Abandoned Ruins of a Greek Revival Plantation Mansion - Mississippi

[Music] good morning everyone it's stephen and andrea from pin in the atlas listen to those birds look at that tree oh it's so peaceful here [Music] today we are somewhere quite interesting and you'll see why bet you weren't expecting that were you neither was i so what is this place we are at the windsor ruins [Music] these columns are all that remains of a greek revival style plantation mansion that was built in 1859 [Music] unfortunately in 1890 a devastating fire destroyed everything apart from the columns that you now see now this four-story mansion although some websites say four stories others say only three had 23 rooms each had its own fireplace with a marble mantel very extravagant especially in those days the whole building cost a hundred and seventy five thousand dollars that was back in those days today the estimated cost of building such a mansion would be 5 million let's take a look now as you can see they put a fence around the that's just to keep people out because with something like these and just just look at these you can see how they're crumbling they're very unstable and i am really surprised that they are still standing because of the ground here in the south it's it's wet it's unstable you know foundations you have foundation problems like crazy so that just goes to show how well built this mansion was at the very top look how ornate these pillars are you got some plant life growing out of the tops of them now absolutely beautiful [Music] so these pillars there's 29 remaining pillars and each of the columns are 45 foot tall apparently [Music] yeah can you imagine how big that house was must have been a sight to see [Music] he still got brought iron along the top there almost that would have been a a porch probably it's just very very i'm gonna get a closer look here and you can see the concrete is just they're saturated with moisture i think i'm extremely impressed with the fact that this many are still standing and they are trying to do some refurbishment just to make sure that they do stay so people can come and keep enjoying this place because it is really fascinating and then went okay here we go this is an important point i want to share with everyone see that standing water down there now we haven't been in the deep south very long but we've been here long enough to learn something if you see standing water like that you stay away you want to know why they'll be gators in dim day water [Laughter] then the more we walk around the more we're trying to figure out where the front entrance would have been now you would think it was facing the road we came in on with that huge tree because that would make the perfect front yard [Music] what a wonderful place to put a house i mean this isn't a house is a mansion i mean this was huge we got some more remnants just right here [Music] just look at these trees it's thick the moss the moisture that's why so many of these trees grow up here like i said the ground it just holds the moisture in it's very soft very spongy [Music] so this house had an upstairs basement or a first floor basement and then the next door had a master bedroom with an interior bathroom and then the next floor had a further nine bedrooms and there was another bathroom so indoor plumbing in those days was virtually unheard of but they had water supply in the attic that used to catch rain water and that's what they used to bath in bathing very ahead of its time for the 1800s now unfortunately smith coffee daniel ii who is the gentleman that owned this plantation [Music] died just two weeks after it was completed [Music] and he was only 34 years old [Music] so if you can imagine all of this now used to be cotton plantation now according to one sign it says they had 21 000 acres all dedicated to cotton but a website says it was probably closer to twenty six hundred we don't know which one's correct but it's vastly different today [Music] here we are at the daniels family cemetery it was built on an ancient native american burial mound and it's about a mile maybe a little under a mile away from the windsor ruins so out of respect we will remain silent the rest away going up into the cemetery once we reach the top we'll share some more facts [Music] here we are at smith coffee daniel ii's final resting place now many people have said that they've seen a gentleman in period clothes wander around here and thinking he was a reenactment character went up to him and asked him questions as they approached the gentleman mysteriously disappeared true story we decided to do the close here because i mean look at this tree it's there's not another one like it around here it's absolutely amazing i wonder if this is the tree that mrs daniel stood under while she watched her house go up in flames well it is a safe distance away and uh that would be a a good place to view it from how did that fire start well there was two stories apparently a workman threw a cigarette into a pile of sawdust and then another theory was it was started but they had a a ball that night and one of the guests accidentally set fire to it i don't know the true story oh okay well on that note we hope you enjoyed this video uh we really enjoyed it like it was a it really was a surprise to pull off the road and find this just sitting amongst these trees so remember get out there get exploring go put another pin in the atlas and we will see you on our next adventure bye [Music] you