Hidden · Port Gibson, Mississippi, United States
Windsor Ruins
Twenty-three tall Corinthian columns in Claiborne County, all that remains of the largest Greek Revival mansion ever built in Mississippi.
Columns standing alone where a three-story mansion once stood.
The Windsor Ruins are in Claiborne County, Mississippi, about 10 miles southwest of Port Gibson and near Alcorn State University. The site preserves 23 standing Corinthian columns, plus five partial ones, from the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion ever built in the state. The mansion itself stood only from 1861 to 1890.
It was built between 1859 and 1861 for a young cotton planter, on a plantation of 2,600 acres. The work was done by skilled carpenters, masons and other craftsmen from Mississippi, the northeastern states and Europe, together with enslaved African Americans. The architect supervised the finishing work.
Originally 29 columns held up the roof and sheltered verandas on the second and third floors. They are brick covered with stucco, over 3.5 feet across at the base and 40 feet tall, topped with ornate iron capitals. Those capitals, the iron balustrades and four cast iron stairways were made in St. Louis and shipped down the Mississippi River to the river port of Bruinsburg.
From Civil War lookout to a fire that left only the columns.
The mansion had three floors, between 23 and 25 rooms with a fireplace in each, and two indoor bathrooms fed by rainwater from a tank in the attic. A glass-walled cupola crowned the roof. Its owner died in April 1861, just weeks after it was finished.
When the Civil War began, Confederate forces used the cupola as an observation platform and signal station. In spring 1863, during the Vicksburg campaign, Union troops landed at Bruinsburg and took the house. After the Battle of Port Gibson it served as a hospital and observation post, while the family was allowed to live on the third floor. For more than a century its exact appearance was guesswork, until an 1863 sketch by a Union officer turned up in the early 1990s.
On February 17, 1890, a fire started on the third floor when a guest dropped ashes into debris left by carpenters making repairs. The house was destroyed, leaving the columns, balustrades, stairways and pieces of china. The family donated the 2.1-acre site to the state in 1974, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History now administers it. Three of the stairways later disappeared; the fourth was moved to Alcorn State University, where it forms the entrance of Oakland Memorial Chapel. The ruins also appear in the films Raintree County (1957) and Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).
Practical notes.
Before you go.
What are the Windsor Ruins?
The remains of Windsor, the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion in Mississippi: 23 standing Corinthian columns and five partial ones, near Port Gibson.
What happened to the mansion?
It burned on February 17, 1890, after a guest dropped ashes into construction debris on the third floor. Only the columns, ironwork and some china survived.
Who built it?
It was built between 1859 and 1861 for a cotton planter by skilled artisans from Mississippi, the northeast and Europe, together with enslaved African Americans.
Has it appeared in films?
Yes. The ruins were filmed for Raintree County (1957) and Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).
Around Mississippi
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