The storm that has been circling us for the last few days finally hit and when we woke up this morning there was torrential rain out the window. Undeterred we set off for Jackson, there isn’t much to stop and look at on route so we had decided to take the scenic route which was a good thing as in the monsoon like rain the roads weren’t so busy so we didn’t have to worry about following large trucks or long rows of traffic. The route we had picked should have taken us about 3.5 hours and as we had our picnic lunch ready we thought that would work out quite well, as it turned out it took us nearer 5 hours and had moments of it being quite heavy going! The good news is that the rain eased off and we did get to see some of the DeSoto National Forest which was the majority of the route we had taken. It was hard to tell how much the heavy rain had impacted the waterways and how many were always flooded but the water level did look like it was quite high in places. The good news is that we are staying in a really nice hotel. This is one of the historic houses we have picked for the trip, the Fairview Inn. Built in 1908 for Cyrus C Warren (don’t you just love the American names), who was Vice President of the Warren-Goodwin Lumber company the house was designed in a style associated with the formality and elegance of Southern houses. Cyrus only lived in the property for a few years as in 1913 it was brought by Felix Gunter who was president of the Jackson Board of Trade, he also didn’t liver here long so in 1921 W.E.Guild brought the house and remodelled it. He employed the original architectural firm and some landscape architects to work on the grounds. The east, west and north wings were raised to 2 stories and the Carriage House was converted into a combination garage and servant quarters. Because of the changes made by Guild the only house that is original to 1908 is the library which is now a bar that we will be trying out later. The final family to own and live in the house was the Simmons family and Annie Bell Ferguson Simmons lived in the house until her death in 1972 and their son purchased the property from his parents estate in 1972. In February 2001 the house became the hotel it is today and in 2008 an extensive renovation of the guest rooms and public areas was completed. We are on the first (or second if you are American) floor and have a great view over the front of the house, we are not far from historic Jackson which we will explore tomorrow but the room / lounge is really comfortable so it is going to be difficult to make me move to the bar or even go out tomorrow. If it starts raining again I may just settle in the lounge with a coffee and cake (or G&T depending on the time of day) and refuse to move!
