I’ve never heard that about MDAH and the old plantations in the 1930s. What HABS drawings we do have are from the 1930s, overseen by A. Hayes Town, and they’re beauties. And then there’s a pretty good photograph collection apparently from the WPA and related agencies–really invaluable pictures in that. And I do believe MDAH got into archaeology in the 1930s and that’s where alot of the initial survey of the mounds, etc. started.

Yes, you’re right, as far as I know, the only Columbus book is “Reflections” and yes, it’s pretty light on the analysis.

How about Columbusiers?

Wow, cover-to-cover when you were seven!?? Man, the bug hit you early! No wonder you know so much!

I am familiar with “One-Room Schoolhouses of Arkansas…” as well as one other book: “Ozark Vernacular Houses: A Study of Rural Homeplaces in the Arkansas Ozarks.” The only other Arkansas Architecture books I am aware of are monographs on Fay Jones and Marlon Blackwell and various magazine articles I have discovered.

It is unfortunate to hear that the Columbus architectural history was nixed for some reason. I guess that means the only architectural book on Columbus is “Reflections: Homes and History of Columbus, Mississippi,” which is merely a look at the antebellum houses that make money for the city. Perhaps a little cynical view, I am glad that those antebellum houses are still there and people from Columbus (Columbusians?) are not as bad about their antebellum houses as Natchezians. I wish that they would learn to appreciate the other forms of architecture that are around them. “Reflections” is a good book in that it is better than nothing.

I agree that it is unfortunate that there is a combined Mississippi/Alabama volume from Mills Lane. I wonder if it pertains to the relatively lesser period of settlement for the two states. Of the states featured in the Architecture of the Old South series, only Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana (and of course Mississippi and Alabama) became states after the Revolutionary War. The other states had been settled since the 1600s, except for Georgia, a newcomer settled in the 1730s. Louisiana still has buildings remaining from French settlement, which commenced in earnest in the 1710s. Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi, due to their frontier nature, saw the arrival of “high styles” of architecture later than the other states Lane profiled. Unfortunately, Mills Lane will not get the chance to publish anymore volumes in the series, something we are all a little poorer for.

While HABS did not cover Mississippi as extensively as in other neighboring states, didn’t MDAH undertake studies of the old plantations and buildings during the 1930s? If MDAH did, then Mississippi has a leg up on Alabama. The Alabama Department of Archives and History did not do any similar study, most of the architectural history of Alabama is in the HABS archives, which is why it is lucky for architectural historians that Alabama is one of the most extensively covered states in the nation in those archives.

Finally, I am glad that Gamble is likely the one to write Alabama’s entry in the “Buildings of the United States” series. With all due respect to Alice Bowsher, John Schnorrenberg, Michael Fazio, and the other authors working in the Alabama architectural history field, Robert Gamble is the dean of Alabama architectural history. I first read the “Alabama Catalog” cover-to-cover when I was seven; I still re-read it about every two years.

As for Mills Lane, I’m still annoyed that he decided neither Alabama nor Mississippi deserved a book of its own, so he combined us into one. Definitely love Louisiana Buildings too–such a treasure trove! Unfortunately, Mississippi has only a few buildings given the full HABS treatment, with measured drawings, etc. The HABS documentation we do have is almost primarily photographs, which are great of course, but the drawings really do add a whole different level of documentation to draw upon.

You’re right that the BUS volumes aren’t technically “architectural histories” in that they are meant to be guide books while summarizing the history for each region of the state. But I used the Buildings of Washington DC when I spent a few months there a couple years ago, and it was great for the purpose–I walked all over the city with it, while also learning lots about the architectural history of the place and gaining new insights into styles and construction methods along the way.

I know that a good architectural history of Columbus was in the works in the late 1980s through MDAH and University Press, but something went wrong and it never got published, which is a shame–Columbus deserves its own book at the same level as Natchez has, in my opinion.

The only book I own about Arkansas is One-Room Schoolhouses of Arkansas as Seen Through a Pinhole–a fascinating book, but not exactly an architectural history of the state.

Have you read Architects and Builders of North Carolina? Wow, that book has really made me look at the history of architects, builders, and the trades in general in a whole new light, and has really informed my outlook on our own architectural profession in Mississippi.