The Brick House

One of the most important and intriguing houses at Historic Brattonsville is the brick and frame home of Napoleon Bonaparte Bratton and his wife Minnie Mason. Frequently referred to as the “Bricks” or simply the Brick House, the structure is currently being studied to see if it will reveal some of its many secrets.

The architecture and history of the house holds many unanswered questions. For years the building was thought to have been built to house the Brattonsville Female Seminary; but some Bratton descendants assert that the house was originally intended to be the home of Napoleon’s eldest brother, William. Neither assertion, however, is as yet supported by any historical documentation. The name “The Bricks” also is a mystery, as no historical reference to it has been found. Also, when was the frame addition added and was it another building moved to the site as some claim, or of was it of new construction? And why is the southwest corner of the exterior of the Brick House plastered?

Napoleon and Minnie

Napoleon Bonaparte Bratton, born in 1838, was the fifteenth and youngest child of Dr. John Simpson Bratton and Harriet Rainey. Called Bona, Boney or simply N.B. by family and acquaintances, Napoleon grew up to manage significant aspects of the Bratton plantation. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Napoleon left school at Mount Zion College and enlisted in the 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment. His regiment eventually joined the Army of Northern Virginia and participated in the defense of Richmond. During that campaign he was wounded in the leg by a shell fragment at the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862. Left on the battlefield, he was captured and sent to a Federal hospital in Washington, D.C. to receive treatment. There he met Eugenia “Minnie” Mason (born in 1831) and the two formed an attachment. Minnie was a direct descendent of George Mason of Gunston Hall, a significant contributor to the United States Bill of Rights.

Eventually Napoleon was exchanged and returned to South Carolina to recover. In January 1863, Napoleon and Minnie married in Richmond, Virginia and returned to Brattonsville with Minnie’s mother to live in the old Brattonsville Academy building, formerly his grandfather Colonel William Bratton’s house. Later in 1863 Napoleon returned to active service, this time with the 4th South Carolina Cavalry. As part of M. C. Butler’s Brigade in Wade Hampton’s Cavalry Division, the 4th Cavalry participated in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, including the battles of Haw’s Shop, Cold Harbor, Trevilian Station and Ream’s Station during the summer and fall of 1864. In November 1864, while Napoleon was away, Minnie gave birth to their first son, Mason. In early 1865 the 4th Cavalry was transferred to General Joseph E. Johnston’s army and moved south to oppose General William T. Sherman’s march through the Carolinas. After fighting in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, Napoleon was detached on recruiting duty. While he was engaged in that task Johnston’s army surrendered outside Durham Station on April 26, 1865, thus ending the war for Napoleon and his regiment.

It’s not exactly clear when Bona and Minnie Bratton moved into the Brick House. Family tradition states that the Bratton family “fixed-up” the Brick House for Napoleon and his family when he returned from the war. How long this work lasted and when the family actually moved into the house is not known. According to family history, Virginia Mason Bratton, Bona and Minnie’s third child, was born in the old Academy (Colonel Bratton House) in 1867 but was raised in the Brick House. And as late as 1876, a map of the property refers to the structure as “Napoleon B. Bratton’s store” and not his house. This does not preclude the family’s living there, but it does suggest that they were living elsewhere on the property until at least the mid-1870s.

Interestingly, even though he operated a store, Napoleon identified himself as a “farmer” in the 1870, 1880 and 1900 census. This suggests that either his preferred interest was in farming, that farming had a higher status, or the store was merely a sideline business venture for him. Napoleon continued to operate his store out of the Brick House until the operation either outgrew the space or the family tired of it being in their home. Around 1885 Napoleon constructed a wooden frame store building next door.

Napoleon and Minnie lived in the Brick House until 1898 when they moved into the Homestead to live with their daughter Virginia Mason Bratton and her husband (and cousin) Robert Moultrie Bratton. In September 1915 Minnie died. In the same year, according to family history, Napoleon closed the store and moved with his daughter and son-in-law to York.

The Old Building is Saved

After Bona and Minnie moved out of the Brick House, it was occupied by a series of tenants, including the Misskelley family. The Bratton family remained owners of the property until 1958 when Mr. and Mrs. R. Fisher Draper purchased the house along with 630 surrounding acres. In 1959 John Gettys Smith leased the house and for one summer operated a restaurant on the ground floor of the Brick House. Then in 1962, Senator (later Judge) Samuel Mendenhall and his wife Carolyn purchased the Brick House and 55 acres with the intention of saving the old house and restoring it. Time and the elements had taken their toll on the old house so when Sam and Carolyn purchased it, the landmark building was in poor condition. Mendenhall worked on the house and the adjacent store building for years, insuring their survival. In 1971, the Brattonsville Historic District, which included the house and store, was created and recognized by the York County Government, and was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

From 1962 until December 2001, the Mendenhall family continued to care for the Brick House and store. In December 2001, however, the family sold the property to the York County Culture and Heritage Commission. Architectural historians and preservation experts John Wood and Nancy Van Dolsen of Wilson, North Carolina were engaged in 2003 to generate a Historic Structures Report for the store. In January 2004, not long after the report was completed, the store building tragically burned due to old and faulty wiring.

Documentation of Brick House Underway

To learn more about the architectural history of the Brick House, the Culture and Heritage Museums re-engaged Wood and Van Dolsen to generate a Historic Structures Report. Once finished the report will document the existing conditions of the house as well as describe its architectural evolution and provide recommendations for its restoration.

As part of the preparation of a Historic Structures Report for the Bratton Brick House, in-depth architectural investigations of the building are currently underway. Detailed physical examination of the building will document the current physical condition, construction technology, and the chronology of physical changes. Historic documents related to the construction and use of the building, as well as Bratton Family genealogy, are also being examined to provide a historic context for the building. It is anticipated that the Historic Structures Report will be completed in spring 2005. The preliminary investigations undertaken to date have provided the following history of the building.

In the summer of 1841, Dr. John S. Bratton, Sr. and three brick masons—John L. Owen, Robert Owen, and John M. Power—entered into a contract that instructed the masons “to build a house of brick of the following dementions [sic] that is 50 feet long and 20 wide the celler [sic] 8 feet high to be raised 2 feet above the ground.” The masons were to do the work “in a good Workmanlike manner” and Dr. Bratton was to supply the boards, labor, and all the materials. It is likely that Dr. Bratton provided the masons with the labor of his slaves to meet his contractual obligations; the boards were probably cut at his sawmill and the bricks made in his brickyard. Dr. Bratton was to pay the masons $158 or their work and expertise.

According to John L. Owen, the mason in charge of the project, “the work was put off from time to time by Dr. Bratton” until spring 1843. Dr. Bratton died unexpectedly on April 27, 1843, and within ten days of his death, John L. Owen provided Bratton’s estate with a status report on the construction of the house, stating that their work should be completed by May 16, 1843.

As built, the house was one-room deep, and contained two rooms on each floor. The southern room served as a formal parlor with an elegant fireplace mantel, transitional Federal/Greek Revival style woodwork, and a staircase to the second floor. The northern room—the larger of the two—probably served as the location for the Bratton store and Brattonsville post office; the woodwork is much simpler and the windows fewer. Doors—the evidence for which can be seen on the front of the building—originally opened into each room from the porch.

The two rooms on the second floor are as ornate as the parlor, and have a large opening between them, suggesting that these rooms may have served as a large space for entertaining, or, as tradition asserts, a school.

Most of the front porch is original, including the massive, plastered brick columns and the central second-floor portico with its large pediment and lunette. On the second floor, however, open decks enclosed by a continuous balustrade originally flanked the central portico. This form—a two-story, central pedimented portico with a porch across the entire façade topped by open decks—was popular among the rural elite from the 1820s through the 1840s. Andrew Jackson had a similar porch added to his house, The Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee between 1831 and 1834, and other examples can be found in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The original brick structure did not remain unaltered for long and at some point, probably after the Civil War, a wood frame wing was added behind the house. The interior of the Brick House also underwent some alterations, probably associated with the changes in the building’s function.

So far it is not clear whether the addition was a new construction or a pre-existing building relocated to the site and modified. The construction of the two-story rear wing did necessitate the relocation of the cellar entrance originally centered on the rear elevation of the house. A new entrance to the cellar was located on the northern end of the rear elevation and a small gable-roof entry was constructed to cover the new entrance. Furthermore, during the construction of the addition or during a subsequent remodeling the original staircase was removed from the formal parlor and the store moved out of the house. The original two front doors were then enclosed, a new central door created and the old storeroom divided into two rooms creating an entrance hall or foyer.

As new information regarding the house and Napoleon, his family and business comes to light, this document will be updated to reflect those findings. Please check back from time to time to read about new updates.