Check out Simon Jenkins’ recent “Five Best Books About The City” in the Wall Street Journal. It includes Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of Great American Cities, our very first Book Quotes series here on MissPres.
Month: December 2011
Mississippi Landmarks 2011
To end our week of lists, here’s a photographic summary of the historic places designated as Mississippi Landmarks this year. As we’ve noted before, “Mississippi Landmark” and “National Register” are sometimes confused, but they are two completely different programs to… Read More ›
National Register 2011–Historic Districts
As you know, National Register listings can be either individual places, as shown in yesterday’s post, or larger groupings of buildings known as historic districts. Historic districts can be as small as a handful of houses in a rural community… Read More ›
National Register 2011–Individual Listings
As in previous years, we’re breaking our National Register of Historic Places listings for 2011 into two separate posts to avoid piling on and to allow you time to read through the summaries and ponder. Some of these listings have… Read More ›
Auld Lang Syne: Friends We Lost in 2011
As is traditional in this quiet week after Christmas and before New Years, we look back at the year and recount our wins and losses. We usually start with the “sad list” of buildings who lost their battle against time… Read More ›
Jackson Poll Results
As we all recover from Christmas cheer, take a look at the Jackson poll results. As you recall, this was the last poll in our ongoing effort to build a list of 101 Mississippi Places to See Before You Die…. Read More ›
Merry Christmas 2011
The current Biloxi City Hall was built as the U.S. Federal Building in 1905-08. The city acquired the building from the federal government in 1960 after the New Federal Building in Biloxi was completed. In my opinion it is the… Read More ›
A Few of JRGordon’s Favorite Things
Before taking us through the annual “Year in Review” posts, Malvaney asked some of us regular contributors about our favorite posts of the year. One of my favorites was the Friday Malvaney did the “Where Have All The Buzzards Gone?”… Read More ›
A Few of W. White’s Favorite Things
This Christmas week, the MissPres authors are pulling out some of their favorite posts and re-packaging them with our comments about why they’re our favorites. “Architects of Mississippi: Penn Jeffries Krouse“ “Penn Jeffries Krouse in Pearl River“ These two posts… Read More ›
A Few of Thomas Rosell’s Favorite Things
This Christmas week, the MissPres authors are pulling out some of their favorite posts and re-packaging them with our comments about why they’re our favorites. One of my all time favorite posts is the series regarding the book How Buildings… Read More ›
A Few of Malvaney’s Favorite Things
Since this is the week before Christmas, we authors of MissPres thought we’d look back at some of our favorite posts and re-gift them, adding value with a few thoughts about why we liked them so much. It’s the closest… Read More ›
Belhaven University’s Fitzhugh Hall Endangered
Word has come from Belhaven University in Jackson this week about disturbing recent structural shifts in the East Wing of their iconic Fitzhugh Hall. Built in 1911, the building was significantly rebuilt and altered after a 1927 fire. Now the… Read More ›
Fun Film For Friday
A short fun video for Friday afternoon. Click here to watch! This clip pokes fun at the ridiculous claims the vinyl window industry is known to make. For more info visit vinyl-windows.org
The Cornerstones of Port Gibson
Y’all know how I love to find a cornerstone on a building–even new buildings. They are gifts that hand down essential knowledge to passersby about when a building came to be and who had a hand in bringing it from… Read More ›
Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Yazoo City
The Yazoo City Light, Water and Sewage Plant built and operated the second oldest municipal street railway in the United States.
Port Gibson Holiday Home Tour
Last Saturday I got out of Jackson, avoiding the maddening Christmas shopping traffic, and headed down southwest to Port Gibson. I usually take Highway 18 through Raymond, Utica, and Carpenter and through the steel truss bridge that spans Bayou Pierre…. Read More ›
“The view from the roof of the building is magnificent in every direction”
Vicksburgers were especially proud of their 8-story skyscraper–the tallest building in the state when it was finished in 1907–and these images prove that they wanted to share their urbanity and modernity with the outside world.
MissPres News Roundup 12-12-2011
This may surprise everyone, but today’s Roundup is the final one for 2011 because of the end of year posts we have planned the next two weeks. A lot of the news I saw this week were local press releases… Read More ›
Restoring America’s Oldest African American Church
Catch this NPR story about the completion of a 6-year restoration project of Boston’s African Meeting House, the country’s oldest African-American church, celebrating its 205-year anniversary.
Free Webinar on Classical Architecture
Restore Media is offering a free webinar on Classical Architecture! It focuses on the differences between Georgian and Federal style interiors and uses examples from rooms in the Winterthur Museum collection. The webinar lasts one hour and is available on… Read More ›
Halfway Through the Jackson Poll
With a midway total of 602 votes and one more week left in the Jackson poll, the two capitols are duking it out at the top, followed by a peloton of skyscrapers, the War Memorial Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fountainhead”… Read More ›
Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Vicksburg
My mother was from a large Vicksburg family, and for that reason, relatives’ tales of the trolleys were standard and frequent. As a child, my mother rode the streetcar to school and back each day, and my uncle soaped the tracks on the hill passing the Bijou Theater many a summer night!
MDAH Announces 2011 CHPG Grantees
According to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s website, the department will be giving about $2 million in grants for the rehabilitation and repair of nineteen historic buildings around the state. As in the past, I’ve taken the liberty of… Read More ›
The Montross Metal Shingle Co. asks “Are you interested in Roofing?”
“Are you interested in Roofing?” Apparently at the turn of the 20th century an unknown Biloxi builder was, as Montross Metal Shingles are featured prominently on several Biloxi structures. While many companies produced a pressed metal shingle the Montross Metal… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 12-5-2011
Wow. I can’t believe it’s December already. Besides the year winding down, so is our 101 Places Poll with the Jackson area voting. Now to the news. First, sad news out of Lee County where Tupelo banker Marty Ramage passed… Read More ›
MissPres 101 Places: Jackson Poll (The END Is Near!)
It was November 19, 2010, when I posted what I thought would be a fun somewhat off-beat Friday post, entitled “Miles to Go Before I Sleep.” Examining a new book I had bought called 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You… Read More ›
Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Summit-McComb
Mississippi’s streetcar lines included a small operation in the McComb area. A letter from Mr. C.H. Douglas, mayor of McComb, November 25, 1960, states that streetcars operated between McComb and Godbold’s Wells, located east of Summit.
Preservation in Mississippi 