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Windsor: a remarkable mansion near NatchezMADORA HALL SHARPSpecial to Sun-HcraldShe would probably cost almost as much as the Queen Mary or the Titanic today — if you considered the three stories of priceless antiques — her goJd-platcd mirrors extending from floor to ceiling.Her imported hand-carved rosewood sofas and matching chairs in the double parlors her marble mantelpieces, twenty-five in a;l • the Meissen and Dresden pieces of art, her Au buss on carpels which evert covered the winding marble stairways from the second floor to the fourth floor — her priceless silver service, silver goblets, ienough for a banquet of 100 guests), the giant silver punch bowl, her imported hand-painted wall paper.She was Windsor, the most remarkable mansion iit the MiBBieeippi River Valley, ten miles out from Pori Gibson, near Natchez.She was created in Steamboat 'round the bend days. Built in the lush lS50s, she burned in 1590.The picture of Windsor shown is the only known picture. It was painted from intensive reseroh by William Garbo, Historical Architect. Mississippi Research and Development Center. Also helpful was a description by the only member ul Ijjc rami.y who survived until a few decades ago.Windsor was an expensive monument to a pastwhen the most glorious sight in the old South was the view of her from a Mississippi riverboat tootin’ down Old Man.She was the Mississippi Queen of mansions.The gTeat Mississippi that made Windsor made a composer named Stephen Foster famous. It lured Samuel Clemens to a life of travel, christened him Mark Twain, gave him the first sigh*, of Windsor that any ■’foreigner'r had, made him say in admiration he gazeri up at the imposing structure towering above thctrecsin the forest, over the river: Why that must be some great university.The river created the world's most famous cotton kingdom — created Natchc/., the Souther:) Museum of Antiquity. Bred men who were inventors, nationally famous -scientists, authors, generals -but the most remarkable thing Old Man did was build the palace called Windsor, and others a round her. iti ait era when this was a r-el engines ring fnor. The thousands -n' bricks had to be handmade and the gigantic Corinthian columns shipped down river from St. Louis had to he pulled up - somehow - from the river, upthe high embankment.Today only vestiges are left.These are the gien: Cor-inthain columns standing high in the air atop where birds build ihelr nests, ur.-trammclcd by the tnprgy of man.In 1971 the Ruins o:Windsor were entered in the National Register ofHistoric Places through the cooperation of the heirs, the Magruder family of Port Gibson, who gave the site to the State, and the Department of Archives and History. A tta-tional Park is being created on the site. Plans are being put into effect by the Research and Dev el op-me ill. Center with the assistance or WiJiani Garbo, Historical Architect.Half-way between the •N’;:Lein-.:: Tr;joo and The Mississippi River. Windsor is one of those history-haunted pi aces .which, even in ruins, enables the observer to reconstruct lift- us it was in another rime and plt;«roLocated it? that region of Mississippi which s:ill .scums not of ‘he present.bin of the immemorialpast, Windsor in its heyday was the center of vastplantation holdings belonging l: Smith Coffee and C'iilhenjM* Daniel!. These holdings lined the Mississippi sice of the river as v- oil 'lit1 Louisiana aldo, totaling 2i,fWl) acres.Between 1540 and if60, the Golden Age of the South ar.c especially of Mississippi, the Old Nntfhez country, which in eluded Windsor, was the live 1-es;. gayest and the richest place in ail America .The planters drove in their coaches and four from chip plantation :o :ne other. There were elegant baS':s and receptions where the richest wines flowedand the richest food was served.Windsor was In the raised Greek Revival style, with fully finished basement, two tremendous residential floors at the second and third levels, an attic and a glassed-in cupola topping it all, making the mansion five stories high.The square shaped cupola was centered atop the hipped slate roof. Its glass walls were re cessed here at h c”tended eaves which wore supported at the con'.e: ? by three miniature Cori. ihan columns, reinforcing the stylistic impact o' the main block below. There were cighs. chimneys and there was a temple effect.Catherine Daniell, mistress of the mansion, was Mississippi's most beautiful Civil War spy and Confederate agent. At the risk of her life, she daily signalled Confederate troops who were across the river on the Louisiana side. Using the cupola she lull* them when it was safe to cross over Into Mississippi. Windsor was also used to hide Confederate soldiers when danger was near.The twenty-nine columns. thirty feet high with ten-foot paneled stucco plinths, supported the projecting roof line with its plain, broad frieze and molded cornice, providing protection for the broad galleries which encompassed the house at the See Old Man «•!!
Newspaper Details
Biloxi Sun Herald
Biloxi, Mississippi, US
Sun, Jul 04, 1976
Page 20
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 20 May 2020
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