The ruins consist of 23 standing Corinthian columns of the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion ever built in the state.

The 2.1-acre (0.85 ha) site with the columns was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1985.

The architect David Shroder supervised a crew of skilled artisans—carpenters, plasterers, masons, and painters—from Mississippi, northeastern states, and Europe to do finishing work on the mansion.

[5][6] The footprint for Windsor mansion was set by 29 columns which supported a projected roof line that protected 9 ft (2.7 m) wide verandas on the second and third floors.

[5] Column capitals, balustrades, and four cast iron stairways were manufactured in St. Louis and shipped down the Mississippi River to the Port of Bruinsburg, about 2 mi (3.2 km) west of Windsor mansion.

Eight chimneys extended from the slate-covered roof, and a domed cupola with glass walls was constructed above the attic, over the main block of the mansion.

[5] Once the American Civil War began in 1861, Confederate forces used the Windsor mansion cupola as an observation platform and signal station.

But in the early 1990s, an 1863 sketch of Windsor mansion was discovered in the papers of a former Union officer, Henry Otis Dwight, of the 20th Ohio Infantry.

[4] On February 17, 1890, a fire started on the third floor when a guest dropped ashes from a cigarette or cigar into construction debris left by carpenters who were making repairs.

[2] Windsor mansion was destroyed leaving only the columns, balustrades, cast iron stairways, and pieces of bone china.

[5] The fourth stairway was moved to Alcorn State University and serves as the entrance to Oakland Memorial Chapel.