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 recognize historic properties. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, while the Mississippi Landmark designation is conferred by the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History. The designating authority comes from the Mississippi Antiquities Act (Code of 1972), which states:
(39-7-11) (2) All other sites, objects, buildings, artifacts, implements, structures and locations of historical or architectural significance located in or under the surface of any lands belonging to the State of Mississippi or to any county, city or political subdivision of the state may be declared to be Mississippi landmarks by majority vote of the board. Every Mississippi landmark shall be so designated based upon its significance within the historical or architectural patterns of a community, a county, the State of Mississippi, or the United States of America. Upon such action by the board, the designation of the Mississippi landmark shall be recorded in the deed records of the county in which the landmark is located. All such designated sites or items located on public lands within the State of Mississippi may not be taken, altered, damaged, destroyed, salvaged, restored, renovated or excavated without a permit from, the board or in violation of the terms of such permit.
As I mentioned in last year’s post on this topic, the Landmark designation actually does more to protect a building from demolition than a simple National Register listing does, since changes to the building including demolition have to be approved by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The designation can only be applied to private properties if the owner requests it, while public properties like schools, university buildings, courthouses, etc., can be designated based on the criteria set out above. That’s why most of the properties below are public buildings.
A total of ten properties were designated as Mississippi Landmarks this year. All photos below are courtesy of MDAH, and most of the information about each comes from the Mississippi Historic Resources database.
Magnolia Tree Memorial, University of Mississippi (1945). Designated April 2011.
Kennon Observatory, University of Mississippi (1939, R.W. Naef, architect). Designated April 2011.
Cates-Gaither House, Fulton (1859, 1950 alterations). Designated July 2011.
Guntown School, Guntown (1937, Overstreet & Town, architects). Designated July 2011.
Lauderdale School Vocational Building, Lauderdale community (1937, National Youth Administration). Designated Oct 2011.
Baxterville School Gymnasium, Baxterville community, Lamar County (1949), possibly built with re-used materials from an aircraft hangar at nearby Camp Shelby. Designated October 2011.
(old) Philadelphia Library, moved to Northside Park as a community meeting space in 1970s. Built 1935 with funding from the Reconstruction Finance Administration. Badly damaged in the tornado of April 2011 but will be repaired.
Doss Building (Taylor Machine Works), Eupora (c.1935). Designated Nov 2011.
Spain Funeral Home (R.L. Pound House), Tupelo (c.1920). Designated November 2011.
**In addition, the landscape feature known as The Circle at the University of Mississippi was designated in April 2011, along with the two Ole Miss properties pictured above. For some reason, I can’t find a picture of The Circle that shows the larger landscape, not just the Confederate monument. If anyone out there wants to contribute one, I’ll add it to the photos.
To see previous years’ lists:
Categories: Historic Preservation
Preservation in Mississippi 
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