Preservation in Mississippi
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Getting geared up for the Big Event
Tomorrow, we’ll start our fourth Name This Place contest, an exciting time in the life of all MissPresers. It’s been a while since we’ve had a contest, and I know we’ve had a number of new readers join our group since then. For those of you who have come around these parts since the last … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 1-29-2010
It’s hard to believe the end of January is already here. Seems like just yesterday, I was sitting looking at my Christmas tree. Oh, actually, it was just yesterday. Hey, what can I say–I am not bound by the strict rules of the calendar. Speaking of the calendar, February marks the completion of one year … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Barnes and Link report in
Well, here we are at the end of this four-part series looking back to when the New Capitol was taking shape there on its double block on the north side of town. Today, the two reports mentioned in yesterday’s post, the first by the Superintendent of Construction J.F. Barnes, of Greenville, Mississippi, the second by … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Git-R-Done
Here’s the third part of the always-exciting “Report of the State House Commission to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1902.” If you’re coming in late, pick up Part 1, in which the commission hires an architect, and Part 2, where the Commission hires a contractor and throws its weight around with the Illinois Central Railroad. ———————————————– … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Hiring the contractor
Continuing our reading in the “Report of the State House Commission to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1902” . . . In yesterday’s post, we saw the formation of the State House Commission and their almost superhuman speed in hiring an architect. We also found that their paragraphs could be extremely long, not to say Faulknerian. … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Hiring an architect
Back in December, I mentioned in “More Architect/Builder Pics: Link and Barnes” that I wanted to post more about the New Capitol and how it came to be. That will be our project for this week. Tucked at the back of the booklet called “Dedication of the New Capitol” as an appendix is the “Report … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 1-22-2010
I’m always nervous to report a slow news week for fear I’ve missed something important, but I have full confidence that if I do fail miserably at my reportorial task, diligent MissPresers will set me right as quick as a wink. The Columbus Dispatch followed up on last week’s article announcing a meeting of local … Continue reading
Windows, Government Programs, and Why They Shouldn’t Mix
Here I was enjoying my dinner and catching up on my Wall Street Journal reading–it’s a terrible feeling to not only be behind in my books and magazines but also in my newspapers–and I had to gulp and take a quick drink to avoid choking when I came across an ad similar to this one … Continue reading
An Architectural Primer for Mississippi
Two articles have gone up on the Mississippi History Now site that will help give a good basic view of architecture in the Magnolia State. For those unfamiliar with it, History Now is the online publication of the Mississippi Historical Society, and is geared toward elementary and secondary history teachers. A lesson plan supplements each … Continue reading
What I really meant was Mendenhall Elementary
In case you missed my correction to last Friday’s News Roundup, I mistakenly stated that Magee Elementary School was threatened with demolition, when in fact the caption in the Magee Courier’s article clearly stated it was Mendenhall Elementary. Because I didn’t think the photo in the Courier of the school really did the building justice–it … Continue reading
Add these to your long-weekend schedule
First, a good article in the New York Times about the interest in restoring Rosenwald schools, “Black Schools Restored as Landmarks.” As usual, it concentrates on Rosenwald schools in Eastern seaboard states and ignores Mississippi, which had the second-highest number of Rosenwalds built, but it still gives good background and context and shows several successful … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 1-15-2010
As much as it seems hard to believe while watching the human and structural devastation in Haiti, other events that affect our own little postage stamp have been going on this week. —————————————————- In Hattiesburg, the old high school is coming along (“High school project’s 1st phase finished“), and officials celebrated the completion of the … Continue reading
Architectural Twins
I’ve been out and about the Magnolia State braving wind, snow, sleet, and broken water mains to scout out cool old buildings and bring you, my loyal MissPres readers, a report of what’s out there. As you remember, I drove up to Carrollton’s Pilgrimage a few months ago, and on my way, I stopped in … Continue reading
Before and After: Mississippi Coliseum
I know you’re all pondering yesterday’s ponderous post, so today I thought I’d go easy on you with just a couple of pictures. Besides that, my snug little historic house in Fondren is currently suffering a drought of sorts, due to the 70+ water mains that have broken in Jackson because of the recent extended … Continue reading
Patience, Grasshopper
I’ve thought alot about the King Edward lately, as much about the preservation story of the last 40 years than about the recent grand re-opening. I realize that it’s dangerous to use the King Edward story as a model for preservation because it’s a rare resource in this mostly rural and small-town state. For one … Continue reading
Does this mean you hate it, Miss Ada Louise?
I took the opportunity over the holidays to get back into my reading schedule and finish books that I had started during the dog days of summer. One of those was Ada Louise Huxtable’s recent compilation of her decades of essays as architectural critic with the New York Times and more recently with the Wall … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 1-8-2010
What? Unheard of to have two news roundups in one week! But this is a new year, so openness to change is a good thing, right? I promise we’ll get back on our once-a-week-on-Friday schedule next week, but I realized after Monday’s roundup that I had forgotten some important issues that needed to be addressed … Continue reading
Stumped?
As of today, I’m unilaterally and without UN sanction declaring myself the winner of the Jackson Details mini-contest, which has been out on the World Wide Web for over two weeks now. Out of the five detail photos from downtown Jackson, you, faithful and knowledgeable MissPres readers all, were only able to identify three (for … Continue reading
Meridian in the Beginning
One of my favorite things is looking through old city directories–aren’t they cool? Ok, maybe not cool in the traditional sense, but interesting. One that contains all sorts of valuable information is the 1888 directory for Meridian, the first one that I know of for that city. Someone must have commissioned a whole series of … Continue reading
Salvaging the remains of the Sprague
Last week, Marty Kittrell ran a series of photos on his beautiful photo blog of the remains of the once-great steam towboat Sprague, which plied the Mississippi and ended up as a theater on the banks of the river in Vicksburg after WWII. The series began last Monday with “State of the Sprague” and continued all week. The … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 1-4-2010
While y’all were celebrating the holidays, some even basking in the sun of Trinidad (*cough* Carunzel *cough*), I’ve been diligently scanning the newspapers and other media for stories that might interest MissPres readers. I’ve also been watching with a small amount of pride the Jackson Details photo identification contest, in which I now have a … Continue reading
Looking Back at 2009
Happy New Year, Y’all! Before we blast off, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at last year’s MissPres statistics. Ok, maybe not interesting to you, but interesting to me. MissPres got started on February 9, 2009, and at first I really had no idea what I was doing or why, just … Continue reading
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