Horn Lake's octagonal antebellum home for sale

It's the end of a lucky chapter for the antebellum home Mon Amour in Horn Lake, as longtime owner and rescuer Bryan L. "Bo" Swilley auctions the historic house today.

In addition to the unique, eight-sided home that includes 2.2 acres with a barn and lake, furnishings will be sold, including a four-poster bed that's a copy of Robert E. Lee's.

"It's a very difficult decision to come to, but that's part of life at this stage," Swilley, 84, said Friday. When the cattle auctioneer bought the long-vacant house in the late 1960s, it was part of a parcel of about 60 acres. The circa-1844 home at 5688 Horn Lake Road was falling to ruin, and he intended to have it torn down.

But the history and the romance of the house directed him otherwise. And he was influenced by the late Gladys Slayden, owner of the antebellum Magnolias home in Holly Springs.

Slayden toured Swilley's dilapidated house, and persuaded him to undertake what became a three-year restoration, ending in 1972, of what Swilley called Mon Amour -- "my love," because the house to him was akin to "a gracious lady who has seen better days." The revival's cost, aided by New York expert Roy Munday, was not so lovely.

As Swilley told one interviewer: "Don't ask, I don't want to be reminded; I'm just glad to be done with it." But "we innovated as we renovated," he said, noting that ceilings were dropped from 12 feet to nine feet.

One of the oldest homes in DeSoto County, Mon Amour was built largely of yellow poplar 167 years ago for Dr. William Nathaniel Raines, a Virginian who came to this area to study medicine. The home was a gift to his bride, Anne Eldridge, the daughter of a medical partner.

It is believed to be one of only two octagonal antebellum houses in the state; another is the ornate and still-unfinished Longwood in Natchez.

The tri-level Mon Amour, of about 3,849 square feet, features a looping stairway rising from the basement to the second or top story. Two bedrooms are upstairs, each with a private bath -- and one with a ghost story. On the main floor are kitchen, dining and living rooms.

One yellow poplar mantle downstairs is No. 87 in Minard Lafever's design book "The Modern Builder's Guide," published in 1833.

A decorative iron fence greets visitors on grounds rich with magnolias.

Furnishings include a Queen Anne dining room set, gentleman's desk, chairs, a West Indies chest and rugs.

Home just sold in Holly Springs Community Franklin, NC C

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