After a recent post about the book 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die, W. White suggested that we answer the snub of having no Mississippi buildings included in the book by creating our own list, eliminating one zero to get us to a more manageable 101 Mississippi places.

At first I thought the best way to get that list would be to create a new poll, but alas, as you may recall from the first MissPres poll, when a voter writes in an entry, it disappears from view and is only seen as “Other” in the results. What we need instead is a way for other readers coming along later to vote on those entries, and poll technology hasn’t gotten there yet. Apparently, we can beam a man from a planet to his starship and create detective novels in our holodecks, but we can’t create a poll that works the way I want it to.

Nevertheless, Malvaney is all about “Can Do,” so the current plan is to create our list via comments to this post. Other readers can “Like” individual comments to show their approval and add their own suggested places in their own comments. At the end of December, I’ll compile the comments with the most “Likes” into an organized list that I hope will have at least 101 places on it. I’m not sure how this will work, but we’ll give it the old college try. Maybe we’ll break the comments down by region and do polls to pick the top favorites for each. At any rate, we will post the resulting list will be viewable 24/7/365 via a tab up at the top of the blog.

I’m going to get us started, using the Mississippi AIA’s “12 Favorite Buildings” list from last year as a jumping-off point. Here’s their list:

• Longwood, Natchez
• Dunleith, Natchez
• Old Capitol, Jackson
• New Capitol, Jackson
• St. Richard’s Catholic Church, Jackson
• Governor’s Mansion, Jackson
• Bailey Junior High School, Jackson
• Woodworth Chapel, Tougaloo College
• Windsor Ruins, Claiborne County
• Beauvoir, Biloxi
• Biloxi Lighthouse, Biloxi
• Chapel of the Cross, Madison County

Now that I type that list out geographically, I see that there is nothing north of Madison County, which is a problem, isn’t it? So here are some other places I think are worthy of consideration.

Natchez:

• Auburn
• Rosalie
• Melrose
• Jefferson College
• Emerald Mound/Grand Village of the Natchez Indians

Jackson:

• Standard Life/Tower Building
• King Edward Hotel
• Lamar Life Building
• St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
• War Memorial Building
• Medgar Evers House
• Belhaven neighborhood/Eudora Welty House
• “downtown” Fondren
• Farish Street neighborhood
• Manship House
• Covenant Presbyterian Church

Gulf Coast:

• Charnley House, Ocean Springs

Columbus area

• Waverley
• Riverview
• MUW front campus
• Errolton
• White Arches
• Lee Hall, MSU

Carrollton area

• Stanhope
• Capt. Ray House
• Blackhawk School–S of Carrollton
• Acona School–in Holmes County

Piney Woods/South of Jackson

• First Presbyterian Church, Laurel
• Stewart M. Jones School, Laurel
• Eastman-Gardiner Lumber Co. offices, Laurel
• Hattiesburg P.O.
• Walthall School, Hattiesburg
• Saenger Theater, Hattiesburg
• Administration Building, USM
• Bexley School, George County
• Whitworth College/Mississippi School for the Arts, Brookhaven
• Crystal Springs High School

Hills/Northeast

• Corinth Machinery Works
• The Lyceum/The Circle, Ole Miss
• Booneville Church of Christ
• Jacinto Courthouse
• Tishomingo State Park
• Church Street School, Tupelo
• Mississippi Industrial College, Holly Springs
• Chalmers Institute, Holly Springs
• Walter Place, Holly Springs

Over Meridian Way

• Threefoot Building
• Grand Opera House
• Witherspoon School
• Meridian City Hall
• Wechsler School
• Merrihope
• Simmons-Wright Company Store, Kewanee community
• Stonewall Mill Village

Vicksburg

• old Warren County Courthouse
• St. Paul’s Catholic Church
• old Post Office/Federal Courthouse
• St. Francis Xavier School and Convent

Delta

• Refuge Cotton Oil Mill, Greenville
• Mt. Holly, Lake Washington
• “Belmont”
• Dockery Plantation
• Hopson Plantation
• Red Barn, Rolling Fork
• Cotton Row, Greenwood
• downtown Clarksdale
• Drew Rosenwald School (Lil’ Red), Drew

Should we limit the list to individual buildings rather than “downtown Clarksdale”? Maybe.

Admittedly this is an idiosyncratic list based on the places I’ve been to, especially recently. I’m missing a lot here, so y’all need to help fill this list out. I’ve also probably included places that you think aren’t worth the effort–say so in your comments. If you don’t vote, don’t blame me for the final product!

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Later Edit:

Here are a few rules we’ve made up as we’ve gone along:

1. Individual buildings only. No historic districts or large groups of buildings such as neighborhoods, college campuses, etc. There’s a fuzzy area about small collections of buildings that all go together such as plantation complexes (Melrose, Dockery, etc.)
2. List one place per comment so that we can vote up or down on that particular place instead of trying to parse out what we agree with from a long list.
3. While Mississippi has some fascinating landscapes and events that include buildings, this particular list is focusing on buildings and man-made structures.

Even Later Edit:

I’ve created a comprehensive list that includes all of the suggestions made in the comments below up to this point (give or take a few hours), so be sure to check that out if you don’t want to read through all the comments before posting your own suggestions.

Categories: 101 MissPres Places, Books, Contest, Historic Preservation