Let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. The lead story this week is the partial collapse of McComb’s downtown theater. While it looks bad, hopefully an engineer with an understanding of historic buildings can be brought in to give a… Read More ›
Jackson
Photographer John Margolies Images Now Available Online
Last year Malvaney’s post about roadside Americana photographer John Margolies ended with the wish that someday his photos, which had been donated to the Library of Congress, would be made available for the public to see. That day has arrived, my… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Sinclair Station c.1930s
This former Sinclair station (above) found in Booneville, Mississippi has had its canopy enclosed and its service doors replaced with a storefront. Despite this it is still recognizable as a Sinclair design. The 2016 TxDOT Field Guide to Gas Stations in… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-11-2017
Two weeks since our last round-up and a lot has happened so let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. Starting on the coast in Gulfport, a new developer is taking over former Gulfport VA redevelopment project. Virginia Attorney Robert Lubin… Read More ›
Vacation Postcards: Holiday Inn Southwest, Jackson
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
A Custom McHuley & Lattimore House
We were recently introduced to builder Bilbo McHuley and architect William Lattimore, the duo that was designing and building homes for Jackson’s African-American community in the late 1950s & early 1960s. I came across this ad for self-described “Jackson’s foremost home… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 6-28-2017
What happened to June? It’s hard to believe it’s almost over but let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. From Meridian two stories this week. The first is regarding preservation grant funds. According to the Meridian Star: The Charles L…. Read More ›
Roadside Mississippi: Jackson’s Free Tourist Camp
It may seem impossible to believe today, but in the early days of automobile tourist travel, Jackon’s leaders (or some unnamed civic group, perhaps an automobile club) decided it would be a great idea to build a rustic cabin on… Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Modern Banking in Downtown Jackson
I found this to-die-for postcard showing Jackson’s Trustmark Bank (formerly First National Bank) building a few weeks ago and was surprised to win it on eBay. Opened in 1956, the building was designed by two Jackson architectural firms, James T. Canizaro and Overstreet, Ware & Ware… Read More ›
Who Were Those Sanborn Men?
In case you didn’t catch it, Thomas Rosell noted at the end of yesterday’s news roundup that the Library of Congress is gradually publishing its digitized collection of the full-color Sanborn Insurance Maps. Currently, Mississippi only has three sets: Pascagoula for… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Teague & The Icebox
While Teague and icebox might sound like the title of a terrible buddy cop TV show, the Teague and icebox designs of gas stations are some of the most recognizable service station designs from the late 1930s through the 1950s…. Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 5-30-2017
Whats been going on Preservation wise in Jackson, Tupelo, Meridian, Hattiesburg, and your neck of the woods?
Memorial Day 2017
“The floor plan calls for an open court at the entrance to be designated the court of honor. Dignified columns will be used to lend a cathedral effect. The structure will be situated well back from North State street, allowing a long sweep of lawn, which will be formed into a parkway.”
Mississippi Builders: Bilbo McHuley
Last week’s post on African American designer/architect W.A. Lattimore mentioned that he worked with builder Bilbo McHuley, and that reminded me that I’ve been sitting on this ad for a “McHuley home,” published in the February 22, 1964 edition of… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Jackson’s Canning Plants
In earlier posts, canning plants have been mentioned in connection with some of the New Deal schools in Mississippi (for example, East Tupelo canning plant). Recently, I ran across this article on the Emergency Relief Administration’s opening of the Jackson… Read More ›
Mississippi Architects: W. A. Lattimore, African American Designer
I had not heard of W. A. Lattimore until I ran across an article in a 1963 edition of the Mississippi Free Press, an African American newspaper published from 1961 until about 1964. My initial efforts to look into his body… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 5-16-2017
Whew! We’ve got quite the round up this week. Let’s start this week’s roundup with the big news from…
Roadside Mississippi: (former) Tastee Freeze, Jackson
A small roadside building with a stepped facade, front service windows, a curvilinear front fascia, and a flat roof that ever so slightly slopes to the rear of the structure. Could it be? A Tastee Freeze?
MissPres Word of the Week: Gravity Ventilator
What is a Gravity Ventilator?
MissPres News Roundup 5-9-2017
Let’s start this week’s roundup big news of the National Historic Landmark plaque dedication ceremony at the New Capitol.
Mississippi by Air: Jackson during the Easter Flood, 1979
If you’ve been paying attention to the weather in the last two weeks, and who could avoid paying attention, you know we’ve gotten a lot of rain (approximately 13 inches at my house in the last 13 days), and it’s… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 5-2-2017
Let’s start this week’s roundup with the news on the damaging storms that crossed the state over the weekend. On Monday we reported some on the damage that occurred to historic places in Durant and Flora, but reports of the extent… Read More ›
Chicken Chef: Mississippi’s Own A-Frame
A-frame buildings tend to stand out to me just because they are not too common around Mississippi, or anywhere else for that matter. The term A-frame comes from the shape of the structure, where the roof extends down steeply on… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 4-25-2017
Let’s jump right on in to this week’s roundup. In Neshoba County, near Philadelphia, the Mt. Zion Methodist Church is in the process of being nominated for National Register of Historic Places. Mt. Zion Church was burned by the Ku Klux Klan… Read More ›
Mississippi Streets: Capitol Street Viaduct, Jackson
Although the railroad bed was not raised over Capitol Street and other east-west downtown streets until 1926, when the new Union Station was under construction, this little “what if” rendering in 1917 shows that city officials and probably many residents… Read More ›
Roadside Mississippi: El Patio Motor Court, Laurel
Laurel’s El Patio Motor Court (1946) welcomed the increasing number of automobile tourists after World War II. The motor court’s Mission style evoked the Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts, the nation’s first motel chain, and unlike Mississippi’s two Alamos, the El Patio survives on Roadside Mississippi.
MissPres News Roundup 4-18-2017
From Mary Holmes College to Gulfport Library, from fences at Greenwood Cemetery to the roof of the old Greenville Depot, from Natchez to Jackson to Tupelo and points in between, here’s all the Mississippi preservation news that’s fit to print (virtually, on the internets).
Preservation in Mississippi 