Preservation in Mississippi
Recent Past
Molitor’s Mississippi: February 11, 1954
This week we are following Architectural Photographer Joseph Molitor on the 58th anniversary of his 1954 trip. Today is the last day of our three-blog-postings trip through Mississippi with Mr. Molitor. According to Columbia University’s Avery Library Archive, by Thursday February 11, 1954 he had just six buildings left to photograph in Jackson. Over a … Continue reading
Molitor’s Mississippi: February 8-10, 1954
This week we are following Architectural Photographer Joseph Molitor on the 58th anniversary of his 1954 trip to Mississippi. Molitor’s collection of photos, now at the Columbia University Avery Library in New York, forms an important documentary of what the architectural profession thought were the most important buildings of the post-World War II period. Picking … Continue reading
Molitor’s Mississippi: February 3, 1954
You may remember about this time last year, how we followed the 1952 footsteps of architectural photographer Joseph Molitor on the 59th anniversary of his first professional trip through Mississippi. As a reminder, here’s a little background about Molitor from the first MissPres post about him: Originally trained as an architect, Molitor’s career as a photographer … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 2-13-2012
Happy Monday! Here’s the latest preservation news from around the state: We’ll start on the Coast where 33rd Avenue School in Gulfport is back in the news. If you remember from a couple of posts last summer (here and here), the conflict surrounding the school is that the Department of Labor wants to demolish the … Continue reading
A Brief History of Headers
Today is technically the third anniversary of Preservation in Mississippi, but due to my own mistaken impression on the first year’s anniversary that February 9 was the big day, tomorrow will actually be the “Observed” date. In the meantime, as you’ll notice, I’ve changed the header for the blog, which happens every year on or around … Continue reading
Biloxi’s Blighted Banking Buildings Blowup (not really but they are getting demolished)
JRGordon first reported on the city of Biloxi’s blighted property list back in an early November round-up. The list is starting to generate either repairs or demolitions as reported recently by the Sun Herald. While most buildings on the list were not historic and I will not bemoan their loss to greatly, I do think … Continue reading
Going Inside: St. Dominic’s Chapel
A while back, reader Gary E. Magee commented on an old post about Jackson architect Tom Biggs that one of Bigg’s designs, the chapel at St. Dominic hospital, is slated for demolition in a planned expansion of the adjacent emergency area. This reminded me that I had taken some pictures of the building earlier this year … Continue reading
Preserving Ranch Houses
Although not really a new concept in the preservation world, the interest in preserving ranch houses and other mid-century buildings caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal in “Plain, Common . . . and Historic?.”
Saving 33rd Avenue High School
The Sun Herald has a positive report on the efforts of the 33rd Avenue High School Alumni Association and MDAH to restore the once segregated Gulfport high school.
Mississippi Architect, Feb 1964: Gulf Towers, Biloxi
Gulf Towers, a high-rise apartment building in Biloxi, was the featured Mississippi building in the February 1964 issue of Mississippi Architect. It might be hard to remember now, but back in 1964, before Camille and of course before Katrina, the Gulf Coast boasted long stretches of historic and architecturally significant houses on large beachfront estates. … Continue reading
Destroying Modern Architecture?!
The Blog of the Preservation Research Office has an interesting post entitled “Destroying Modern Architecture in St. Louis” regarding the St. Louis Pruitt Igoe Housing Project among other St. Louis modern architecture icons. The post discusses some of the issues that we touched on in the comments section of our MissPres post “Oxford Film Festival … Continue reading
Fins to the left, Fins to the right . . .
Our across-the-River friend Blake Wintory from Lakeport Plantation sent me this screenshot of Jackson’s Petroleum Building as seen in the recent PBS American Experience documentary “Freedom Riders.” This was in response to the last paragraph in my post on the too-early demolition of the Trailways Station, in which I said: Speaking of Modernism and old … Continue reading
Mississippi Architect, January 1964: Hattiesburg Clinic
Mississippi Architect’s January 1964 featured Mississippi building introduces us to a Hattiesburg architect we’ve mentioned only in passing here on MissPres, Stephen H. Blair (1926-1993). I don’t know much about Blair, but USM’s archives contains a collection of his drawings, and they have this to say about him on their website: During his career, Blair … Continue reading
They Fought the Feds and the Feds Won
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit in on a lunchtime roundtable discussion at the Society of Architectural Historians meeting hosted by the Louisiana chapter of the Modernist preservation group DOCOMOMO (a slightly difficult but fun-to-say acronym which stands for “DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the MOdern … Continue reading
Photographer Joseph Molitor’s 1952 Trip to Mississippi
To follow up on yesterday’s post regarding Architectural Photographer Joseph W. Molitor, this week is the 59th anniversary of Joseph Molitor’s first trip to Mississippi and what better way to celebrate than to share the buildings he photographed? According to the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, which has an extensive collection … Continue reading
Architectural Photographer Joseph W. Molitor 1907-1996
While reading Malvaney’s post regarding the Lyle Cashion Company building, one of the names mentioned in the article rang a bell: “Photos by Joseph W. Moliter.” Even though misspelled “Moliter” in the original article (it was in the original article so its totally not Malvaney’s fault), Molitor is a name that is highly recognizable in … Continue reading
Oxford Film Festival & Pruitt Igoe
The Oxford Film Festival is this weekend! A lot of the films look great though one that stands out is The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History. Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project was a St. Louis high-rise urban housing complex completed in the mid-1950′s. It was named for St. Louisans Wendell O. Pruitt, a Tuskegee Airman, and William … Continue reading
Mississippi Architect, Sept 1963: Calvary Baptist Church, Meridian
The featured article in Mississippi Architect’s September 1963 issue is Calvary Baptist Church in Meridian. Calvary is still going strong it appears, and you can see a color picture of the interior and those long thin stained glass windows on their website. As always, you can see the original article in its original setting through … Continue reading
Mississippi Architect, “Engineers and Architecture”
It’s been a while since we posted another volume of the Mississippi Architect, originally published from March 1963 through March 1965. Each volume contains a brief editorial, usually from Jackson architect Bob Henry, an article about a recent Mississippi building by a Mississippi architect, and then several stock articles about national trends or other buildings … Continue reading
For Auld Lang Syne: Friends We Lost in 2010
It’s traditional here on MissPres to use the relatively quiet week between Christmas and New Years to look back over the events of the year, both good and bad. Hopefully this will help us take stock and get ready for the new year and new challenges ahead. The first list of the week is the … Continue reading
MiMo No Mo? The Sun-n-Sand in Downtown Jackson Needs Our Help
When R.E. “Dumas” Milner opened the Sun-n-Sand in downtown Jackson in October 1960 the age of the shiny new “motor hotel” was in full swing. In spite of major renovations at Milner’s King Edward on West Capitol Street, Milner sensed the transition in the popular mind from the formality of grand hotels like the King … Continue reading
General Services Administration Historic Building Program
The General Services Administration (or GSA) is the agency tasked with being the landlord for the Federal Government. Established in 1949 they are responsible for construction of new Federal buildings, as well as maintaining many historic Federally owned structures. The GSA’s website states that: “As part of its commitment to historic preservation, GSA is working … Continue reading
Mississippi Architect, August 1963
Today’s reprint of the editorial from Mississippi Architect’s August 1963 edition is especially interesting to me given some of the recent debates here on MissPres pitting Classicism against Modernism. As the tides of architectural styles rise and fall, many today would call the buildings of the 1960s ugly, not beautiful, but Bob Henry’s editorial highlights … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 11-22-2010
Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! Even though we skipped a week for the News Round-Up so Malvaney could catch us up on the blogging world, I’ve been keeping up with the news from around the state. As you’ll see, the Coast was apparently the place to be for preservation news the past couple of weeks. And … Continue reading
Round the Blogosphere 11-15-2010
I gave jrgordon the day off on the weekly news roundup because I realized it’s been two months since our last blogosphere roundup. I’ve been starring posts like mad in my Google Reader, and if I don’t post them for y’all to see soon, the list will be too overwhelming, both for you and for … Continue reading
Funky Light Fixtures
I suspect I’m not the only MissPreser who enjoys the occasional Rejuvenation catalog that comes in the mail. I like to flip through it and try to imagine my simple little Minimal Traditional house with any of these lush reproductions from America’s many eras of architectural styles. But I’ve always thought the various “eras” they … Continue reading
Modernism in the Mississippi Delta
One thing that surprised me when I moved to Mississippi and ventured into the Delta–a place that I had understood from various news stories was a place that time forgot–was how much the region had changed over the latter half of the 20th century. Historic pictures show dirt roads lined with tenant shacks and workers … Continue reading
Three Round Banks
When I was in Meridian looking at the old Sears building last week, I discovered for the first time (although I’ve driven past them numerous times) two mid-century banks in the same area. They reminded me of a former bank in my own Fondren neighborhood in Jackson that is not only round but, in its … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 10-3-2010
I think it’s evidence of a long hot summer when 62 degrees feels like winter, but that’s where I am right now. On to the news . . . ——————————— It seems the on-going maintenance and renovation of the New Capitol in Jackson has some legislators expressing impatience. Imagine that! According to the Clarion-Ledger’s story … Continue reading
Friday Just for Fun
Now that I’ve been mentally freed (thanks, W!) to post the News Roundups on Mondays, I can leave Friday for something light and fun if I want to, and this week, we ask a light and fun question of terminology. I’ve seen these types of awnings around, and I figure they’re probably late 1950s to … Continue reading
Abandoned Mississippi: Kuhn Memorial State Hospital, Vicksburg
Tucked away on the Jackson Road (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) between downtown Vicksburg and the Vicksburg National Military Park stands a huge abandoned hulk that today emanates despair but was for over a century a place of hope for poor citizens of Mississippi in need of medical attention. Kuhn State Hospital started life … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 9-20-2010
Could the horrible summer weather we’ve been having be a punishment of some kind, maybe for the demolition of the Central Delta Academy, or since it started before that, the project at the Naval Reserve Center? Or am I reading too much into it? At any rate, W. White has convinced me that Monday works … Continue reading
Jackson’s Fondren Neighborhood: Historic and Hip
Pretty much everywhere I go lately, someone asks me, “Have you read The Help?” “No,” I reply, “I’m waiting for the movie.” Not only will seeing the movie save me time, it will also showcase my neighborhood, the hippest, coolest neighborhood in Jackson. I refer, of course, to Fondren. (My neighbors and several friends will … Continue reading
Claude H. Lindsley alive and well… in 1968
In a previous post there had been some discussion of what happened to Claude Lindsley, Jackson architect of the Art Deco Standard Life Building (among many other landmarks), later on in his life. He moved from Houston, Texas some time in the 1950′s to Ocean Springs, Mississippi where he potentially might have planned to eventually retire. By then most … Continue reading
Before and After: Coleman High School, Greenville
You may remember back last summer around this time when I was doing the Book Quotes about Hitchcock and Johnson’s The International Style, I posted this old postcard of Coleman High School in Greenville. I was in Greenville recently and decided to check on this school, which I think may now be a middle school. … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 8-20-2010
Three weeks of August down, only one and a little bit to go. We can do it, y’all! This week’s roundup has lots of national stories in it, I don’t know why. ————————————- NPR had a fascinating story on All Things Considered this week about the Slave Cabin Project of one Joseph McGill, an employee … Continue reading
A Lustron House in Clarksdale and Sambo Mockbee all in one post?
A couple months ago, as you recall, we highlighted the one Lustron house left in Jackson (out of originally three), and I made passing mention to the only other known Lustron house in the state up in Clarksdale. Well, lo and behold, Susan Allen, she of Suzassippi’s Lottabusha County Chronicles (which really cannot be said … Continue reading
Blog Roundup 7-26-2010
I think the blog roundup will become a regular feature, not every week but enough to start designating it with a date like the news roundups. I hope these links help pull together lots of good blog posts you might find interesting and broaden all of our horizons a bit. As you might recall from … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 7-23-2010
Let’s keep one eye on Bonnie and the other eye on the preservation news around the state. And those of us who wear glasses will still have two more eyes to, like, avoiding marauding oil splotches, watch tv, etc. See how useful having four eyes is, y’all? ——————————————- From Monroe County, a section of the … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 7-16-2010
Ok, I admit that I accidentally allowed my Clarion-Ledger subscription to lapse–that happened with my home insurance recently too, and it’s getting annoying–so I probably haven’t been keeping up with the news like I usually do, other than my Wall Street Journal. I just can’t get into reading the news online–I like the convenience of … Continue reading
101 Places to See Before You Die!
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