Information
Landmark: Rowan Oak (William Faulkner Home)City: Oxford MS
Country: USA Mississippi
Continent: North America
Rowan Oak (William Faulkner Home), Oxford MS, USA Mississippi, North America
Overview
In Oxford, Mississippi, Rowan Oak-once William Faulkner’s home-stands as one of the South’s most haunting literary landmarks, its white columns catching the late-afternoon light.Hidden in a grove of cedar and oak trees a mile south of Oxford’s courthouse square, the house carries the quiet grace of the Old South and the restless spark of its former resident.The estate’s story begins in 1844, when Colonel Robert Sheegog, an Irish planter, built the house with broad verandas that caught the warm afternoon light.The design reflects the Greek Revival style once popular in antebellum Mississippi, with a perfectly balanced façade, bright white clapboard siding, and wide verandas where sunlight pools in the afternoon.Before Faulkner bought it, folks just called the place “The Bailey Place,” as if that old name had always hung in the air.In 1930, William Faulkner paid $6,000 for the house, a white‑framed place shaded by tall oaks.By then, he’d already put out several novels, yet his pockets stayed thin and his rent came due with a thud each month.Faulkner called it “Rowan Oak,” after the fabled Rowan tree said to bring peace and safety, and set to work restoring the weathered house and its overgrown grounds.He made it his home and stayed there until he passed away in 1962, the old front porch creaking under his steps.Rowan Oak’s architecture and grounds feature a two-story clapboard Greek Revival home, its white front portico framed by four sturdy columns.The building feels both elegant and straightforward, with wide halls, lofty ceilings, and broad windows pouring in soft daylight.The house sits amid 29 acres of woods, open pastures, and quiet gardens, where the air smells faintly of pine and solitude wraps around you.Cedar-lined paths wind past wide, open fields, the same places where Faulkner strolled, rode his horses, and let his ideas take root in the quiet air.Just beyond the back door, a stable, barn, and a few weathered sheds stand as quiet reminders of the farm that once thrived here.Step into Rowan Oak, and it’s like walking straight into a frozen moment from Faulkner’s world, the air still faintly smelling of old paper and pine.Many rooms still look just as they did when he lived there, but the study-lined with worn leather chairs and shelves of old books-might be the most famous of them all.Faulkner sketched the plot of *A Fable* in pencil across the plaster walls of his office, and you can still make out the faint gray lines today.His typewriter still sits on the desk, the riding boots rest by the door, and the hunting gear waits untouched in the corner.In the library and living areas, shelves are lined with books, some with frayed edges from years of reading.Family photos, worn keepsakes, and even his daughter Jill’s backpack create a warm, lived‑in feel.The dining room and bedrooms are simply furnished, carrying an easy Southern charm-whitewashed walls, a hint of polished pine in the air.The house wasn’t fancy; Faulkner poured his money into the wide stretch of land and the quiet it breathed, not into lavish comforts.Rowan Oak isn’t just a house-it’s Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County made real, the creak of its floors echoing the world he imagined in so many of his stories.In this quiet house, Faulkner penned masterpieces like *Light in August* and *Absalom, Absalom!*, the scratch of his pen carrying through the still afternoon air., and Go Down, Moses .…and *Go Down, Moses*, its title echoing like a deep, steady drumbeat.Rowan Oak’s air drifts into his novels-the smell of old wood, the tug between ruin and resilience, the heavy hand of history, and the slow, unbroken pulse of Southern life.Visitors often say the house could have stepped straight from one of his stories-its tall windows stand proud, but the paint along the shutters has peeled with age.After Faulkner died in 1962, his family kept the place going for a while, the porch still holding the scent of old pine.In 1972, the University of Mississippi bought the house and grounds, then set about preserving them-shoring up cracked steps and tending the old oak out front.Today, it runs as a house museum, welcoming visitors for guided tours past creaking floors and sunlit rooms.The university has carefully kept the home’s true character, leaving it unpolished-like a hallway where Faulkner’s boots might still echo if he stepped through the door.Today, you’ll find Rowan Oak at the end of Old Taylor Road, where a quiet, tree-lined path leads you there-or you can get there in minutes by car from the square.You step in along a tree-lined avenue, the air cool and smelling faintly of pine, and it instantly feels like a place made for retreat and quiet.Inside, guests wander through on self-guided tours, lingering over a faded map or moving quickly when they please.You can wander the grounds for free, and the trails through Bailey Woods-where pine needles crunch underfoot-connect Rowan Oak to the University of Mississippi Museum, a favorite path for locals and students.It’s as much about feeling as it is about thinking-the wooden floors creak underfoot, old books and cedar scent the air, and the house sits in stillness, wrapped in birdsong.For anyone who loves Faulkner, it’s like walking straight into the red clay of his imagination.In its closing moments, Rowan Oak brings William Faulkner to life-both the flesh-and-blood writer and the larger-than-life legend, right down to the creak of his front porch boards.This Southern home weathered war, years of neglect, and the slow wear of time, only to turn into a haven where one of America’s greatest writers built his imagined world, page by page under the shade of a sprawling oak.
