Preservation in Mississippi
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Progress of a sort in Hattiesburg
I drove through Hattiesburg again last weekend and decided to check on Eaton School, poor roofless creature that it was last I saw it. The good news is that the building now has a roof structure; the not-so-good-news is that the roof project still isn’t finished three months into it–looks like a moisture barrier of … Continue reading
William R. Henry follow-up and more
Thanks to Carunzel, our crack researcher, for pulling up the 1952 yearbook for Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, which contains a picture of a young William R. Henry, whose death we noted yesterday. You can access the “original” at Georgia Tech’s website, which takes forever on my computer; or you can just click here for … Continue reading
In Memoriam: William R. Henry (1925-2010)
I saw this letter to the editor from Nicholas Davis, Emeritus Professor of Architecture at Auburn, in the Clarion-Ledger a week or so ago, about the recent death of Mississippi architect William R. Henry: I was most saddened recently to hear of the death of William Robert Henry, FAIA, architect, who lived and practiced in … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 3-27-2010
Saturday Morning, I promised another News Roundup and there is enough news to create another News Roundup. And here is the news. I reported in the 3-12-2010 News Roundup that a group of citizens in Calhoun City has spearheaded a move to clean-up the Calhoun City Square. Unfortunately, clean-up to these citizens equates to demolishing dilapidated … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 3-26-2010
Good Morning MissPres community, I am back in Mississippi. I will start off the post with some scheduling information. This will be the last News Roundup posted by me on a Friday. Due to my schedule (and when the MSU Library receives newspapers), I will now start posting News Roundups on Saturday morning. This week … Continue reading
Young Bungalow for Sale in Canton
A friend of mine sent me this link to a blog “The Young Bungalow” about the renovation/restoration efforts of a sweet Craftsman Bungalow in Canton. The house–listed on the National Register in 2008–is now for sale, for $123,000. Even if you’re not in the market for a house, the blog shows the owners’ love for … Continue reading
Jackson Details 2
Well, it’s been a while since our fabulously successful Jackson Details mini-contest, where MissPresers showed off their intimate knowledge of downtown Jackson and its architectural details. So, since it’s Spring (finally) (I think) and y’all would probably rather be outside anyway, let’s fire up a new contest. As you may recall, I myself won the … Continue reading
More Spring Happenings
As usual around this time of year–regardless of weird snow flurries three weeks into March–Mississippi is coming to life, with the daffodils, japanese magnolias, and now the Bradford pears blooming away, and the azaleas showing signs of budding. This is also the time of year when preservation-related activities tend to sprout willy-nilly. A few weeks … Continue reading
More Trust Grants for Historic Schools
A few weeks ago (“Grants for Rosenwald Schools“), I passed on a post from the National Trust announcing the opening of a new round of grants for Rosenwald schools, in partnership with the Lowe’s Foundation. Last week, the Trust announced another grant resulting from this partnership, this one applying to all historic schools, not just … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 3-19-2010
My apologies for not producing my usual in-depth News Roundup for this week; the normal News Roundup will return next week. Of course, I am on vacation and used some of my vacation time to create last week’s News Roundup, starting a long discussion which brought all the Oxonians out of the woodwork like so … Continue reading
Hull’s Governor’s Mansion Report: What They Did in 1909
After William S. Hull made his case for preserving and renovating the building in the first few pages of his 1909 report on the Governor’s Mansion, he went into detail about how to carry out his vision, including the landscaping, the renovation of the antebellum portion of the building, the demolition of the early rear … Continue reading
Hull’s Governor’s Mansion Report: An Argument for Preservation
This week we’re following William S. Hull’s Report on the Governor’s Mansion, prepared in 1909 to help the Legislature decide whether to repair/renovate the existing antebellum mansion or replace it with a new building. Hull argued for the renovation option and based his argument on the need for preserving historic and beautiful architecture, regardless of … Continue reading
W.S. Hull’s Governor’s Mansion Report: Original Downtown Booster
Today we continue with our friend W.S. Hull’s 1909 report on the Governor’s Mansion. Yesterday, we learned a little bit about William S. Hull, one of Mississippi’s early native architects and brother of contractor Francis Blair Hull. In 1909, the Legislature hired W.S. Hull, by then a respected professional well-known regionally for his public buildings, … Continue reading
From the Archives: W.S. Hull’s Report on the Governor’s Mansion
I stumbled on this report about the Governor’s Mansion recently and thought that it would be an interesting series for the MissPres readership. Prepared in 1909 by Jackson architect W.S. Hull, it apparently provided the basis for a decision by the Legislature to renovate the existing antebellum mansion instead of building a new residence outside … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 3-12-2010
MissPres readers, greetings from Alabama (the current location of yours truly). And here is the news. The Calhoun County Journal reports in the February 25 paper that Calhoun City is beginning a clean up effort of the Calhoun City Town Square. I am all for improving a city but the first sentence of the article … Continue reading
Historic Sheetrock? You betcha!
Last week when I saw Kaitlin’s post called “Old Sheetrock?” over on Preservation in Pink, I sent the link off as quick as a wink to a friend of mine down on the Coast who just loves old sheetrock. In fact, he would be an old sheetrock collector if only those pesky homeowners didn’t object … Continue reading
Pictures of Gulf Park College campus
As you may recall from a few News Roundups back in December and January, the University of Southern Mississippi, which now owns the beautiful old Gulf Park College campus in Long Beach, wants to use its FEMA money to demolish the old administration building, one of the three remaining historic buildings on the campus. When … Continue reading
The Old Benwalt Hotel Blows Its Top
I have a bit of fondness for architectural oddities, and the Benwalt Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, with its impressive Quonset Hut roof, was a definite Oddity when I took these pictures in 2006. Beneath that rather awkward veneer is a three-story brick hotel, built in 1927-28 and designed by Meridian architect R.C. Springer, who also … Continue reading
William A. Stanton on Ceres Plantation
A reader who took a special interest in the Ceres Plantation story a few weeks ago headed over to the state archives building to do a little digging into the history of the place. After picking through the WPA records for Warren County, he found a little nugget in the “Antebellum Days” file (not in … Continue reading
Rodney, MS, as seen by Marty Kittrell
In case you missed the pictures of the almost abandoned town of Rodney, Mississippi (down between Port Gibson and Fayette, near the River) on Marty Kittrell’s photo blog this week, I hope you’ll go over and check them out. They are poignant, thoughtful, and delightful all rolled up in one. Monday: Rodney Baptist Church (I) … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 3-5-2010
This is my first News Roundup. It will be longer than Malvaney’s News Roundups normally are as I have gathered news from the last several weeks from these papers. Many of these stories are from small town Mississippi newspapers, printing entities that are sans websites. The Friday, February 26 edition of The Bolivar Commercial reported … Continue reading
A New Contributor to MissPres
I’m very very happy–really you don’t know how happy–to announce that our news roundup today will be brought to you courtesy of our newest official Preservation in Mississippi contributor, W. White. Most of you know W. White from his astute comments and observations about architecture and preservation. I have learned a lot from his comments–I … Continue reading
Why I want to live at Hattiesburg’s Art Deco P.O.
As I was headed out of Hattiesburg a week or so ago–having taken my pictures of Eaton School and scowling about the lack of progress and initiative on that roof (still haven’t heard an update, but I hope somebody finally figured out that it needed to get done sooner rather than later)–I drove up Pine … Continue reading
Meridian in the Beginning: Avery House
A while back, I ran a post lauding city directories and especially the 1889 Meridian directory that included a section called “Metropolis of the Southwest” with beautiful line drawings of landmarks in the boom town that was Meridian in the 1880s. Many of these buildings were right in what is now the downtown core, and … Continue reading
Finding a (Dead) Architect
As you know, I enjoy getting to know all the architects and builders who created the landmarks that make Mississippi Mississippi. But research into architects, especially in the Magnolia State, can be really difficult since they didn’t really get organized and professional until almost 1930, and even then it’s been a little hit and miss, … Continue reading
Things to do this Spring
Maybe these last couple of sunny, on-the-cusp-of-Spring days have given you Spring Fever. If so, I’m here to help. Spring Pilgrimage If you’re in Mississippi and it’s March, you know that a Spring Pilgrimage can’t be far behind. It took me a little while to get used to the idea of pilgrimages when I moved … Continue reading
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