Preservation in Mississippi
Archive for
Memorial Day 2010
Confederate Graves, Friendship Cemetery, Columbus MS Originally uploaded by Deep Fried Kudzu
Whistling Past Eaton School
I know I owe y’all a News Roundup, but that’s going to have to wait until Monday due to my house being invaded by all sorts of relatives; friendly relatives, but still not conducive to blog posting. Instead, can we turn our attention back to poor neglected Eaton School in Hattiesburg? As you may remember, … Continue reading
An Alabama-Mississippi Architectural Partnership
Multiple times on Preservation in Mississippi, the Meridian City Hall has been discussed. We all know that it was designed by preeminent Meridian architect P. J. Krouse. Or do we? Well, yes he designed it but the story is much more complicated than that and requires a detour back to 1902. During that year, P. … Continue reading
Some Early Sources About Mississippi Architecture
I’ve been spending alot of time on a website that is one of my favorites and also a nemesis, abebooks.com, which combines the databases of hundreds or thousands of used bookstores around the world. I enjoy seeing what pops up when I type in search terms like “Mississippi architecture” or “school architecture” but I usually … Continue reading
St. Peter’s scaffolding comes down
If you’ve been in downtown Jackson in the last 6 months or so, you’ve probably noticed that the steeple and tower of the Cathedral of St. Peter’s have been encased in scaffolding.The steeple was damaged by the high winds of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 (can you believe Katrina was almost 5 years ago now? … Continue reading
Interesting federal projects a-doing in DC
I just got back from a quick trip to the Vernacular Architecture Forum annual meeting in Washington DC (when I left MS it was kind of coolish; I returned to full-fledged summer). This year’s meeting included an optional all-day tour led by the Government Services Administration (GSA), the “realtor” for the federal government and the … Continue reading
Historic Preservation: A Remembrance of First Principles, part II
In Part I, I sketched out the key concerns of preservation. Beyond simply saving bricks and mortar it is a call to roots, to first principles, to the understanding that, although we are individuals, we are part of larger communities within society, nature, history, and the Transcendent Mystery that we call God. Preservation is a … Continue reading
Historic Preservation: A Remembrance of First Principles (Part I)
Today’s will be the first post by new MissPres contributor Jack Elliott. It’s a paper he presented on February 5th, 2010, at the Saving Places Conference in Denver, Colorado. As you may remember, Jack published an article last fall on the SpiroNews site provocatively titled “Why Should ‘Heritage’ Be Preserved?” I responded to the article … Continue reading
Threefoot Building on National Trust’s 2010 11 Most Endangered List
For those who haven’t heard, the National Trust announced its 2010 11 Most Endangered List today, and Meridian’s Threefoot Building made the list. It’s a dubious honor of course, but we can hope that the national attention to one of our state’s original skyscrapers will help move the renovation project back to the city’s list … Continue reading
Pleasure Domes Past…Biloxi’s Broadwater Beach
Only the tattered remains of an elaborate marina today mark the site of one of Biloxi’s largest and most famous resort complexes. The Broadwater Beach holds a firm place in the memory of many a resident of the area, but the site holds only the promise of future development today. Its history is one which … Continue reading
Update on Mississippi Industrial College (it’s not good)
As you may recall, Cathrine Hall, one of the several historic buildings left on the amazing but vacant Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs, suffered a partial collapse last June (2009). That news came to me word-of-mouth, and I’ve never seen anything about it in the papers (admittedly I don’t read the South Reporter every … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 5-17-2010
It’s been a couple weeks since our last news roundup, so I thought I’d stick one in on Monday instead of Friday/Saturday. I hope this temporary change in schedule doesn’t blow everybody’s minds. Some crazy stuff has been happening around our fair state, so let’s get to it, shall we? ——————————————————– Most of y’all are … Continue reading
Lost Churches of Mississippi in bookstores
In case you’ve missed the announcements, Lost Churches of Mississippi, a book that I’m sure most of you will want to add to your library has just come out in the last week. Published by University Press of Mississippi, the book’s author, Richard Cawthon, has contributed text for two previous books–Victorian Houses of Mississippi and … Continue reading
Name This Place 5–Final Standings
We have our first tie ever in this week’s Name This Place contest. Belinda took the early lead and held it all the way until today, but laconic Theodore, who usually lurks around making snide remarks and pretending not to care about points, surged in the last two days to grab the first place spot … Continue reading
Name This Place 5.5–Finis
It’s been an exciting week on MissPres, as readers wait with baited breath to see what picture will pop up for identification. Belinda took the lead on the first day and has managed to hold on, but just by one point. In second place, we have a three-way tie, all waiting to jump in front … Continue reading
Name This Place 5.45
Is it possible to have two bonus rounds in one Name This Place contest? Yes it is. Be the first to name the building in this snowy pictures and you get one point.
Name This Place 5.4
After three days and a bonus round, Belinda is still hanging on to the lead in this week’s Name This Place contest. Yesterday, I thought I would celebrate my birthday by stumping everyone in the bonus round with an old postcard view of main street in downtown Columbus, but Belinda jumped right on it and … Continue reading
Name This Place 5.3
Well, folks, after two days and one bonus round, we’ve got a nail-biter going in this week’s Name This Place contest. Here’s how it stands now. Belinda: 3 points W. White: 2 points J.R. Gordon: 2 points Tom Barnes: 1 point Theodore: 1 point Susan Allen: 1 point For those just joining the fray, it’s … Continue reading
Name This Place 5.25
Well, it’s mid-week in our latest Name This Place contest, and it seems to me we could use a bonus round. In bonus rounds, there’s just one point for someone to grab–name the place and you get it. No extra points for extra info. If no correct answer comes within today (Wed), the bonus for … Continue reading
Name This Place 5.2
Belinda grabbed the early lead in the first day of the fifth annual Name This Place contest yesterday by being the first to identify the masonic lodge in Fayette. W. White and Tom Barnes also took a point each by providing juicy details about how the masons kicked out the Presbyterians, and Theodore came in … Continue reading
Name This Place 5.1
Be the first winner in this week’s Name This Place contest. Read the rules, guess the place correctly and give us some information about it. It’s that simple!
How ‘Bout a Contest?
I think it might be time for another contest, so let’s just set aside all other concerns, obviously of lesser importance, and get to it, shall we? For those of you who have recently stumbled into the wacky world of MissPres, occasionally we hold week-long contests that test the observational skills and knowledge of MissPresers. … Continue reading
Avoid Druggie Plumbers and Other Renovation Lessons
I know today is typically a News Roundup day, but instead I’m taking a minute to sit back and review a house renovation project I’ve been working on since May 2006–four years! It all started in March 2006 when my next-door neighbor’s house caught on fire from a lint explosion in the clothes dryer vent. … Continue reading
An Important House Needs Our Help (Part II)
Last year, a reader contacted me about a house in Jefferson County that has fallen on hard times and needs a new owner to bring it back to life. I ran a post about it (“An Important House Needs Our Help“) and got a few interested replies, which I forwarded on. I’ve also been talking … Continue reading
Preservation Month in the MissPres Universe
As y’all are no doubt aware, May is Preservation Month, which is good because if it was June, July or August, we would all have to agree it was just too hot to put on a program. But since it’s May, we can still get ourselves moving, and statewide and municipal groups alike have come … Continue reading
Lost Mississippi: Concord, Natchez (1789-1901)
Last week’s WPA Guide to the Magnolia State mentioned the Natchez mansion “Concord” very prominently in its discussion of the evolution of architecture in Mississippi. Concord must have been an amazing place because although it burned in 1901, it has been mentioned in most architectural histories of the state from a 1903 article in the … Continue reading
Tornado Victim: Ebenezer Baptist Church
The tornadoes that ripped through the state last weekend from Eagle Lake through Yazoo City, Holmes County, and Choctaw County spared the large historic districts in Vicksburg, Yazoo City, and Lexington, but Friday’s Clarion-Ledger reported that at least one historic place was completely destroyed. The sanctuary of Ebenezer Baptist Church, located in the rural community … Continue reading
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