During fiscal year 2014, Georgia film and television productions generated an impressive $5.1 billion economic impact. The William S. Simmons Plantation is proud to be a part of the Georgia entertainment industry through our listing in the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office film locations database. To date, two music videos have been filmed at the home. One of the oldest homes in Floyd County, Ga., the William S. Simmons Plantation has many features which make it an attractive potential setting for movies and television shows. The pre-Civil War home was built in the 1840s and is constructed entirely of handmade red bricks. The interior of the home features original wide-planked heart pine floors and hand-carved trim throughout. The plaster over brick walls in the halls, the formal parlor and two of the bedrooms have intricate, hand-painted designs that are more than 150 years old. For more information on filming at this historic home, complete our contact form or email [email protected].
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I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It was a beautiful day at the William S. Simmons plantation. I decided to do a painting of the chapel for Mother's Christmas present. I had previously done paintings of the cookhouse and the cotton field. I'm not sure what I'll try next, but I do find it an enjoyable exercise.
It's a beautiful, but cold day at the William S. Simmons Plantation. Hope you are all having a very happy Thanksgiving, In a previous post, I discussed the beautiful frescoes at the William S. Simmons Plantation. I have done a good deal of research trying to learn more about these frescoes. After writing the previous post, I emailed the people responsible for the beautiful restoration at Beauvoir - Linda Croxson and Philip Ward - in the hope they might be able to point me towards some resources that might aid in my research. Mr. Ward was kind enough to respond and confirmed what I had suspected - it is difficult to determine the identity of the artist unless original documentation exists.
"Unfortunately that information rarely survives and is not often available," Ward wrote. That regrettably may be the case with the William S. Simmons Plantation, but I will keep looking. There was some good news however. Upon reviewing the interior photos, Mr. Ward is of the opinion the frescoes were done in the same time period as those at Beauvoir - the early 1850s. "It does seem to be of similar style and quality, and dates from around the same period, but that is a reflection of the fashion of that time for first-class work," he wrote. He also confirmed what my research had indicated to date - there are not many of these frescoes remaining. "The quality of work you are dealing with at the Simmons Plantation was once extremely popular and geographically widespread but over time a great deal of it has disappeared," Ward wrote. We are very fortunate to be able to enjoy such historic, beautiful and now rare artistry. At one point, there was a hand-dug well behind the William S. Simmons Plantation. By the time the house last changed ownership in 2008, the old well had been covered with a thick concrete slab. By 2011, the sides of the well had begun to cave in, making it necessary to fill the well. The photos below show the interior of the hand-dug well before it was filled. The most unusual feature of the William S. Simmons Plantation is the interior paint. Though four of the rooms no longer have their original paint, three rooms and the upstairs and downstairs foyer do. Several doors and mantels also are painted using a technique known as faux bois. Several of the doors are painted to appear as if they have raised panels where there are none and three of the mantels and fireplace surrounds have what appear to be the remnants of a marbled pattern (see photos below). In my research, I've found examples of more rustic, folk-style murals done by itinerant artists using a combination of stenciling and hand-painting techniques, but have yet to find anything that truly compares to this house except perhaps Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis' home in Mississippi. The interior of Davis' home, according to a staff member at Beauvoir, was painted by a German artist out of New Orleans named Muller. Beauvoir, like the William S. Simmons Plantation, also features faux wood designs on the doors and wall frescoes which incorporate the art technique trompe l'oeil - to deceive the eye. In the case of the Simmons Plantation, the frescoes are now quite faded. The Rococo-style frescoes at Beauvoir, which are believed to have been completed between 1850-52, were beautifully restored by Linda Croxson and Philip Ward and, based on the photos I've seen, are far more elaborate than the ones in our Cave Spring home. Still, there are definite similarities and it is easy to imagine how beautiful the walls in the William S. Simmons Plantation must have been at one time. Click here for images of Beauvoir and take a look at this CNN article (photo number 5) to see what a restored, marbled-finish fireplace looks like (this is how I imagine the fireplaces in the William S. Simmons Plantation once looked). The Wall Street Journal also has a wonderful Beauvoir slideshow which shows the foyer of the home and gives you an idea of how gorgeous these frescoes must have been when freshly painted. If you watched the first music video starring renowned composer and pianist Malek Jindali, you saw the William S. Simmons Plantation "burn" at the end of the video. Not to worry, it was all done with special effects. In this, his second video filmed in Cave Spring, nothing was "burned" although Jindali reportedly gave serious consideration to torching the beautiful antique piano you see featured in the video. The piano was non-functioning, but still lovely. Thankfully he decided to keep it. This video was filmed in early 2012.
The historic William S. Simmons Plantation in Cave Spring, Ga. recently served as the backdrop for the latest music video by Syrian pianist and composer Malek Jindali.
Jindali, along with a production crew from Atlanta-based FUGO Studios, filmed the video Dec. 17-18. Scenes for the video were shot both inside and outside the home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the Georgia Historic Resources Register. Eric Haviv, president of FUGO Studios, said he chose to film at the antebellum home due to its uniqueness. “We wanted really like a very historic location that really had a lot of character,” Haviv said. Though the video is not set in any particular time or place, Haviv explained the Cave Spring house is a big part of the video. “Immediately, when we saw it, we said this is the place,” he said. “I think the walls are what sold me immediately.” The William S. Simmons Plantation is one of the oldest brick residences in Floyd County, Ga. Built in the late 1840s, the house is constructed entirely of handmade red bricks. The brick exterior walls are 18 inches thick. The interior walls are also made of brick and are over 14 inches thick. Many of the rooms contain hand-painted details original to the house that mimic ornate trim. “Everything really was exactly what we were looking for -- really old and original with a lot of character,” Haviv added. Haviv discovered the property through the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office film locations database. The database contains information about homes and businesses throughout Georgia that have been listed as potential locations for feature films, television shows, commercials, music video and photography shoots. Location specialists help producers find locations that match specified criteria. The William S. Simmons Plantation is a two-story Greek revival house featuring nine rooms and over 4,000 square feet of living space. A two-room brick cook house dating to the early 1800s stands behind the main house. The home sits on 1.3 acres in the Cave Spring, Ga. historic district and is surrounded by scenic cotton fields. For more information, complete our contact form or email [email protected]. |
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