Dunleith

Completed for Brigadier-General Charles Gustavus Dahlgren (1811-1888) and his wife Mary Routh. This mansion replaced Routhland which was built for Mrs Dahlgren's father in the 1790s but was struck by lightning and lost to fire. The Dahlgrens sold their new home in 1858 for $30,000 to Alfred Vidal Davis Sr. (1826-1899) who renamed it Dunleith. Built in the Greek-Revival antebellum style, the mansion is surrounded by 36 Tuscan columns. Perhaps it most famous occupant was John Roy Lynch (1847-1939). Born into slavery, Lynch became the first African-American Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Mississippi State Legislature and one of the first African-American U.S. Congressmen. It is perhaps best associated with the Carpenter family who lived here until 1976. Today, Dunleith sits on a 40-acre estate and is operated as a hotel, restaurant and event venue. In Nola Oliver's book, she wrote of Dunleith that, "no more perfect example of a Colonial mansion of the old south can be found".