Featured is an antebellum mansion design by architect Samuel Sloan from the 1861 book, Homestead Architecture. The “Oriental Villa” was previously showcased in his earlier book, The Model Architect and was the inspiration for the plantation home, Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi. The completed house was to have had 32 rooms, 26 fireplaces, 115 doors, 96 columns, and a total of 30,000 square feet of living space, but only nine of the 32 rooms were finished.

In 1859, cotton planter Dr. Haller Nutt began construction of a residence after this design as a home for himself, his wife, and their eight children but work on the four story plantation mansion ceased at the beginning of the Civil War and the home was never finished. The brick used in this building was made by slaves on the premise. In August 1860, 99 columns, 143 pedestals and hundreds of other expensive furnishings and construction items arrived from France on the Ville France, a specially-chartered vessel. The timber used in the elaborate exterior wood-work was shipped to Philadelphia to be hand carved for the most part and then returned to Mississippi in the finished form. Only the exterior of this distinctive octagonal structure was completed along with the basement level which was finely furnished for the family. The unfinished mansion was dubbed "Nutt's Folly." Ownership by the Nutt family continued until 1968.

Apartment A in the above floor plan is the rotunda, octagonal in shape, its diameter being 24 feet. Its vertical dimension extends to the top of the observatory, and is finished by an internal dome. From this rotunda are the adjacent apartments entered on every floor, galleries being constructed for the purpose on a level with all the floors above the principal. Niches for statuary occupy the alternate sides of the octagon, thus affording an excellent opportunity for tasteful decoration.

The apartment B, 20 by 34 feet, is the entrance hall, and contains the principal staircase. The adjoining space K is the front veranda, 12 by 40 feet. C is the drawing-room, 20 by 34 feet. D, reception-room, 18 by 24 feet. E, 18 by 24 feet; F, 20 by 34, and H, 18 by 24 feet, are a suite of family rooms. G is the dining-room, 20 by 34 feet. I, is the breakfast-room, 18 by 24 feet; M, M, dressing-rooms to E and H. L is an entrance porch to the apartment F, and at the same time affords an opportunity for the admission of light and air.

Apartment A in the ground floor plan retains its octagonal shape and the same dimensions, the alternate sides or rather angles being occupied by closets; it is lighted through strong glass in the floor over it, aided by lights in the upper sections of the communicating doors. B is the billard room; C, staircase hall; D, smoking-room; E, office; F, playroom for children; G, servants' hall; H, sewing-room; I, store-room; K, areas beneath verandas.

On the second floor A is the staircase hall; B, the communicating gallery; C, chambers; D, verandas; H,wardrobes; I, bathroom. There is a flight of private stairs on the rear veranda extending from the ground floor to this one; a flight from this to the attic floor is placed opposite to the bathroom I.