The main house at Hurricane was two stories, with two large semi-detached wings for entertaining, and a detached library. There were also numerous outbuildings typical of a plantation of that scale. The residence was described in detail by
Varina Davis (Jefferson Davis's second wife), in a memoir of her husband. Davis lived at Hurricane with his wife,
Eliza Van Benthuysen Davis, his three illegitimate daughters, and his two adopted children. He had served as surrogate father and
de facto guardian for his brother Jefferson Davis, who was 23 years younger. In the 1830s, Joseph Davis gave Jefferson the full use of more than adjoining Hurricane. Jefferson Davis developed a plantation here, naming it
Brierfield. Specific details of the arrangement are uncertain, as Joseph Davis retained ownership of the land. Jefferson Davis, and later his second wife and children with him, occupied Brierfield until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. After the fall of New Orleans to Federal troops and the increasing military presence near Vicksburg, Davis relocated from Hurricane Plantation with members of his family and some of his enslaved people to
Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The main house of Hurricane Plantation was burned by Federal troops in 1862, and the plantation looted numerous times by both armies during the campaign of Vicksburg. Only the library, a building independent of the main house, survived the war. The main buildings of
Brierfield Plantation burned down in 1931. Despite increasing damage from floods, the Davis family retained the properties until 1953. It was sold and quickly flipped to a lawyer from
Vidalia, Louisiana, who reserved it for hunting. He and his family established the Brierfield Hunting Club, so private that it has people come by invitation only. ==Sources==