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 designed a number of schools in the Hattiesburg and surrounding area, as well as banks, government buildings and residences. On the Southern Miss campus, Blair designed the Chain Technology Center, Joseph Greene Hall, Roberts Hall, Owings-McQuagge Hall, Vann Hall, Hillcrest Dormitory, Johnson Science Tower (in conjunction with David K. Hemeter) and the Elizabeth C. Harkins Nursing Building. He is also listed as one of the architects of the J.B. George Commons.

The archives site also mentions that the donor of the collection, Hattiesburg architect Larry Albert, helped create an index to the collection, but unfortunately, that index has not been posted on the collection site. If anyone out there is looking for a good graduate school thesis, this would be a good untouched research topic.

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The Hattiesburg Clinic                                                                        Stephen H. Blair Jr., A.I.A.
Hattiesburg, Mississippi                                                                        Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Architect

THE Hattiesburg Clinic contains the offices of three obstetric-gynecologists, three internal medicine specialists, four surgeons, one dental surgeon, two radiologists and two pathologists, with central storage facilities and central sterilizer area , minor surgery room and business office facilities available for all doctors.

The need for separation of the various components of this clinic building was the primary consideration in providing separate waiting room facilities and court for each medical group, yet allow each individ- ual group the advantage of combining the business office facilities and other facilities required by all of the doctors.

The construction of the building is reinforced concrete, flat slab floor and roof, with the floor being raised approximately three feet so as to allow space for mechanical lines and convenient servicing. The building utilizes gas heating and air conditioning, with individual room units.

This article is reprinted from the January 1964 issue of the Mississippi Architect, with permission from the Mississippi Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. View the full January 1964 issue of Mississippi Architect in a digitized format, or for other articles in this ongoing series, including the pdf version of each full issue, click on the MSArcht tab at the top of this page.

Categories: Architectural Research, Hattiesburg, Hospitals/Medical, Modernism, Recent Past