Beauvoir

April 30, 2021

In between rain showers we visited this historic site.  Very, very interesting. A statue of Jefferson and his two sons . Life size bronze statue depicts Jefferson Davis, his adopted black child, Jim Limber and his son, Joseph Davis.

Hayes Pavillion - reproduction, original destroyed by Hurricane Katrina

Built by James Brown as a haven for itinerant Methodist circuit riders. The building derives it's name from it's later use by the family of Margaret Davis Hayes, the eldest daughter of Jefferson and Varina.

Beauvoir House

James Brown, using slave labor and hired craftsmen, built this Louisiana raised cottage as a summer home from 1848 to 1852. The single-story home was construed of cypress and heart pine with a roof of Welsh slate. The raised design, along with the porches, tall windows, high ceilings, and the arrangement of the rear wings, promoted ventilation. the house was elevated on 62 eight-foot-tall brick piers to provide antebellum air conditioning - - not to avoid high water. But, elevating the house saved it from the storm surge of Camille and Katrina. The heavy slate roof on the house is sealed around the edges and so constructed that high winds blow the slatee roof down on the house rather than up and away. The structure has withstood eighteen hurricanes since it was built.

Windows and

 front doors to Beauvoir

Library Pavilion - reproduction - original destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

James Brown used this cottage as a schoolroom for his children. Jefferson Davis rented it for $50 a month from Sarah Dorsey from 1877 - 1878, Davis enclosed the eastern porch for additional living space and lined the original room witwh bookcases. Here Davis, with theh lep of his wife Varina, wrote the Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.

Varina's Rose Garden

Displays inside the Presidential Museum 

Typical bedroom furnishings

 Wood carving of Jefferson 

Burial cart used for Jefferson