Set against a thicket of trees in a neighborhood near Oxford’s Avent Park, the Cedar Oaks mansion is one of the city’s many historic landmarks. Recently, the city of Oxford — to whom the house was donated — made an effort to change legislation surrounding the city’s ability to sell the home. The move was met with pushback from many community members.
Oxford native Lillian Susan Walker Smith Sahag was born in Cedar Oaks. The house was donated by her family. Despite her and her family’s continued support and donations to the house, they were not informed of the resolution to sell the mansion. This prompted Sahag to write a letter to the Oxford Board of Aldermen urging them not to pass the resolution that would allow the sale of Cedar Oaks.
“This home has served the city of Oxford in so many ways, in so many capacities,” Sahag said. “So much was given by the people of Oxford for that house, and for the heritage and beauty of Oxford, and to promote Oxford and the wonderful aspects and history of it. To just not respect and not understand what has made Oxford such a wonderful town that people love and come to see, I think, is a horrible mistake.”
The Board of Aldermen met on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and voted on a resolution that was “in support of local and private legislation allowing the sale of certain property in Oxford, Miss., commonly known as Cedar Oaks.”
The vote resulted in a tie, with Mayor Robyn Tannehill casting the deciding vote in favor of the resolution.
The next morning, Tannehill said in a Facebook post that City Clerk Ashley Atkinson received an email from Shane Barnett, chairman of the Mississippi House Local and Private Legislation Committee, stating the city could not pursue the legislation change due to the lack of a unanimous vote.
“The committee would only be considering resolutions for local and private legislation that had passed from the local entities with a unanimous vote,” the post said. “Oxford will not pursue the change in local and private legislation considered at last night’s Board of Alderman meeting.”
Dubbed “the house that would not die,” Cedar Oaks boasts a rich history. Built by William Turner in 1859, the mansion was occupied by his daughter Molly Turner Orr during U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s second occupation of Oxford during the Civil War. Orr Sarah Isom — the first female faculty member at the University of Mississippi — persuaded him to spare the house. Grant and his troops proceeded to set much of the city ablaze. The basement of Cedar Oaks was used to house Confederate prisoners during the war.
The city of Oxford sought to build a hotel on the land the house was seated on in 1963. Instead of tearing the house down, the city moved the house to where it is today, on Murray Street.
Keri Dibrell is president of the Cedar Oaks Guild, a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation and support of Cedar Oaks. The guild works to keep the mansion maintained and available to the public and hosts many events there throughout the year.
“Cedar Oaks is an important historical building that cannot be replaced or rebuilt,” Dibrell said. “When you walk through the front door of the mansion, you are transported to a different time.”
The Cedar Oaks Guild was given no notice of the resolution, though Tannehill called Dibrell and apologized for the oversight.
“Cedar Oaks is safe, for now,” Dibrell said in a Facebook post following the resolution’s failure. “Thank you to everyone who helped save Cedar Oaks from being sold by the city. You made a difference, and we are so grateful!”
Although the city will not move forward with the mansion’s sale, many Oxford citizens were dismayed at the possibility that the city was considering selling the historic mansion.
“Cedar Oaks is part of Oxford legend and lore,” Joe Atkins, professor emeritus of journalism at UM, said.
“It was my understanding that the city was awash in cash,” Atkins said. “They have record revenues from the tourist tax this past year, and I think Cedar Oaks benefits from that. I don’t know why they would need to sell this home to raise more revenue unless there’s a problem we don’t know about.”
According to a Facebook post from Tannehill on the day before the Board of Aldermen meeting, the resolution did not seek to immediately sell Cedar Oaks or any part of its property but simply to allow the city the option of selling it should they deem it necessary.
“A town with 28,000 tax payers that sees approximately 60,000 people in town on any given weekday and as many as 250,000 on an SEC home football weekend has to be creative in exploring possibilities for our growing city,” Tannehill said. “This exploration may result in no changes at all.”
She then went on to list a few possibilities for the house, including selling the house to be preserved and lived in, or, “selling some of the adjacent lots for development under Mississippi Historic Landmark guidelines and using that money to implement needed improvements and annual costs.”
