battle of Mansfield. The Confederate Army was in hot pursuit, which may explain why the Union soldiers did not stop long enough to burn any of the town. Another reason given why Natchitoches was spared the torch is that General Grant had given specific orders not to burn Natchitoches because of the fond memories he had from when he had visited." Sam: "My great-grandmother told me that when she was a little girl, during the early days of the automobile, children in the home would start shouting the news when a car was heard coming down the road. All the children would run out of the house onto this verandah to cheer and wave as the strange, new "horseless carriages" drove by." Arleen: "In 1984, tracks were laid down on the street for the movie cameras to roll past in the filming of the movie "Steel Magnolias." One of Sam's cousins who often played on this porch, and an uncle who often sat here passing the time, were cast as extras in the film. You can see them early in the picture as a paperboy on a bike throws a paper into this yard, and the little girl runs to pick it up and bring it to the old man sitting here." Rod: "You will hear many more stories of the house and of the families that have called it home. And, there are a few secrets to learn, as well. We hope you enjoy your visit as you step back into an Old Natchitoches Christmas."

Opening Sequence from "Steel Magnolias" I thought I might include the part of the opening sequence from "Steel Magnolias" where you can actually see the two individuals that Arleen mentioned- Walter Alcock sitting on the porch and Justin's cousin getting the paper.

Having been officially greeted, I was ushered in to the Front Room.

The Front Room (first floor, right, front)

The hostesses in the Front Room (which we would call the living room, were Gary's mother, Kathleen Cathey (pictured at left), and Gayle Fitzhugh, Justin's paternal grandmother's first cousin's daughter-in-law.

The property Soldini House sits on was first owned by Anthonese Demeziere through a land grant from the United States in the early 1800s. Rue Demeziere, the street beside the house, is named after him. The property passed to the greneaux family before being purchased by Joseph Soldini in 1847. Soldini, a master bricklayer, had moved from Austria to Natchitoches at the urging of his friend, the architect Anthonese Triscini.

Soldini became the most important builder in Natchitoches history. Seven residences that he built here in the historic district are on the National Register of Historic Places. They include the Steel Magnolia, Lemee, Levy-East, metoyer-Brown, laureate, William and Mary and Soldini Houses. This house was built of the finest materials: marble imported from Italy, hand-made bricks and cypress wood. All the exterior walls on the first floor are of double brick with stucco. The north and south walls are 14 inches thick; the east and west walls are 12 inches thick. All the interior walls on the first floor are also double brick with plaster. It is one of only two structures in Natchitoches that still retains its attached slave wing.

The Soldini House passed to the Chaplin family for six decades, and then sold to the present family when J. H. Williams bought the structure in 1915. Today, the 5th generation of the family still owns the home, and you'll learn more about them in the Williams Parlor. The large mantle mirror in this room is one of 2 mirrors in the house that were originally transported to Natchitoches from Georgia by ox wagon. they hang over Italian marble mantles that are original to the house. the ewers on the mantle were placed there in 1917. In each room you will see examples of rare flow blue china. The curio displays a polychrome flow blue set, one of the rarest sets in the collection. Above it, you can see the posters depicting this home on the Fall, 2009 Tour. And below that is the poster for this Tour- the Christmas Tour being held today. The center table is French. You can see these items, and the nativity in this room here. The very fine rosewood etagere is pre-Civil War. It displays a collection of Staffordshire figurines. The painting of Christ with the crown of thorns is believed to be the oldest painting and frame in the house. The bronze and crystal chandelier is from the 1800s.

This room has seen many joyous celebrations: multiple 50th wedding anniversaries, multiple weddings and even Gary's grandmothers 100th birthday party. Today, visitors can celebrate the Holy Season in this and the other rooms of the house.

The upside‑down tree that dominates this room is covered with over two thousand chandelier crystals. Some might think that upside-down trees are a modern trend among designers, but few realize that the earliest recorded history of a tree being used by Christians to celebrate Christmas tells us that the tree was hung upside-down from the celing. Trees had been used for millennia for the pagan celebration of Saturnalia, also in December. To celebrate the winter solstice, romans brought trees into their homes and decorated them with gold, silver and other trinkets. As these roman pagans converted to Christianity, some scholars believe that they continued to celebrate the custom of decorating a tree, but turned it upside down to differentiate themselves from the pagans. This tradition of upside-down trees continued for hundreds of years in parts of Poland and Germany.

All the garland in this room is cedar. There are over 1000 fresh flowers in arrangements throughout the home for today's Tour. These halls were decked! But, that was not always the custom in America. Over the staircase is a print titled "Christmas Eve." From the family's dress, we can tell that the print depicts a scene from the early 1800s, and we see the entire family gathered together around the fire. But we see not one Christmas decoration. In early America, most homes celebrated Christmas as a private, religious observance, and shunned any outward display of decoration or attempt to draw attention away from the "true" meaning of Christmas. Today, we find ways to celebrate this true meaning through our decorations, such as the nativities in each room- some over 70 years old. Also, each room displays an antique Bible; the one in this room is over 150 years old.

From the Front Room, the tour continued up the stairs to the second floor.

The Stairway and Upstairs Hall

I began my own tour on the second floor, as there were a couple of groups already in the Front Room and the Parlor. I went up the front room staircase pictured at left, turned at the landing and climbed the second flight. At the top, in front of me and below a large painting in the style of Western realism, was a hunt table decorated for Christmas; it also sported a working early-Century telephone. On the right is the doorway to Bobo's Bedroom, and on the left the doorway to the Ashland Bedroom.

On my right, where the landing continues to the rear of the house, is probably my favorite piece of artwork that Justin and Gary have. For some reason, I am quite taken with their Art Deco portrait of a woman.

When I come up and stand by the hunt table and look towards the rear of the house. There is a chandelier over the stairway and some large eclectic pieces of art on the walls. Also visible is the doorway to the Bienville Bedroom. The bathroom is at the rear of the house behind the Bienville Bedroom.

The tour sequence for the second floor took me first to the right at the top of the stairs and into Bobo's Bedroom.

Bobo's Bedroom (second floor, left, front)

The hostess in Bobo's Bedroom was Melissa Robinson, Gary and Justin's neighbor and the Tour Chairman of the Natchitoches Historic Society.

This is the smallest bedroom on the second floor. However, it was the one that Mrs. Alcock chose for herself. She made both of the pink magnolia needlepoints that you can see on the French bed. The desk, chair, clock, rugs and the lovely settee (that you can see at the end of the bed here) were all hers.

The photograph on the chair by the door was taken in the parlor below this room on Mr. & Mrs. Alcock's 50th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Alcock, active with Pilgrimage, were thought of as the "Grand Dames" of Natchitoches. Mrs. Alcock enjoyed weaving, as did many of the Williamses. She had her loom set up in the adjoining bedroom where she practiced her hobby.

In the early years of Pilgrimage, tour hostesses wore hoop skirts in the antebellum style. In later years, the APHN began calling their hostesses "Calico Belles," and the costumes were simple calico dresses with shawls. This actual dress by the antique American dresser is the one Mrs. Alcock wore when hostessing Pilgrimage. There is a small Nativity in this room that belonged to Mrs. Alcock; it was made by her daughter Lucia, who gave it to her as a present.

From here, the tour continued towards the back of the house and another bedroom.

The Red Bedroom (second floor, left, rear)

The hostess in the Red Bedroom was Terri Itzig, Gary's cousin.

When Soldini House was originally built, it had only two bedrooms upstairs with windows only on the north and south bagles. In the early 1920s, the family moved to their plantation home near Natchez. During this period, the family donated the use of the home to the First Baptist church for use as the parsonage for their pastor, Reverend Shultz. (Today, the chapel of the church is named after the Reverend.) During the preacher's tenure in the house, the family gave him permission to build out the roofline on the front of the house and install windows to increase the air circulation in his daughters' rooms.

In 1926, work began to build a full second floor on the house. That resulted in the four second-floor bedrooms and the bath you see today. When work was complete, the family moved from the plantation back to town, reclaiming the house from the pastor. Soon after the family moved back into the house, the stock market crashed, taking much of the family fortune with it. Thus began the Great Depression. During that time of economic distress, even the well-to-do families had to do things they were not used to doing to stay afloat financially. That was true for the Alcock family as well. During that time, this Red Bedroom was known as the "Children's Room." The three children shared this room, and the other rooms on this floor were rented out to college students. Two portraits of the one son, Walter, are on the wall. In his later years, he was the old uncle that was sitting on the veranda in the opening montage of the movie "Steel Magnolias."

Walter had three sisters. Edna Gloria died at age 4 during a plague of diphtheria. The other two sisters, Ruth Estelle and Lucia (who was born in the downstairs bedroom), have their portraits in this room, and Lucia's wedding dress on display as well. Lucia was married in front of the fireplace in the Front Room, and a picture on her wedding day in 1941 hangs in this room. For the season, the wedding portrait has been placed on the small rocking chair, and you can see both the portrait and the wedding dress here. Ruth Estelle Normand inherited this house from her parents; she was Justin's grandmother.

The bathroom on this floor was one of the first indoor bathrooms in Natchitoches. Throughout their lives, Ruth Estelle and Lucia would tell how the other schoolchildren would make fun of them when word got out that they had an indoor bathroom. They were teased that they were going to die from the germs! It seems that, at the time, there was quite a belief that indoor bathrooms were less sanitary than outhouses and chamber pots! Some in Natchitoches were slow to accept the "modern" idea.

The half-tester bed is in the Eastlake style and came from a plantation near Melrose. The large religious print is of Noah making a sacrifice on Mount Ararat. An exceptional Flow Blue set sits on the marble top of the washstand, and you can see all of these items here.

Now the tour exited the back of that bedroom, crossed the hall and entered another bedroom.

The Bienville Bedroom (second floor, right, rear)

The hostesses in the Bienville Bedroom were Barbara Cathey (Gary's Aunt), Hilda Cathey (Barbara's daughter-in-law) and Lauren Cathey (Hilda's daughter). Hilda is in the picture at left.

Welcome to the Bienville Bedroom. You have learned that when Natchitoches Parish began it included almost one-fourth of Louisiana. Gary's quadruple-great grandfather, Peter Franks, whose portrait hangs in this room, is believed to be the earliest settler in the area of Natchitoches Parish (which later became Bienville Parish). It is for him and that side of the family that this room is named. Portraits of Peter Franks and his wife, whose maiden name was Kemp hang in the corner. At the foot of the bed is the Kemp family trunk that has been in the family for six generations. Its contents include an old corset, eyeglasses, hatpins, a blue back speller and an example of an invitation to a funeral.

The most cherished item in the trunk is the Kemp family Bible with all the generations' births, deaths and marriages recorded in its pages. As was the custom of the day, the family often named their children after famous American leaders. The Bible records four George Washington Kemps, four Benjamin Franklin Kemps and two Thomas Jefferson Kemps.

Another important item in the trunk is the family portrait album. There are tintypes and photos on postcards; the oldest picture is actually on glass. Everyone loves the pictures of the children with their wonderful period costumes. Barbara took a moment to point out a portrait of her husband's grandparents (it hangs behind Hilda in the picture above), and a violin that belonged to her grandfather. It has a lion's head where the scroll usually is. You can see young Lauren and the violin here.

The bed, shown in the picture above, is attributed to Prudent Mallard, one of the most famous New Orleans furniture makers of the 1800s. The armoire is French, and the sofa is in the American Classical style from the 1840s. The empire table is a European piece. Barbara showed off the holiday tree that was decorated with fresh kumquats and oranges, grown in the garden here and picked just the day before. (Justin and Gary also have lemon, loquat and grapefruit trees in the garden; some years they harvest more than 500 lemons!)

To complete the tour of the second floor, I continued through towards the front of the house and the fourth and last bedroom.

The Ashland Bedroom (second floor, right, front)

The hostesses in the Ashland Bedroom were Gary's aunt, Nobie Makar, and his cousin, Marty McCain (shown in the picture at left).

The Ashland Bedroom is so named because the ancestors pictured in this room were from the little community of Ashland, which is located on what is now the northern border of Natchitoches Parish. The very distinguished gentleman in the frame is Gary's double-great grandfather, Harrison Hathorne. He owned a large plantation outside of Ashland. He was instrumental in ending Reconstruction in Natchitoches and afterwards was a judge. His granddaughter and her granddaughter, Gary's mother (who lived to be 100 years old), are both pictured in this room. In this picture of one of the room's citrine chairs, you can see on the left wall a picture of Gary's mother in her Mardi Gras Ball gown, which she wore ever season for a great many years. Her personal bible, the Sullivan family Bible, has been in Gary's family for many generations.

The Rococo Revival bed is attributed to William McCraken, another noted New Orleans furniture maker of the 1800s. The center table is Irish; it has a tiger oak top, winged cherubs, dragons eating berries and reticulated legs going into a barley twist and ending in bun feet- quite a combination of elements. On the table is a nativity made by Gary's mother.

The dresser and the citrine chairs are Renaissance Revival, while the armoire is French. And the trunk holds a little secret: it is filled to the brim with Mardi Gras beads collected over decades.

From here, the tour went back down the staircase and then crossed to the left side of the house for the parlor.

The Williams Parlor (first floor, left, front)

This parlor was named for J. H. Williams, Justin's great=great-grandfather. The parlor has a portrait of Williams and his wife Mary Edna. He was one of the most prominent men in Louisiana in the late 1800s and early 1900s; it was said that he could ride his horse from his place in Winnfield, 40 miles away from here, all the way to Natchitoches without ever leaving his own property! When he passed away in 1935, his descendants divided 34 plantations. In 1900, he built roselawn and moved the family to Natchitoches from Montgomery.

The house, you may recall, was deeded from Williams to his daughter, Henri D. Williams ("Bobo"), and when she married Walter Alcock, they moved into it. For many years the family had their portraits taken in this room on Christmas Eve. Williams also purchased the house next door for another of his daughters, Ruth Pearson, and the two sisters lived side by side here for the rest of their lives.

The hostesses in the Williams Parlor, the room to your left as you enter the house, were Justin's Aunt, Gloria Jean Normand, her daughter, Jennifer Threadgill and her daughter, Ariel Adkins. Left to right in the picture at left are Ariel, Gloria Jean and Jennifer.

The barley twist etagere in this room is believed to be the oldest piece of furniture in the house; a near identical piece can be seein in one of the bedrooms at The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. On the etagere here is an unusual set of flow blue- rectangular platters and covered serving pieces. The seats on the balloon back chairs are upholstered in black horse hair.

The secretary in this room is also an old family piece believed to have been made in Louisiana, and it contains a set of hand-painted porcelain. The flame mahogany American Classical sofa and marble top table in the window are both from the period during which the house was built.

Family Bibles have long been treasured possessions in many families, particularly in the South, and here, in front of this room's Nativity scene (on the table below the portraits of Walter and Bobo Alcock) you can see five of them. These five Bibles are those belonging to J. H. Williams, Bobo, Bobo's daughter Ruth Estelle Alcock Normand (who inherited the house from her mother), Justin Normand, the house's current owner, and his cousin Joe. There is a small Christmas tree in this room, typical of the earliest right-side-up trees. Back then, presents were small, and were often on the tree itself. Some of the Faberge-inspired ornaments on this tree open to allow gifts to be placed inside.

The boxwood garland in this room is draped in the style that was typical of the Victorian period, accentuating the crystal and bronze chandelier from the late 1800s. The mirror over the mantel matches the one in the Front Room; it was hung to lean out away from the wall in the old style. In the 1980s, the wire holding the top broke and the mirror crashed to the floor, taking the clock with it. the clock and frame broke into dozens of pieces and the thick old mirror shattered. Bobo wasn't home at the time, but the gas heater was on and it burned a good deal of the frame. After many years, the clock, and frame were professionally restored, a new mirror insert and both pieces and returned to their original place.

Incidentally, the fireplace pan leaning up against the fireplace has its own history, but it didn't begin with the Alcock family; it began a continent away. You can see a bit of its history in the 1950 newspaper clipping at right.

On the coffee table are an assortment of boxes and writing slopes, along with a stack of old canceled checks. These are the actual checks with which Williams purchased the house; he paid off the prior owner's debts.

From the parlor, the tour went through a door at the rear of the parlor that led towards the back of the house to the downstairs bedroom.

The Map Room (Downstairs Bedroom) (first floor, left, rear)

The hostess in this room was Justin's first cousin's (Jennifer Threadgill's) daughter, Sydnie Threadgill.

This bedroom is called the Map Room because of the collection of maps displayed on its walls. There is a print of the earliest known map of Natchitoches where you can see that the area was originally a group of islands in the Red river. It shows the "Great Raft," the name given to the naturally-formed log jam that had rendered the river un-navigable from this point north for over 100 miles- well into what is now Arkansas. When Natchitoches founder, A. St. Denis, and his men sailed as far north on the river as they could, they landed on the banks at this spot and were greeted by the Nakitosh Indian tribe that was camped here. He claimed the land for France (perhaps surprising news for its current inhabitants but typical of the view taken by Europeans to the Indians), and his men built a fort just a short distance from here. Bobby DeBlieux, Natchitoches' foremost historian, believes that Soldini House sits mere feet from where the original walls of this old fort once were.

The large map by the bed shows all the plantations from Natchez to New Orleans prior to the Civil War.

The American bed and gentleman's dresser are in the Renaissance Revival Style. The piece above the bed that holds the fabric drape is called a Corona. Underneath this room's Christmas tree is a fine walnut deed box and antique Bible; the Nativity in this room has been used by the family since 1939. Have a look at all these items, and some of the room's maps here. The tree is an example of an early artificial tree; artificial trees have been around since the mid-nineteenth century. The sudden popularity of Christmas trees brought about by Queen Victoria meant that too many trees in English and German forests were being topped, thus devastating the important lumber industry. Parliaments in both countries passed laws regulating the cutting, and a cottage industry arose making artificial trees out of goose feathers- like the one in this room. It was common for the feathers to be dyed green with a red paper macee berry at the end of each branch.

When Soldini built the house, it had a full cellar the size of the footprint of the house, as was the custom in Austria, his native land. The only residences in Natchitoches that still have cellars are four structures that Soldini built- the Lemee House, the Steel Magnolia House, the Laureate House and this home. All these cellars have had problems with flooding since these structures are located so close to the river. The water level in Louisiana made it unwise to build them. In 1926, the Alcocks brought the field hands from the plantation to town during the winter months, and bucket by bucket they filled most of the cellar up to ground level with dirt. If you get under the house today, you can still see the tops of the brick archways that were doors between the cellar's rooms. The area below this room was the only part of the cellar that was retained.

Behind this room is the blue bathroom, added on to the house just prior to mid-century. The tour proceeded through the blue bathroom and across the small sun porch and into the Alcock Dining Room.

The Alcock Dining Room (first floor, right, middle-front)

The hostesses in the Alcock Dining Room, which is actually located just in back of the Front Room, were Lucia Marie Creighton, a great-granddaughter of Walter Alcock, and her own daughter, Haley Welch.

In 1916, Lucia Marie's great-great-grandfather, J. H. Williams, purchased Soldini House. That same year, he deeded the house to her great-grandmother, Bobo, as part of her inheritance after her mother's death. The very next year, Bobo maried Lucia Marie's great-grandfather, Walter Alcock, and they moved into the house. In the picture at left, you can see a portrait of her handsome groom, and a partially-obscured photo of Bobo in her wedding dress. The actual 93-year-old wedding gown, train, veil and headdress were on display in one of the upstairs bedrooms. As a wedding present, the groom's parents gave the couple a bag of gold to purchase furniture for the house. The William and Mary dining room suite in this room was purchased with some of that gold, was placed here in 1917 and has remained here since. Almost all the other items in the room belonged to Bobo. The china and crystal laid on the table and in the cabinets all belonged to her, and the luncheon set in the built-in cabinet, used when serving refreshments at bridge parties, was also hers. Even the linens on the table have her monogram. The room looks much as it did 92 years ago.

Another wedding present, this time from the bride's family, was an enormous collection of silver. The pattern is Etruscan by Gorham. There are 12 place settings with 13 pieces per setting. Together with the 100+ serving pieces, the set is all stored in a huge mahogany case that Haley has opened up for the tour. Each piece of the flatware is monogrammed with her maiden initials. All of these items have been used for countless family meals and social events, in typical place setting such as the one shown here.

On the table is a crochet tablecloth made by a family member when she was 91 years old. It was entered in the Louisiana State Fair and won first place. Many of the crocheted pieces throughout the house are her handiwork, including the many delicate crochet ornaments on the Christmas tree in this room. This upright type of Christmas tree began to be used in the late Victorian period. With the rise of the middle class during the Industrial Revolution, families had more money to spend, and the gifts got larger- like wagons, rocking horses, dollies and bikes. Since the presents were traditionally on the floor under or beside the tree, the trees gradually got larger.

On one wall is the Alcock family crest, and a slate clock sits on the mantle. The chandelier in this room came from the Front Room in 1985; until that year, the only lights in the room were the sconces over the buffet (shown here with Lucia Marie) and such candles as were lit.

The tour then continued through the back of the dining room towards the breakfast room, kitchen and back door to the house.

The Breakfast Room (first floor, right, middle-rear)
The Kitchen (first floor, right, rear)

The wing of the house that contains the Breakfast Room, Kitchen and Pantry was originally an attached wing built to house the slaves that Soldini owned; this is one of only two surviving examples of such attached slave wings. Most slaves were housed in detached quarters that have disappeared over the years; from the courthouse records, we learn that Soldini paid taxes on 15 enslaved people, but how many lived in this wing or in outbuildings is unknown. What is certain is that these were the individuals that fired and laid the brick, hammered the nails and applied the plaster to build this structure and many of the important architectural treasures of Natchitoches. It was in the 1920s that these quarters were converted into the rooms we have today.

A set of china by the English maker Booth fills the built‑in cabinets; Justin made the room's Christmas tree almost 40 years ago. There is a set of plates by Clementine Hunter over the door, with the leftmost one being one of her famous "Christmas Angels." What dominates the room, though, is a bronze bust of Lincoln- made from the original mold of the cast of his face the day he was nominated for President. It was aquired from the New York Historic Society which owns the original. Lincoln was six feet, four inches tall, and the shelf was made so that the bust would be at the exact height his head would have been were he standing in the room. The shelf also holds a bronze of Lincoln's right hand, made that same day- appropriate since it was that hand that eventually signed the proclamation that turned this wing's inhabitants from slaves into freedmen and citizens. You can see the bust, the hand and the framed Harper's Weekly mentioned below in the picture I took here.

In a frame on the wall adjacent to the bust of Lincoln is an actual copy of the Christmas issue of Harper's Weekly from December, 1864. Both the cover and the centerfold, seen in the frame, were by Thomas Nast, the American illustrator. The cover depicts what is obviously a Northern family- a set of parents watching seven children play with lots of presents. Not many families in the shambles of the Confederacy did a lot of celebrating that year. The centerfold that year became quite famous; it was an image entitled "The Union Christmas Dinner." In it, President Lincoln is inviting those outside to join, and the backs of the chairs display the names of all the states, with those of the Confederacy being empty. Surrounding the major illustration were other illustrations that communicated the expectation of a Union victory- including one depicting Lee surrendering to Grant, an event that would not occur for another four months.

As you walk through the short hall from the Breakfast Room, past the pantry to the Kitchen, there were two very interesting watercolors depicting wash day and, apparently, picking cotton. The fact that the slaves look about as much like Hispanics as they do slaves seems odd, but the pictures are appropriate to the former purpose of this wing of the house.

Doing double-duty as the hostess for both the Breakfast Room and the Kitchen was Justin's aunt, Mary Ann Normand, shown in the picture at right showing guests through the kitchen to the refreshments outside on the patio.

The tour came to an end on the patio, and both Fred and I spent some time out there chatting with some of the folks who had come through the house. All of them agreed that Soldini House was the most interesting house on the Tour, and I suspect the reason to be the work that Gary and Justin put into not only arranging the house, but bringing both their families so much into the narrative of the house and its history.

The Christmas Festival of Lights Fireworks Display

When the tour was over, and the last guests had departed, everyone took a well-deserved rest, and we all sat on the back patio and discussed the success that the tour had been. A bit later, we all went to a local restaurant for dinner. When we returned, Justin and Gary's neighbor from across the street, whose house has a dock at the river's edge, invited us to come over and watch the fireworks display that was going to be set off from the area downtown where Fred and I had walked the night before.

There is not much narrative necessary for the fireworks display; all I'm going to do here is let you look at the best of the still pictures and movies that Fred and I took from the dock during the display. For the still pictures, please feel free to click on the thumbnail images below to look at as many of our pictures as you wish:

While both Fred and I took a number of movies during the fireworks, only a couple of Fred's are worth including here.

Fireworks at the Festival of Lights From the dock of the house across the street from Soldini House, Fred made this movie of part of the fireworks display.

Fireworks at the Festival of Lights This movie that Fred made shows you the last 3 or 4 minutes of the display- including the finale.

The Tour Day Ends

After the fireworks, Justin and Gary, Fred and I and Gary's cousin Terri Itzig returned to Soldini House for some coffee and dessert. Justin already had something made, so we did not cut into the Soldini House cake that one of their neighbors had made for them.

It had been a successful day, but we knew that Justin and Gary were whacked out, so we left early and went back to our suite at the Steel Magnolia House.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	December 12, 2010: A Tour of the "Steel Magnolia House"
	December 10, 2010: The Natchitoches "Festival of Lights"
	Return to the Index for Our Natchitoches Trip