Category Archives: -Mississippi

-Mississippi, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

Windsor Ruins-Clairborne County, Mississippi

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Located not far off the banks of the Mississippi are the Windsor Ruins. Designed by architect Dave Shroder for Smith Coffee Daniell, a cotton planter, the home was built between 1859-1861. According to the 1860 census, Daniell enslaved close to 200 men, women, and children in Mississippi and Louisiana to build his wealth. It is known that enslaved labor helped construct the large mansion.

Twenty-nine columns, crowned by iron Corinthian capitals, set the footprint of the home. Four iron staircases flanked the home. One set of staircases still exist and are located at the entrance of the chapel at Alcorn State University which is not far from the ruins.

In 1861, Daniell passed away shortly after the home was completed. During the Civil War, the home was initially used as a lookout until federal troops took the nearby port of Bruinsburg. The Union troops used the home as a hospital and a lookout. After the Civil War, the Daniell family continued to live in the home. It burned in 1890 after a guest dropped cigarette ashes on building materials.

Until the 1990s, the look of the home was only a guess until a drawing made by a Henry Otis Dwight, a Union officer, was discovered in his belongings. It is believed he drew the home when General Ulysses S. Grant and Union troops took over the Windsor home during the Civil War.

March 20, 1936 photo for the Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

The land and the ruins stayed in the family until it was given to the state of Mississippi in 1974.

Front view of home on March 20, 1936 for the Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
1940 photo by Marion Post Wolcott (Library of Congress)
-Mississippi, Black History, Cemeteries, Save Outdoor Sculpture

John Strauther Monument in Live Oaks Cemetery

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John Strauther was the first Black mortician in Greenville, Mississippi. His monument is the only one in Live Oaks Cemetery. His wife had this made after he passed.

It is listed as part of the Smithsonian’s Save Outdoor Sculpture program.

-Mississippi

Temple Gemiluth Chessed-Port Gibson, Mississippi

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Built in 1892, this Moorish Revival synagogue is the oldest in Mississippi.

-Mississippi, Abandoned, Black History, Cemeteries, Churches and Temples

The Ruins of St. John’s Episcopal Church-Glen Allan, Mississippi

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Glen Allan, Mississippi is located in the Mississippi Delta region of Washington County. Built in 1830, it was one of the first churches in the area. During the Civil War, the stained glass windows were supposedly removed to assist in the Civil War efforts by using the lead in the windows for bullets.

This began the decline of the church building. Unfortunately, it was hit by a tornado in the early 1900s, and the outer brick walls were destroyed leaving most of what you see today.

This the funeral marker for Jesse Crowell, the only person of color to be buried in the adjacent cemetery. The marker reads, “Born into slavery and held by the Turnbull family, he was a master craftsman who directed the construction of St. John’s Episcopal Church. He supervised the preparation of timber from the forests, as well as bricks made on site by fellow slaves. He personally carved the wood for the chancel rail and pulpit, creating his own design from the leaves of native trees. A devoted Christian, he became the church’s sexton for the remainder of his life. When he died, Bishop Wm. Mercer Green, Sr. preached his funeral from the church, and Jesse became the only person of color ever buried in Greenfield Cemetery.”
I cannot confirm what this is, but I asked some cemetery experts, and they believe that it was a holding vault for the cemetery that is located next to the churchyard.
-Mississippi, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

Bernheimer House of Port Gibson, Mississippi

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The Bernheimer House (sometimes known as the Bernheimer Complex) was built by brothers Samuel and Jacob Bernheimer, Austrian Jewish businessmen. The Bernheimers moved to Port Gibson in the 1840s to the town and started a mercantile.

During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant used the home that was on this site as headquarters during the Battle of Port Gibson. Grant deemed Port Gibson ”a town too pretty to burn,” so it did not experience the type of destruction other towns did. However, the Civil War financially destroyed the Bernheimers, but they eventually rebuilt.

In 1872, the Bernheimer house and commercial buildings on Walnut Street were built together to form the “Bernheimer Complex.” The Italianate house is covered in glass tiles made by the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company, the oldest American opalescent glass maker. The company is still operating today.

Close up of mosaic detail courtesy of the Library of Congress
-Mississippi, Black History, Rosenwald Schools, Schools

Bynum Rosenwald School, Mississippi

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Panola County

Bynum School, a Rosenwald School located in Panola County, Mississippi, is a one-teacher type school that was built for $1460 in 1925. It’s thought to be the last remaining one-room Rosenwald in Mississippi.