Florida Women's Heritage Trail

Bellevue is the former home of Catherine Daingerfield Willis Gray Murat (1803-1867),great-grandniece of George Washington, widow of Achille Murat, Prince of Naples and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Catherine bought the modest story-and-a-half house and 520 acres of land in 1854. Built between 1838 and 1841, the house is an example of indigenous southern architecture, part of a "carpenter tradition" using construction practices passed from generation to generation.

The high ceilings, central hallway, and wide porches are well-suited for a hot, humid climate. It is a simple, frame vernacular plantation residence.

Catherine Murat lived in Bellevue part of each year. She was an active supporter of the Confederate cause during the Civil War and once fired a cannon from the Capitol steps announcing Florida's secession from the Union.

In 1967, 100 years after Catherine Murat's death, the Junior League of Tallahassee, the Florida Heritage Foundation, and the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science saved Bellevue, and moved it to its current site. Catherine Murat is buried in the St. John's Episcopal Cemetery in Tallahassee.

Information provided by the Florida Division of Historical Resources