William Blount Mansion - Design

Design

Blount Mansion is a frame and clapboard structure consisting of a two-story central block and one-story wings on the east and west ends. The first floor of the main structure contains a parlor, dining room, and hallway with a quarter-turn staircase. The second story contains two bedrooms. The west wing contains a single bedroom. The east wing contains a drawing room, and has a basement accessible by trap-door. Chimneys are located on the east end of the main block and at the outside ends of both wings. The frame was probably built using locally-cut timber, but the house's finished woodwork, paneling, flooring, and weatherboarding material's were shipped from North Carolina.

Blount's office, often referred to as the Governor's Office, stands behind the west wing of the mansion. The office is a one-story frame-and-clapboard structure with a brick chimney on its south side, and a pair of sash windows with louvered blinds along the east and west walls. The interior includes wide-board paneling and a carved mantel.

The mansion's kitchen had originally been a detached structure located behind the east wing. At an unknown date, this kitchen was dismantled and its materials used to construct an attached rear-wing kitchen. In 1958, archaeologists discovered the foundation of the original kitchen. The rear-wing kitchen was then dismantled and used to rebuild the detached kitchen on its original foundation behind the east wing. The kitchen has a design similar to the office.

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