  D’Evereux By recent engineering survey Highway No. 61 from Memphis to New Orleans passes the grounds that once formed a part of D’Evereux acres. Motorists on this highway, when within a mile of Natchez, can see this mansion, in perfect architecture, standing like a great Greek temple near the roadway. Sweeping tropical moss hangs from the sentinel oaks which guard this magnificent home. Built in 1840 for William St. John Elliott and his wife, it was given her family name, “D’Evereux”, and this home, one of the most spacious in the community, was the scene of many happy affairs for the socially prominent. Great double drawing rooms and a banquet room, while not containing the original furnishings, show woodwork and walls, hand-turned railings and doorways, evidence of the excellent taste of the builders. After more than forty years the master-owner of D’Evereux died. The home was closed for a long while; later the widow with some of her young relatives opened the mansion and it became again the scene of many joyful gatherings. Upon the death of Mrs. Elliott, “D’Evereux” was willed to her niece, Mrs. Margaret Martin Shields. During Mrs. Shields’ occupancy, it was selected as the most perfect home, in style and setting, in the entire Southland, and for this reason it is shown in that exquisite motion picture, “The Heart of Maryland”. Within the past few years D’Evereux has been purchased by Miss Myra Smith of Chicago. With great pride in the ownership of one of the South’s most majestic ante-bellum homes, Miss Smith has restored every portion of the old home, which today presents such magnificent perfection as to bring forth exclamations of wonder from all who travel that section of the Natchez Trace highway. (unlabelled) |
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