WINDSOR RUINS
Only Twenty-three Monolithic brick and mortar columns remain of the original twenty-eight fluted pillars
of Windsor, the largest and most magnificent antebellum mansion ever constructed in the state of Mississippi.
Most still topped with the ornate cast-iron Corinthian Capitals and Balustrades, manufactured in St. Louis
and shipped down the Mississippi river to the Port of Bruinsburg, several miles west of the site.
Its remains stand silently defiant against the ravages of time along the haunted backroads of the Mighty
Mississippi River near the Sleepy Hamlet of Port Gibson.
Windsor, the home of Smith Coffee Daniell, II, a wealthy planter, was built between 1859-1861.
Though Windsor survived the Civil War and became a prominent landmark along the Mississippi River, its
elegance did not last for it was destroyed by fire in 1890 when a house guest accidentally dropped a cigarette
in debris left by carpenters making repairs to the third floor. In the tragic fire that ensued all was
destroyed except a few pieces of china and 23 of the columns, balustrades, and the iron stairs, which now reside
at the nearby Alcorn State university.
Mark Twain once wrote of its elegance in his "Life on the Mississippi"
Windsor Ruins were later immortalized by Elizabeth Taylor, and Montgomery Clift, in the 1957 film "Raintree County",
and again in the 1988 Film "Mississippi Burning" Starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe.
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