This suburban residence features Mississippi’s most lavish display of ornamental cast iron. As built for sisters Eliza and Catherine Evans, it was a two-story, five-bay frame house with a center-bay portico. In 1852, Elms Court became home to Ayres P. and Jane Merrill, who hired Rose to enlarge and update the house. Rose added one-story wings and replaced the original entrance portico with a full-width Italianate cast-iron, double-tiered front gallery accessed by multiple jib windows. The original eight-panel door is flanked by Roman Ionic columns supporting a wide projecting entablature. Interior proportions are grand. The original section has a double-pile, center-hall plan and the hall’s plaster ceiling center-piece is regionally unique, deeply recessed with acanthus and papyrus ornament. The staircase, located in a side hall with curving walls, separates the parlor and dining room with its large punkah. Original outbuildings on the 150-acre property include a one-story brick service building with gallery, a frame two-room slave quarters, an icehouse, and a brick carriage house with Dutch gables. The house is open for tours.