I love driving in the southern neighborhoods of Vicksburg, along Cherry and Drummond streets especially. The early twentieth century houses are stunning–some of the highest quality in the state in my opinion.

The thing about driving a neighborhood instead of walking it is that you often miss houses on one side of the street because you’re gawking at the houses on the other side as you pass by. Last time I was down on South Drummond, around near the intersection with Mulvahill (a great street in its own right), I came to a stop in the middle of the street and had to find a place to pull over because I saw two twin houses that I had somehow missed before.

Distinctive, and possibly unique with their prominent semi-circular front porches, these houses combine the Mission style (tile roofs, smooth stucco) with a compact bungalow form. Their decorative details (mainly a tile “cornice” band in a modified Greek Key design) and finishes are so smooth and abstracted that they seem almost Art Moderne in some way too. And with those beautiful arcaded screened porches, they are definitely well-adapted to their Deep South climate.

Apart from a different color scheme for the trim (red on one, blue on the other) and a different, possibly later (?) screen door on the blue house, the two twins have aged similarly and still seem to be good friends, even sharing a driveway. Possibly this indicates they were originally in the same family. Otherwise, I know nothing about these houses–not their architect, original owner(s), why they’re twins. But maybe someone else out there knows and will share what they know with the rest of us. Until then, a little mystery’s not a bad thing.

Categories: Architectural Research, Vicksburg