Preservation in Mississippi
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Gulfport Library Meeting
The second public meeting regarding the future of the Gulfport Library was held yesterday in Gulfport. Apparently the county, which seems to have always been more willing to consider keeping the building than the City of Gulfport has, is asking for the parties who are interested in the preservation of the library to put together … Continue reading
MDA’s Cultural Corners Program
This article in the Vicksburg Post about five towns being named Cultural Corners communities reminded me of this new, not-yet-well-known heritage tourism program begun by the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA). According to the article: MDA’s Certified Cultural Corners Program was launched in 2008 in five pilot towns with populations of less than 20,000. They were Holly … Continue reading
Demolition Issue in Philadelphia (Miss.)
An article in the Neshoba Democrat gives a good in-depth discussion of the issues surrounding the demolition request that First Baptist Church in Philadelphia has filed. A request to demolish or move an historic home adjacent to The First Baptist Church to make way for a daycare center will be discussed by the Philadelphia Historic … Continue reading
Stimulus Bill + Preservation
Those who know me well (and to know me is to love me, am I right? :-) are aware that I have a horror of debt. I try very hard to live within my means, and I would like my government to try that as well. So it won’t come as any surprise when I say that I’m … Continue reading
Everything Old is New Deal Again
Before I forget, here’s an interesting New York Times article about the loss of New Deal public buildings at the hands of eeeviilll local and state governments. The author notes the irony of this destruction in the midst of what some refer to as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. “It’s ironic to be … Continue reading
To Columbus (Miss.) and Back
On a whim, I took advantage of this fine February Friday to take a jaunt up to Columbus and see a few sites and meet a few people. Columbus isn’t as old as Natchez, but by the 1850s, Columbus had enough fine and opulent houses to rival the older town. Columbus was named one of the National Trust’s … Continue reading
Threatened Building in Dallas w/Mississippi Connection
Ok, I know it’s in Dallas, but Robert Johnson made a recording there, and that’s enough of a Mississippi connection for me to be interested. It’s also a great Art Deco building: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/todays-news/threatened-dallas-art-deco.html
The Return of Modernism
All this has happened before, and will happen again. At least that’s what I’ve learned from 4 seasons of Battlestar Galactica, along with lots of impenetrable mythology. So, I shouldn’t be surprised that Modernism has come back around. To me, the resurrection of Modernism is in direct relation to the decline of Preservation as a movement. Many fellow … Continue reading
Great Source for Digital Photographs
For those of you who haven’t scrolled down that far yet (you know who you are!), I’ve added a new feature on the bottom of the left-hand column of the page that’s linked to a very useful and interesting Flickr group called Mississippi National Register of Historic Places. This section will be constantly updated to show the … Continue reading
Mayflower Cafe: A Real Place
On any given Saturday evening when the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra is in season, you’re liable to find me and my honey ensconced in a booth at the Mayflower Cafe in downtown Jackson. The Mayflower is one of those rare but beautiful fusions of very cool old building and longstanding local institution that produce a “place.” The … Continue reading
Looking at the Recent Past
For those of us who enjoy the architecture of the mid-to-late-20th century as much as that from the 19th or 18th (well, maybe not “as much” but still a lot . . .) the Recent Past Preservation Network has a new website/blog that keeps us up to date on the latest issues and events, and has … Continue reading
Preservation and Exploration
Over at Preservation in Pink Kaitlin muses about the “Urban Exploration Movement.” She asks: “Urban Explorers aren’t the typical preservationists, but are their hearts in the right place? Or would something like this have a negative effect? After all, preservation is more than documentation, so this isn’t really the same thing. So how does this fall in relation … Continue reading
Historic Schools/Stimulus Package (II)
More specific information from the Christian Science Monitor about what the allegedly final stimulus package contains: Local school districts get to divvy up $40 billion for paying teachers and school upgrades. But importantly for preservation and in contrast to Pres. Obama’s statements about needing “new” schools, the emphasis on new construction in the final bill seems to have … Continue reading
Historic Schools and the Stimulus Package
Always on the prowl for news that might affect historic schools, I found this in the New York Times summary of the almost-passed stimulus bill: The plan would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the … Continue reading
Delta Queen (II)
Matt Hurley at Weapons of Mass Discussion concludes “It is amazing that this situation hasn’t been fixed yet…” I totally agree–it seems obvious to me that grounding the Delta Queen is the wrong thing to do. Everyone wants safety, of course, but the rules, as I understand them, were mostly written for ocean-going vessels, which … Continue reading
Keeping the Delta Queen Afloat
For those of you who love old steamboats, the National Historic Landmark Delta Queen is the gold standard but its future is in doubt because Congress has refused to exempt it, as it has in previous years, from fire safety standards. It’s been left at the dock in New Orleans since October 2008, and just … Continue reading
Friends of the Beverly on Facebook
I’m not hip enough, or possibly social enough, to be on Facebook, but I know lots of people are. A group has gathered there to work to preserve the historic (and very cool) Beverly Drive-In Theater, Hattiesburg’s icon of cheeseburgers, bobby socks, greased hair, Studebakers, and . . . well, it’s probably best not to … Continue reading
Resources for Keeping Your Historic School
Kaitlin brought up in her comment about President Obama’s rather disparaging reference to historic schools that the National Trust has done a lot of work in the past decade or so to help local citizens talk to their school boards about their historic schools. One publication that is helpful is “Why Johnny Can’t Walk to … Continue reading
Meridian’s Historic Photographs
I spend a lot of my time in life, believe it or not, looking for new stashes of information about our historic buildings and towns around the state. So imagine how happy I was to just stumble out of the blue upon this page on the City of Meridian website. Apparently, the Historic Preservation Commission … Continue reading
Still Fighting the Good Fight
In an otherwise very depressing article about abandoned housing in Jackson (third in a series) in the Clarion-Ledger, I found a beam of light in Marcia Weaver, leader in the successful effort back in the early 1990s to get a preservation ordinance passed in Jackson. Ms. Weaver has put her money where her mouth is, … Continue reading
Obama on Historic Schools
Some thoughts from the National Trust blog about President Obama’s statement during his press conference last night. Here’s what he said that made me (and I think a lot of us who love old buildings) go “AAAAAK!” “Education — yet another example. The suggestion is why should the federal government be involved in school construction. … Continue reading
Mississippi Historical Society Annual Mtg.
The Mississippi Historical Society has just announced its annual meeting for this year. It will be held at the newly opened Old Capitol and its theme will be, of all things, Preservation in Mississippi. In addition to speakers that include many of the people who helped guide the preservation movement in the state over the … Continue reading
Abandoned in the City
A second in a series of articles in the Clarion-Ledger about abandoned buildings in our capital city. I say abandoned because they’re not just vacant, waiting for their next occupant–more, they’ve been abandoned by their owners, left to the destroyers. The article discussed the strange case of the area around Jackson State University where abandoned … Continue reading
Hernando Hits the Big Time!
Read the recent article in the New York Times (as in New York City!) about the City of Hernando’s efforts to get its iconic water tower designated a Mississippi Landmark. Hernando has been really working for the past decade at least to preserve its small town historic center while still growing by leaps and bounds. … Continue reading
Vacant City
A sad article (one of many in recent years, I’m afraid) in the Clarion-Ledger about the thousands of abandoned houses in Jackson. Jackson has more than 12,300 vacant houses among its 76,000 households, according to U.S. Census figures. The vacant number is more than the total number of houses in Clinton, at 10,677, or … Continue reading
Mississippi’s New Old Capitol
For any of you who don’t know, the old state capitol building, commonly called the Old Capitol, just re-opened yesterday after a major renovation that was set in motion when chunks of the copper roof tore off during Hurricane Katrina. Yes, in case you’re counting, that was over 3 years ago. It’s been a long, … Continue reading
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