File:Spring at the Lanier Mansion.jpg

The following description is excerpted from a 1991 report, The James F.D. Lanier Mansion, by Diana Lanier Smith, a great-great granddaughter of James F.D. Lanier.

http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NHLS/Text/94001191.pdf

The north, or street entrance faced First Street which ran east-west before it was eventually blocked off. In contrast to the dramatic south front, a small porticoed entry is framed by two columns and two pilasters. Fourteen more pilasters, regularly spaced and identical to the smaller ones, encircle all but the east wing of the building. Then, the eye travels upward to the frieze where there are twelve evenly spaced circular windows outlined with wreaths (a Grecian touch.) Above these, on the parapet, an anthemion carving is centered on each of the four cornices and at each of the four corners-making eight in all. ...by walking some distance away and looking skyward one sees the sixteen-foot octagonal cupola crowning the mansion. The house plan is almost a cube in shape measuring fifty-four by fifty-seven feet, except for the east wing which housed the kitchen. A basement under the kitchen is fifteen feet deep and has an arched brick ceiling. The foundation of cut blue limestone extends around the building. All materials used in construction of the house were manufactured nearby or on the premises. Brick was made near the house, limestone was quarried locally and timber largely tulip poplar was a plentiful local