John Cofield’s Photo of the Week: “Cedar Oaks”

It was a show-stopper the day Cedar Oaks “up and split.” To make way for the coming Downtowner Motel, in late 1963 Hassel Smith (pictured standing at bottom left) watches as his former home he gave to Oxford is carried away after being cut in two and loaded up on trucks. The house survived the Civil War‘s warring torches when locals stamped out the flames in the parlor as the Yankees galloped away up North Lamar. Thus, Cedar Oaks it is known to many as, “The house that would not die.”

Tags: Cedar Oaks, Civil War, Downtowner Motel, Hassel Smith, Mississippi, north lamar, Oxford, The house that would not die, Yankees

About the Author

John Cofield John Cofield grew up in Oxford. He is a local historian and author. John is the son of renowned University photographer, Jack Cofield. His grandfather, J. R. "Colonel" Cofield, was William Faulkner's personal photographer, and for decades was Ole Miss annual photographer. Four generations of the Cofield family have contributed to Oxford's pictorial history.