Walter Place

Walter Place. Stop 8 Van Dorn Raid:. Built in 1859 by master architect Spires Boling for Harvey W. Walter. In a combination of architectural styles, Gothic crenelated octagonal towers flank the central Classic Greek Revival portico. Both styles were detailed in iron cast at the local foundry. The house originally had a cast iron second floor balcony with five bays that ran between the towers, but it was removed and replaced with a single bay balcony circa 1903 when architect Theodore C. Link, designer of Mississippi's New Capitol Building, remodeled the house., In 1862 Julia Grant and the Grants' four-year-old son, Jesse, arrived in Holly Springs, and, according to Mrs. Grant, General Grant's aide-de-camp, Captain Theodore S. Bowers, "had secured very nice quarters for us in a fine house [Walter Place]...." Colonel Walter was serving in the Confederate army and his family had fled to Alabama. Thus, the house was left in the care of Mrs. Pugh Govan, whom Mrs. Grant described as "a fine, noble woman, as so many of these Southern women were." Mrs. Grant stayed in the large front drawing room and study on the left front of the bottom floor. , During Van Dorn's Raid on December 20, upon being informed that the Grant residence was at Walter Place, Confederate Colonel John Griffith sent Lieutenant Colonel Giles Boggess of the 3rd Texas here with ten men. Griffith followed the party and was met by Mrs. Govan at the gate of this house. In the name of civility, Mrs. Govan pleaded that Mrs. Grant's personal property be left undisturbed. Mrs. Govan's request was honored. Van Dorn's men rode from Holly Springs toward La Grange, Tennessee, late that day without Mrs. Grant's baggage, but they burned her carriage. The Grant residence was moved. to Mr. Coxe's home across town on December 23, and on Christmas Day General Grant, in appreciation of Mrs. Govan's hospitality, provided "the house of Mrs. Govan in [the] southwest part of town" a written exemption from seizure for public purposes., Donated to the People of the United States by Mr. and Mrs. Michael Lynn of Mississippi.., Photo captions: , Top left: General Grant with his wife, Julia, and his youngest son, Jesse. , Bottom left map: Downtown Holly Springs , Top right: Walter Place