Preservation in Mississippi
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MissPres News Roundup 1-30-2012
After last week, I thought I might have to change my name and hide for a while with all the bad news to report, but found this week to be better, so I decided it was safe to do the roundup. Been trying to watch for stories on the Corinth Machinery Building, which was part … Continue reading
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The abandoned plant of the Mississippi Cotton Oil Company wasn’t on the recent Port Gibson Holiday Home Tour, but as I was wandering about before the tours started, I was drawn to the place, just north of downtown, like a moth to the flame. I’ve always been intrigued by cotton seed oil mills–the strange shapes … Continue reading
A simple Modern rural church was the featured Mississippi building in the May 1964 issue of the Mississippi Architect. ——————————————————————– GULDE METHODIST CHURCH Rankin County, Miss. CLEMMER & CLARK, A.I.A. Architects Jackson, Miss. R.D. MOON Contractor Pelahatchie, Miss. THIS rural church serves a congregation of less than one hundred and is located near the town … Continue reading
In his editorial for May 1964, Mississippi Architect editor and Jackson architect Edward F. Neal notes the language barrier between architects and clients. This is and probably always will be a problem with any kind of specialized field, and like doctors, some architects are better than others at translating their language into ours. Since this … Continue reading
Disclaimer: I just roundup the news stories, so don’t shoot the messenger . . . Might as well start with the worst of it . . . the crazy weather lately has causes major damage to the Corinth Machinery Building. W. White wrote up a little background on the building during the 101 Places Voting … Continue reading
It’s a nice coincidence that in the same week as an update on Jackson’s First Christian Church we should look at the interior of Port Gibson’s St. Joseph Catholic Church. Built almost exactly 100 years apart, these two buildings might be supposed to have nothing in common. In fact, they share one characteristic, besides their Gothic … Continue reading
Just before the New Year, MissPres reader “M” (who, I’m told, is a first cousin twice removed from James Bond’s “Q”), alerted us in a comment left on “Friends We Lost in 2011” that there appears to be a large leak or maybe even hole in the roof of Jackson’s First Christian Church. As you … Continue reading
From the Downtown Philadelphia Historic District nomination, recounting the civil rights march led by Martin Luther King, Jr., in Philadelphia. Held on June 21, 1966, the march from Independence Quarters, a large black neighborhood west of the railroad, to the courthouse was meant to bring attention to the Schwerner, Chaney & Goodman murders: King began … Continue reading
Our impulse to create lists of accomplishments and failures continues today, with a list of the newly designated Mississippi Landmarks in the state. The Mississippi Landmark designation is conferred by the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History (quick, who can name the chair of the MDAH Board?), and the designating … Continue reading
Whenever I go up toward Oxford, I like to check in on the Bynum School off the beaten track in Panola County. I’ve been around to lots of places that used to have Rosenwald schools, and as far as I know, Bynum is the last example of a one-classroom (or technically “one-teacher”) Rosenwald school left … Continue reading
In response to a reader’s request after last week’s School for the Blind post, it seemed only fitting that I follow up that first-ever in the “Abandoned Mississippi” series with a first-ever “Lost Mississippi” post about the institution that preceded the School for the Blind. As I mentioned last week, the Institute for the Blind … Continue reading
Those of you who don’t read the obituaries every day might have missed the notice of the death of Robert K. Overstreet last week. Overstreet was the son of our famous Jackson architect N.W. Overstreet and he was also a well-known architect in his own right. Here’s a bit from the obituary that appears in full … Continue reading
I will now announce my much-anticipated nominations for “Coolest Ole Miss Buildings.” To appeal to all segments of my vast reading audience, I have two nominations: one from the 19th century, the other so far into the 20th century, you’ll be amazed at my open-mindedness. Drum-roll please . . . All you Ole Miss alums, … Continue reading
Random Thoughts and Asides
- Check out these two recent photo essays on endangered historic places in Mississippi: "Decaying History" on the Modern Southerner blog, and "A beautiful dogtrot house, fading slowly away" on NMissCommentor.
- Check out Simon Jenkins' recent "Five Best Books About The City" in the Wall Street Journal. It includes Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities, our very first Book Quotes series here on MissPres.
- A short fun video for Friday afternoon. Click here to watch! This clip pokes fun at the ridiculous claims the vinyl window industry is known to make. For more info visit vinyl-windows.org
- Catch this NPR story about the completion of a 6-year restoration project of Boston's African Meeting House, the country's oldest African-American church, celebrating its 205-year anniversary.
- Restore Media is offering a free webinar on Classical Architecture! It focuses on the differences between Georgian and Federal style interiors and uses examples from rooms in the Winterthur Museum collection. The webinar lasts one hour and is available on demand, so you can pause it and take notes or fix another glass of tea. With it getting dark so early nowadays this is a great educational activity for an evening! Click to view the Webinar
- Ran across this slide show story about an old post office that a woman turned into her house. It's not in Mississippi, but I thought it was a good example of how creative people can be with historic buildings.
- Check out several interesting video updates on the damage and on-going assessment at the Washington Monument on the National Park Service's webpage.
- Although not really a new concept in the preservation world, the interest in preserving ranch houses and other mid-century buildings caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal in "Plain, Common . . . and Historic?."
- An article in the New York Times discussing the growing movement to retain old windows.
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