Shadowlawn/ W.S. Neilson House/ Neilson-Culley House
- Jay Brothers
- May 4
- 3 min read
712 So. 11th St. (at Fillmore) Oxford, MS
Circa 1856. 2-story Greek Revival style
It is one of the best preserved antebellum homes in Oxford.
This Greek Revival home was built in 1856 by William S. Neilson (1813-1892), an Oxford merchant and Mary Caroline Bowen Neilson (1826-1902). The inside of the home is a Maltese Cross, and originally the home sat on an entire city block.
He arrived in Oxford in 1836 and started the first store in 1839 in a log cabin on what became the Oxford Square. The family shared the same landscape with oak trees as Rowan Oak. Union forces burned the Neilson store on the Square along with almost all the other stores. The store was rebuilt. In 1897, the current Neilson store was finished and opened. The name was changed to J. E.Neilson Company when their son, Joseph Edwin “Ed” Neilson (1858-1936), took over. Their department store is considered the oldest one in the South and the 16th oldest in the U.S. Over the years, the Neilson family has sold parcels of land to relatives along the street. Ed married Belle Wohlleben Neilson (1861-1943), daughter of Herman and Katrina Wohlleben. After the elder Neilsons died, two unmarried daughters remained in the home - Miss Anne and Miss Lou.
The property then passed to Dr. John C. Culley (1886-1966) and Nina Somerville Culley (1897-1965). They wed in 1922. Dr. Culley, a Vanderbilt School of Medicine graduate, was a renowned surgeon. He served for a decade a Proessor of Medicine at Univ. of Miss. (1914-1924), was superintendent and owner of the first hospital in Oxford, and served as President of the Miss. Medical Association. Nina was a native Oxonian and daughter of the Dean of the Univ. of Miss. School of Law (Thomas Hugh Somerville) as well as an Ole Miss graduate. Ole Miss recognizes their contributions with the John Clifton Culley and Nina Somerville Culley Memorial Scholarship in the School of Medicine. Dr. Culley and colleague Dr. Bramlett were two of the many Ole Miss residents who responded to the tragic 1920s train wreck of the Bilbo. Dr. Culley’s first wife was Marguerite Rhodes Culley (1892-1918) (m. 1913).
By 1965, (Jesse) Roland (1918-1997) and Eulalie "Leah" Crawford Adams (1919-2000) purchased the property and made extensive renovations including central heat and air, a lily pond and a terrace made of bricks from the first LaFayette Co. courthouse. The home was featured on the 1966 Oxford Pilgrimage tour. Both the Adams are Mississippi natives. In 1971, Adams, a developer, built Eastgate Shopping Center on University Ave. in Oxford. The center included the first theatre in Oxford since the Ritz in 1950. The couple has also established several scholarships at Ole Miss. Adams also opened the Rebel Drive-In ( site of current Home Depot on Jackson Ave.) with his father J. F. Adams in 1952.
Then in 1979, Will Lewis, Jr. and Patty Lewis purchased Shadowlawn nnd its over 2 acres as their dream home with four acres and lived in the house with their family. Will’s father worked for and became a partner in J.E. Neilson, and Will and Patty now own the store and run the institution. The name Shadowlawn came from the large cedar trees that line the drive and were sprinkled throughout the large lot.
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