A Carrollton-based artist and architect will have work featured in the March issue of Architectural Digest magazine.
Tommy Goodman has been working on the restoration of Wyolah Plantation, a historic Greek Revival property a few miles north of Natchez, for more than four years.
“It’s a historic renovation, so it has to be restored to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s standards,” said Goodman.
That means that every original item in the home had to be restored to its original state. In cases where original window panes were cracked or damaged, they had to be carefully spliced back together, said Goodman.
The 100-acre plantation contains a main house, as well as eight outbuildings including a doctor’s office, carriage house, stables, slave quarters, brick kitchen and commissary.
“It’s a very unusual situation,” said Goodman. “Most properties are listed on the national registry as just a single entity. For this one, each building is listed separately ... and what’s even more unusual: The land is listed separate from that.”
Goodman worked on the project with landscape architect Damian Augsberger, interior designer Shawn Henderson and contractor Tony Diangilos.
Phase one of the project concluded last summer with the restoration of the main house and doctor’s office. Phase two will consist of landscaping the grounds.
Goodman called the plantation, constructed in 1836, “one of the most complete plantations in its original state in the state of Mississippi.”
The plantation was purchased a few years ago by Tate Taylor, a Jackson native and the director of “The Help,” much of which was filmed in Greenwood.
Born in Shelby, Goodman earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Delta State University in 1968 and completed a bachelor’s in architecture at Auburn University in 1974.
For much of his career, he worked for architecture and design firms in Jackson and Birmingham.
He retired in 2006 and has lived in Carrollton for several years.
Goodman and Taylor were neighbors in Jackson, although Tate was just a small child at the time. While in Greenwood working on “The Help,” Taylor saw some of Goodman’s paintings at an art show and asked an attendant whether they were done by the same Tommy Goodman who used to be an architect in Jackson.
Some time after the two men were put back in touch with each other, Taylor tapped Goodman to work on the plantation’s restoration.
• Contact Nick Rogers at 581-7235 or nrogers@gwcommonwealth.com.
