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All the United States Mississippi Claiborne County Windsor Ruins

Windsor Ruins

An eerie and beautiful group of columns mark the site of a grand mansion lost to time and fire.

Claiborne County, Mississippi

Added By
Julia
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Windsor Ruins   Quotia Zelda / Atlas Obscura User
Windsor Ruins   Quotia Zelda / Atlas Obscura User
Windsor Ruins   Quotia Zelda / Atlas Obscura User
Windsor Ruins   Quotia Zelda / Atlas Obscura User
Drawing by Union officer Henry Otis Dwight, the only known contemporaneous image of the home   Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History, dated 1863
Windsor Ruins   Quotia Zelda / Atlas Obscura User
The ruins in 1936   James Butters (Historic American Buildings Survey)
  Michael McCarthy on Flickr
May 30, 2020   nataliebopp / Atlas Obscura User
  brittnifirmin / Atlas Obscura User
Photo: Sharon Blackstone copyright 2018   sharonblackstone / Atlas Obscura User
Now as they were then   A N Robinson Copyright reproduction with permission only
Windsor 2025   toddboyum / Atlas Obscura User
Windsor ruins - fencing surrounding now   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
May 30, 2020   nataliebopp / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Windsor was situated on a 2,600-acre plantation, the home of a planter with the unlikely name of Smith Coffee Daniell II. The four-story mansion featured massive columns with iron Corinthian capitals, ornate wrought-iron balustrades, and a rooftop cupola. Construction took over two years to complete at a then-handsome sum of $175,000.

Unfortunately, Daniell lived only a few weeks after the house was completed in 1861, and ownership passed to his heirs. During the Civil War, both Confederate and Union troops used the cupola as an observation post, and the house served as a Union hospital following the 1863 Battle of Port Gibson. After the war, Mark Twain also used the cupola to observe the nearby Mississippi River, and his description of Windsor appears in his memoir Life on the Mississippi.

On February 17, 1890, fire—allegedly started by a party guest’s cigar—destroyed the home, leaving only 23 columns, the grand staircase, and other wrought-iron adornments. The staircase was eventually removed from the ruins and installed at Oakland Memorial Chapel on the campus of nearby Alcorn State University, where it still obliges footsteps today.

Windsor Ruins have been featured in several films, most notably 1957’s Raintree County, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. The family retained possession until 1974, when they turned the property over to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which in 1985 gave it landmark status. For decades no one was sure what the original home looked like; visitors could only guess. But in 1990 an amazing image was discovered in the State Archives of Ohio, in the notebook of a Union officer who had sketched it contemporaneously in 1863. This is the only known image of the house before it was destroyed, showing us just how elegant and imposing a home it was. 

Related Tags

Ruins Mansions Us Civil War

Know Before You Go

From Port Gibson, follow Rodney Road about 10 and a half miles west. Sign for entrance to Windsor Ruins will be on your left. Please stay outside of the fence, this is a ruin and is not stable.

Community Contributors

Added By

Quotia Zelda

Edited By

Dirk Rock, nataliebopp, sharonblackstone, alannrobinson...

  • Dirk Rock
  • nataliebopp
  • sharonblackstone
  • alannrobinson
  • IronQueen
  • brittnifirmin
  • vickymorace
  • toddboyum

Published

January 29, 2016

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  • https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/prop.aspx?id=3600&view=facts&y=1176
Windsor Ruins
Rodney Road
Claiborne County, Mississippi, 39096
United States
31.94086, -91.129505
Get Directions

Nearby Places

First Presbyterian Church Golden Hand

Port Gibson, Mississippi

miles away

The Emerald Mound

Natchez, Mississippi

miles away

The Tomato Place

Vicksburg, Mississippi

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Mississippi

Mississippi

United States

Places 65
Stories 14

Nearby Places

First Presbyterian Church Golden Hand

Port Gibson, Mississippi

miles away

The Emerald Mound

Natchez, Mississippi

miles away

The Tomato Place

Vicksburg, Mississippi

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Mississippi

Mississippi

United States

Places 65
Stories 14

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