Beauvoir (Biloxi, Mississippi)

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Beauvoir
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Mississippi Landmark
Beauvoir in February 2010
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Location	2244 Beach Blvd, Biloxi, Mississippi
Coordinates	30°23′33″N 88°58′15″W / 30.39250°N 88.97083°W / 30.39250; -88.97083
Built	1848
NRHP reference No.	71000448
USMS No.	047-BLX-1402.1-NHL-ML
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	September 3, 1971[2]
Designated NHL	November 7, 1993[3]
Designated USMS	October 24, 1985[1]

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 National Park Service designated the house and plantation as a National Historic Landmark.

Samuel Dorsey, a planter, purchased the estate in 1873. After Dorsey died in 1875, his widow, Sarah Dorsey, learned that Davis was facing difficulties. Dorsey invited Davis to visit the plantation, offering him a cottage near the main house where he could live and work on his memoirs. Davis ended up living there the rest of his life with his wife, Varina Davis, and his youngest daughter, Varina Anne Davis (known as "Winnie").

Ill with cancer in 1878, 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 Jefferson Davis died in 1889. Varina and Winnie moved to New York City in 1891.

After Winnie died in 1898, Varina Davis inherited the plantation. Davis sold it in 1902 to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans with the stipulation that it be used as a Confederate States Army 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 Confederate veteran 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 reopened while work continued on the library.