Beauvoir (Biloxi, Mississippi)

rdf:langString Beauvoir (Biloxi, Mississippi)

rdf:langString Beauvoir

rdf:langString Beauvoir

rdf:langString USMS

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rdf:langString Mississippi Landmark

rdf:langString Mississippi Landmark

rdf:langString Beauvoir in February 2010

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rdf:langString Mississippi#USA

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rdf:langString The Beauvoir estate, built in Biloxi, Mississippi, along the Gulf of Mexico, was the post-war home (1876–1889) of the former President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. The house and plantation have been designated as a National Historic Landmark, recognized and listed by the U.S. Department of the Interior and its National Park Service. The estate was purchased in 1873 by the planter Samuel Dorsey. After his death in 1875, his widow, Sarah Dorsey, learned that Davis was facing difficulties. She invited him to visit at the plantation and offered him a cottage near the main house, where he could live and work at his memoirs. He ended up living there the rest of his life with his wife, Varina Howell Davis, and his youngest daughter, Varina Anne Davis (known as "Winnie"). Ill with cancer in 1878, Sarah Ellis Dorsey remade her will, bequeathing Beauvoir to Jefferson Davis and making Winnie the residuary legatee, inheriting after her father died. The three Davises lived at Beauvoir until former President Davis' death in 1889. Varina and Winnie moved to New York City in 1891. After the death of Winnie in 1898, her mother, Varina Howell Davis, inherited the plantation. She sold it in 1902 to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans with the stipulation that it be used as a Confederate state veterans home and later as a memorial to her husband. Barracks were built nearby and the property was used as such a home until 1953, with the death of the last veteran of the Confederate States Army in Mississippi. At that time, the main house was adapted as a house museum. In 1998, a library was completed and opened on site. Beauvoir survived Hurricane Camille in 1969. The main house and library were badly damaged, and other outbuildings were destroyed, during Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. The house was restored and has been re-opened, while work continues on the library.