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 away early this week.  Ramage was also “a stellar local historian and author of several books including the definitive history of the Tupelo Tornado of 1936.”  At the time of his death, he was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

The weather this weekend may not have felt like December, but I’d bet that it was nice enough to get good crowds at the various holiday open houses / tours around the state that were on the calendar.  Some of the places that are now decked out include several MDAH sites, as well as landmarks such as Beauvoir and Melrose.  I’m sure lots of other places are trimmed for the holidays – these were the ones I saw stories on this week.

The next time you visit Kosciusko, you may notice that a couple of historical markers look brand new – but they’re not.  Two markers have been refurbished after years of weathering made them dim.  The story in the Star Herald was not clear (to me at least) about what the two markers were commemorating, but I think they might be markers on the founding of the city and county.  One, which the story calls the “Kosciusko marker,” was moved after it was spruced up and is now by City Hall.

Several stories on the Coast this week.  In Biloxi, a new hotel proposed near the Visitor’s Center is raising concerns of residents in historic district.  The story reports that the project was before the Planning Commission for a zoning change and variances – but the Planning Commission tabled it until the Architectural and Historical Review Commission made their determination on the appropriateness of the design.  The concern of the neighborhood residents is the potential for such a large commercial development in a residential area.  We’ll keep an eye on this one in case it really heats up.

Also in Biloxi, a story that there are more blighted buildings that they are actively going after.  This is the second batch of buildings the city is targeting – the first we reported on about a month ago.

Over in Pascagoula, the story on Gulf Live is that the Round Island reconstruction is on track to be completed by mid-late 2012.  The story was to reassure people that even though all everyone is seeing right now is still just the base, there are a lot of things going on “behind the scenes” as the structural pieces are being constructed off site.  From the story, it sounds like we’ll start seeing on site progress early in the new year.

My favorite stories for this roundup are out of Hattiesburg.  The American announced that it was going to do a “Then & Now” type photo series featuring the city’s buildings.

“We have started a gallery of then-and-now photos on our website and will add to it each week with a new featured building or two. Look for the new photos every Saturday, or you can go to our website and see the complete collection.”

I was super excited to read that plan since it’s an easy way to raise awareness about historic structures.  An article on City Hall and the Courthouse – which the paper says were “built to last” – was not only fun to read, but it was exciting to see MDAH’s historic resources website mentioned as a source.  I’ll bet our friends at MDAH are happy that their digital information is already being used!

Categories: Historic Preservation