Location Information
(for the Neilson, W.S., House)
Name:Neilson, W.S., House ["Shadowlawn", Neilson-Culley-Lewis House]
Address:712 11th Street, South
City/County:Oxford, Lafayette County
Architectural Information
Construction Date:c.1857
Architectural Styles(s):Greek Revival
No. of Stories:2
Registration Information
NR District Name:South Lamar (2009)
    NR Status:Contributing
    Element No.:276
Local Designation Information
Local District Name:South Lamar Historic District
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Context/Comments
A large wood-frame vernacular Greek Revival house, with two major façades arranged in an L-shape, each resembling an I- house, with monumental tetrastyle porticos on each of the two façades. "Built by W.S. Neilson, founder of Neilson's on the Square, this house hosted uninvited Union troops several times. The legend of a small black boy being shot from a cedar tree on the front lawn by Union troops is retold by novelist Stark Young in So Red the Rose. The house stayed in the Neilson family for more than 70 years before becoming home to Dr. John Culley. It has been linked to William Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" (see Oxford Walking Tour, p. 11). The Department of Archives and History received a preservation easement on this house on 7 December 2001. The owners requested at that time that the house be referred to as the “Neilson-Culley House” rather than as “Shadowlawn.” (It is called the "Nielson-Culley-Lewis House" in "Great Houses of Mississippi)" [2004].)

This house is included in "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (p.147), "Old Homes of Mississippi, Volume II: Columbus and the North" (1977) (p. 119), "Great Houses of Mississippi" (2004) (pp. 73-75), and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p. 153, in the listing for the South Lamar Street Historic District, NC23). [HABS: MS-253 (1975)]