Beauvoir

Beauvoir was built by James Brown, a planter and entrepreneur, in 1848 and was completed in 1852. In 1873 the home was sold to Frank Johnston and soon thereafter to Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey. Dorsey was a novelist and intellectual from Natchez, Mississippi, who was a staunch southern partisan. Dorsey lived in the home with her half-brother Mortimer Dahlgren. Dorsey invited Jefferson Davis to stay at Beauvoir while he wrote his memoir "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government". Davis accepted Dorsey's invitation and moved into the Library Pavilion on the estate grounds in 1877. Later, his wife, Varina, joined him. Davis arranged to purchase the property in 1879 for $5500 to be paid in three installments. Six months later, Dorsey died before the other two payments were made and left the estate to Davis in her will. Davis and his wife moved into the house proper along with their youngest daughter, Winnie. Davis lived in the home until his death in December 1889. Varina Davis remained on the property for a short time while she wrote her book "Jefferson Davis: A Memoir". She and her daughter Winnie moved to New York City in 1891. Jefferson Davis left the estate to his daughter Winnie, but on her death in 1898, the ownership of the property reverted to Varina who sold much of the property to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1902 for use as a memorial to her husband and as the location of a home for Confederate veterans and widows.


A dozen barracks buildings, a hospital, and a chapel were built behind the home and approximately 2,500 veterans and their families lived at the home at one time or another during its existence from 1903 to 1957. In 1941 the main house opened for public tours. Eventually a Confederate Museum was opened on the site. Over the next few decades a Jefferson Davis Gallery, gift shop, the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier, and the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum were established on the grounds. In 1969 the home survived the onslaught of Hurricane Camille due to its construction and materials. The home did experience some flooding and a major fundraising and restoration effort was required. In 1998 the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans opened the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library which contains the personal library and papers of Jefferson Davis, a biographical exhibit, and a theater and lecture hall.



On August 29, 2005, the main building was severely damaged, losing its newly refurbished porches and a section of its roof but was not destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The storm destroyed the Hayes Cottage, the Library Pavilion, a barracks replica, the Confederate Museum and the director's home. The first floor of the Davis Presidential Library was gutted by the storm. Approximately 35% of the collections were lost. The restoration of Beauvoir was completed in 2009 and the library restoration is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011.