Harvey Washington Walter “challenged [architect Spires Boling] to create something grander than the classic Greek Revival house with tall white columns” (walterplace.com). Boling’s response was the Gothic towers “topped with castellated battlements.”
Battlement:
…a parapet with indentations or embrasures with raised portions (merlons) between; also called crenellations…may be defensive or decorative; slotted or alternating solid and open parapet; gaps allowed defenders to shoot through…
Castellated:
…built like a castle, with turrets and battlements…
Walter Place was built in 1860 in Greek Revival/Gothic Revival style. Boling is credited with 13 houses in Holly Springs, and the Marshall County Courthouse and Lafayette County Courthouse (MDAH Historic Resources Inventory Database). Landscape architect was M. G. Kern, who designed the gardens in 1880. Current owners Jorja and Mike Lynn are in process of restoration of the house and gardens, using the original plans by Kern.
During the Union occupation, General Grant’s wife, son, and her slave (does that seem paradoxical to anyone else?) lived in Walter Place. Walter sent his wife and daughter to the Delta to live with family during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878. Walter and his sons stayed to tend the sick and bury the dead. Walter and his sons died from Yellow Fever within days of each other.
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Categories: 101 MissPres Places, Antebellum, Civil War, Historic Preservation, Holly Springs
Preservation in Mississippi 
I remember the first time I saw Walter Place in all its weird Gothicky Greeky glory. What a great house! And completely unconcerned about the historical inaccuracies of castellated towers smacked up against a Greek temple :-)
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