[1][4] When Frances Johnstone married William J. Britton in 1844, her father built a plantation house near Mannsdale for the couple as a gift.

[1] In memory of her late husband, Margaret Johnstone built the masonry Gothic Revival-style Chapel of the Cross on the plantation property, quarter-mile north of the site of the future Annandale mansion.

After its completion in 1852, she transferred ownership of the church and surrounding 10 acres (4.0 ha) to the newly created Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.

[5] A few years later, Mrs. Johnstone hired the architect Jacob Lamour from New York City to design a new mansion for her and her unmarried daughter, Helen.

It featured one-story arched arcades that encircled the entire structure and spacious interior hallways, providing abundant shade and ventilation.

During the American Civil War, Margaret Johnstone cared for sick and wounded Confederate soldiers and supplied money and material to the military.

George and Helen Johnstone Harris moved around while he served as an Episcopal priest, but eventually the couple built a grand house for their retirement, Mont Helena, in Rolling Fork.

[1] The former 560-acre (230 ha) plantation is now divided between two gated residential developments: Annandale Estates on the west side of Mannsdale Road and Reunion on the east.

One ghost is claimed in the story to be that of Annie Devlin, a former governess for Helen who died at the Annandale mansion in June 1860 and was purported to haunt its halls until the night it burned in 1924.