CAPITOL STREET AT NIGHT, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI . . . Looking East along Capitol Street.
See other Mississippi Streets:
- 1920s Yazoo City
- 1910s Vicksburg
- 1950s New Albany
- 1960s Meridian
- 1930s Camp Shelby
- 1950s Pascagoula
- 1960s Neshoba County Fair
- Drew 1937
- Tupelo 1936
- Vicksburg 1936
- 1940s Gulfport
- 1940s Columbus
- Greenville 1927
- Lexington 1939
- 1910s Meridian
- 1920s Hattiesburg
- Greenville 1939
Categories: Jackson, Lost Mississippi
Preservation in Mississippi 
Neonic nirvana!
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Thank you for posting this picture! It helps me to remember that Jackson REALLY did look like this! My mother worked in the C and S ticket office in the Heidelberg Hotel, and we thought this was the grandest city in the world! The realization that things can change so quickly in one’s own lifetime is daunting!
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It’s truly sad to see the state of decline to which our once great capital city has declined. Where there is no vision and leadership, the people and their cities perish…..
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As a Jackson resident, I’m completely aware of the city’s problems, but I think the decline of downtown, especially the stretch seen here, is due to economic forces and government programs such as the interstate system and Urban Renewal, not to a lack of vision or leadership. On a larger scale, there is the natural life cycle of cities and neighborhoods. West Capitol street was once the Madison of the Jackson area–a wealthy suburb made possible by easy and cheap transportation networks (streetcars). It changed because wealthy folks, followed by middle-class and then working class, decamped farther and farther out, made possible by interstates, cheap gas, and cheap automobiles. Madison itself, like all suburbs, will go through a period of decline. Ridgeland, I’m told by friends who live there, is already experiencing middle-class flight. Not sure that is due to a lack of vision, just the next city on the list to go through it.
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These were the good old days, remember this quite well. You did all your shopping downtown. Thank you for posting.
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I remember walking the street with dates…and the street dance one year, think that was in ’69 that I went.
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I live in San Antonio, Texas but have the red dirt of Mississippi in my veins. I’m in Jackson this week and, as always when here, wonder what happened to this once vibrant city. I remember this scene above as my family travelled through Jackson in the 1960’s to reach family farther north. San Antonio has re-vitalized it’s downtown and now it is spreading out toward the suburbs. I’m writing too much here, but as I drove around downtown this evening it just puzzled me why this has happened. Seeing the comments helps, but I feel like I need to sell my house, quit my job, load up the animals and come here and wake up some souls before this is lost. It’s not the economy.
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I worked for the State Department of Education in the fifties and had occasion to attend meetings in the Heidelberg Hotel, This country girl thought it was the epitomy of luxury–come to think of ii
–I still do!
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I remember Downtown Jackson in the 60’s and 70’s very well. It was never a showplace, but it was never a drug infested slum like it certainly is now. You could leave the doors and windows open in your house and NEVER had to worry about anyone stealing from you or even worse hurting anyone. This is all a Recent Phenomenon. It most definitely is a result of poor leadership and policing that does not punish wrong doers. Anyone who responds differently was not here back then.
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I attended and graduated from St. Joseph Catholic School. It was one street over. After school we would walk over to Woolworth’s and get a coke and fries . There was no violence and crime. We used to freely walk around all of down town. It is a shame it is gone. K
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Yes it is. I grew up in South Jackson, Winfield Class of 72. You really can’t go home again.
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