NSV Interiors & Exteriors

MISSISSIPPI'S FIRST EZINE

The front of Cedar Grove Mansion (above) was originally the back of the house, as present-day Oak Street was not there
when the mansion was built in the mid 19th Century. The home’s front faced Washington Street on the east side.

CEDAR GROVE IN VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI was begun in 1840 by John Alexander Klien for his teenage bride, Elizabeth Bartley Day, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s cousin. This Greek Revival style mansion is today the largest bed-and-breakfast in Mississippi. Finished in 1853, Cedar Grove was used as a Union hospital after the surrender of Vicksburg.

The Grant Room (above) on the Main Floor is where General Grant slept after the Siege of Vicksburg. This room is furnished in rosewood and cherry antiques, many original to the mansion. On the fireplace mantle, look for these porcelain vases and the clock (above right).

This grandfather clock (above), made by the clockmaker George Moore, stands in the lower hallway by the front door
at the foot of the main staircase where one of the mansion’s ghosts, “Little Willie,” is said to play tricks on guests.
If you look closely at the photo on the right, you may just see "Little Willie."

The colorful ballroom boasts a Centennial harpsichord, one of only 100 that were made in the mid-1800s.

The front half of the Double Parlor (above left) is the Gentlemen’s Parlor, as seen from the Ladies’ Parlor. Still lodged in the wall of the Gentlemen’s Parlor, this cannonball (upper right) came crashing through the front door during the Union bombardment of Vicksburg while this cannonball hole in the parlor floor (lower right) can be viewed through a sheet of glass.

It is in this room that the aroma of tobacco smoke has been noticed and this in a building with a no-smoking policy! It is said that the original owner of the house, John Klein, would relax in the Gentlemen's Parlor with his pipe, and that today, if a visitor enters of whom Klein doesn't approve, the smell of tobacco smoke signals this.

John Klein’s library (right), where he conducted all of his business, is above a basement room that was his wine-cellar. That basement served as a morgue when the mansion was a Union hospital and is the location of ghost sightings today.

The formal dining room holds a 40,000 pound safe that is disguised as a side board for food (above).

Fascinating antiques, everyday items in their time, fill the house. The “Fairy Lamps” (center), as they were called by the Klein children, were used to light the way to their beds at night.

An ornate Italian gazebo, as seen from the top of the cistern, (above left) graces the front lawn and a Victorian tennis court (above right) can be found hidden on the hill between the mansion and Washington Street on the east side of the property.

The Tara Carriage House (below), holding eight of the 34 suites at Cedar Grove, can be found at the opposite end of the grounds from the pool.