In the heart of the Mississippi Delta, amidst the sweeping cotton fields and the serpentine rivers, stood a rare gem of the antebellum era: Belmont 1857. This fertile land, destined to flourish during the Cotton Kingdom's zenith in the late 1800s, was once a wild and uninhabitable frontier. Before the Civil War, the Delta lacked the protective levees that would later restrain the annual spring floods from the Yazoo, Tallahatchie, and Sunflower rivers. The land was dominated by vast cypress swamps, teeming with bears, alligators, and water moccasins. It was a place where only the most daring pioneers ventured, battling diseases like malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever. It was far safer to plant cotton in the gentle hills of Marshall County or along the Tombigbee River prairies than to risk life and fortune in the Delta.

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Yet, amidst this harsh environment, one region stood out. On the westernmost edge of the Delta, Washington County emerged as a remote outpost of pre-Civil War life. By the mid-1800s, Greenville had grown into a modest town, and a determined group of settlers from Kentucky and the Carolinas carved out holdings along the banks of Lake Washington. Settlements like Wayside, Chatham, Erwin, and Glen Allan sprang up, each contributing to the rare antebellum architecture that would grace the Delta.

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The taking of Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian lands in the 1820s and 1830s brought an influx of settlers to Mississippi, but few dared to tackle the Delta's challenges. Among them were the Worthington brothers from Kentucky—Samuel, Elisha, William, and Isaac. They purchased thousands of acres, establishing vast holdings and building at least one house each. Isaac's house, Leota, was constructed near the Mississippi River at Leota Landing. Despite warnings from neighbors, it was built too close to the river and was eventually swept away by floodwaters. Samuel's thirty-eight-room mansion, Wayside, withstood the disastrous 1927 flood but was later condemned and demolished due to new levee construction. Elisha Worthington acquired the Sunnyside Plantation in Chicot County, Arkansas, from Abner Johnson in 1840. He also owned the Redleaf Plantation, the Meanie Plantation (a.k.a. the So So Plantation or the Rose Plantation), and the Eminence Plantation.

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Of all the Worthington houses, only Belmont remains. It is believed that eighty slaves worked the cotton fields and the house, and research is ongoing to identify their names and stories. The land where Belmont stands was initially sold by the U.S. government to Governor Alexander G. McNutt. Samuel Worthington purchased it in 1853 to complement his other homes: Redleaf, Mosswood, and Wayside. He later sold it to his brother, Dr. William W. Worthington, who built Belmont between 1855 and 1861. The bricks were hand-fired on the property, and the house is a blend of Greek Revival and Italianate styles. The red brick exterior is adorned with a full-height portico featuring square Doric columns, turned balustrades, and a pediment with a circular window. The roof is hipped and crowned with molded chimneys, and the windows are tall and narrow, capped with stone lintels.

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Inside, Belmont boasts some of Mississippi's finest decorative plasterwork. Local lore suggests that German plaster artists, stranded in Washington County at the start of the Civil War, created intricate moldings and ceiling medallions. Another version claims that Dr. Worthington met a group of Italian carvers on a boat trip to New Orleans and convinced them to return with him. Regardless of its origins, Belmont's decorative work rivals the finest interiors of Natchez or Columbus.

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The large central hall, backed by an elegantly turned stair, is flanked by formal rooms on one side and a music room and library on the other. Upstairs, four bedrooms are separated by a wide hallway that serves as a drawing room. Ceilings soar to fourteen feet on both levels. A two-story ell adds more bedrooms, kitchen space, and a formal dining room, all opening onto long, high-ceilinged screen porches overlooking cotton fields. The house encompasses 9,000 square feet, with 3,000 square feet of porch space, ten bedrooms, and twelve fireplaces.

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Originally, the grounds extended to the Mississippi River. Just across the road, now a levee, was Wayside, Samuel Worthington's home. During the Civil War, one of Samuel's sons was shot by Union soldiers in his pasture. Roving bands of troops wreaked havoc across Washington County, foraging and burning Greenville, but remarkably, all the Lake Washington homes, including Belmont, were spared.

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Belmont remained in the Worthington family until the late 1920s. A young girl living at Wayside in the early 20th century recalled Dr. Worthington's son, Mr. Will, as a true Southern gentleman, always in white linen suits, Panama hats, and carrying a parasol on hot days.

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The great flood of 1927 devastated the Delta, with Belmont allegedly having nine feet of water on its first floor. Faced with immense repair costs, Dr. Worthington's heirs walked away, and the insurance company foreclosed on the property by 1928. Despite the enormous amount of work needed, the Weathers family purchased Belmont from the insurance company during the Great Depression. They restored the estate, repairing plaster, installing modern plumbing and electricity, and salvaging materials from the doomed Wayside to create closets between the bedrooms. The Weathers lived at Belmont for about fifteen years before selling it to Governor Dennis Murphree in 1946, who transformed it into a premier hunting lodge.

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In 1992, Fernando Cuquet, a former New Orleans attorney and banker, purchased Belmont. Cuquet, who had developed the Delta's first casinos and served as a WWII spy, lived in Belmont until 2012. Despite efforts to maintain the estate, it began to decline in his final decade there.

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Foreclosed by the bank in 2014, Belmont was put on the market at a dramatically reduced price due to the extensive restoration needed. The porches were collapsing, the plumbing was a wreck, the roof leaked, and the mansion was filled with mildew, mold, and Delta critters. But interior designer, builder, and historic preservationist Joshua Cain had his eye on Belmont for some time.

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A son of the South with deep Mississippi roots, Joshua Cain had always dreamed of restoring an antebellum estate. In the winter of 2015, he traveled to the Delta to see Belmont. It was love at first sight, and he embarked on a mission to revive the old girl.