CARROLLTON — Overlooking Lexington Street in Carrollton is an Italianate villa-style home known as Stanhope, which will open for public viewing Oct. 5-7 during the annual Carrollton Pilgrimage.
Stanhope was built around 1847 by Dr. and Mrs. Washington Stansbury and designed by James Harris, the architect of Malmaison, Greenwood Leflore’s home, and numerous other homes, as well as the Carroll County Courthouse.
Stanhope has a hip-roofed tower, which contains only one room leading out to a front balcony.
The Stansburys sold the home to Maj. James Joseph Gee, a Civil War veteran, who sold it later to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gee Ray, who remodeled the L-shaped home to its present shape. The Rays moved to Memphis, and the home was sold to John Tom Allen, who sold it to Pauline Taylor in 1956. By this time it had been made into three different apartments.
Taylor and her son, Bernard, remodeled the home back into a single-family house, filling it with period antiques. The Taylors also named the house, calling it Stanhope, based on the Stansburys who built it, and a comment by Reisie Gee, who said the house reminded her of the old “Hope” carriages since it sat high upon a hill, as the carriages did.
Following the death of Mrs. Taylor in 1987, the home was bought by David and Louann Thompson, who also furnished it with many antiques, including a large mirror that remains.
Currently, the home is owned by Robert and Stephanie Clanton, who with their four children are enjoying its beauty and spaciousness.
Stephanie says she always admired the home, though she never really thought about living in it. “I would come through town, and it was an eye-catcher,” she said. “I felt a connection with it and used it to take pictures.”
“We had 80 acres in Teoc and had planned to build a house after selling two homes,” she said. “We had moved to North Carrollton into an older home and began to think about buying it after we saw how convenient it was to our children’s school.”
Despite not having really desired the home, Clanton believes it was meant for them. “Louann had tried to sell it a couple of years ago and didn’t find a buyer. She put it on the market again, and called Liz Daves to see if she knew anyone who might be interested. Liz said she woke up one morning and thought of us. She called Louann, who called us. We looked at it on Wednesday, and Friday we had a contract on it.”
Husband and father Robert Clanton works various shifts at the Bowater plant in Grenada and enjoys the spaciousness of the house to get away from the noise of children — four from the ages of 3 to 17.
“He can go up front to the older part of the house, and we can be in the back and not wake him up,” Stephanie said.
There have been a number of ghost stories told about the house, but the Clantons say they haven’t seen one, though Robert and daughter Hope pulled a pretty good ghostly prank on Stephanie.
“I was walking through the house and noticed all the pictures turned down,” Stephanie said. “I asked Robert and Hope if they had done it, and they said, ‘No.’ I was freaking out when I heard Robert tell Hope, ‘We got her good.’”
Stephanie says she thinks of the people who have lived in Stanhope and how hard life must have been in the 1800s. “The Stansburys had nine children, and I understand seven of them died by the age of 7.”
Today she loves everything about Stanhope, and although she hasn’t yet been able to furnish the house completely with period antiques, there are a few special pieces that add to its charm.
“It’s a beautiful house,” she said. “It’s got everything we were looking for.”
