I’ve seen a lot of postcards of Jackson’s Capitol Street looking from the far west end near the King Edward Hotel up to the Old Capitol, but this one goes in the opposite direction and shows some buildings that don’t… Read More ›
Month: September 2016
HABS in Mississippi: Chaffin Farm, Amite County
There’s so little information about the Chaffin property that the MDAH Historic Resources Database throws up its hands and says “location not documented.” Because no one has seen it since 1936, when HABS photographer James Butters came through, the house… Read More ›
See MoMA’s 1932 Modern Architecture: International Exhibit for Yourself
Through the wonders of the internet you can now see every MoMA exhibit ever. Earlier this month the Museum of Modern Art in New York made their complete exhibition history, including photographs, archival documents, & exhibit catalogs, available online. The 86-year-old Museum… Read More ›
Roadside Mississippi: Homewood Manor, Jackson
This former tourist court still stands as a trailer park on North State Street, up past Broadmoor and south of Cedars of Lebanon. Its cottages are gone, but a house that may be a remodeled version of the old 1940s… Read More ›
Mississippi by Air: Biloxi’s Working Waterfront
I don’t know a date on this card, and I hope some Biloxi historians will voice their opinions, but it looks like it could pre-date the 1947 hurricane. Compare to the similar, but very different, pre-Camille and pre-Katrina views.
Industrial Mississippi: Greenville Port
Many cities advertised their prime locations in the 1951 Manufacturer’s Record, dedicated to Mississippi’s industrial opportunities, including Greenville and its port. If I’m reading this image on MDOT’s Port of Greenville webpage correctly, it looks like they succeeded in expanding… Read More ›
A.J. Downing Exhibit Now Available Online
For the 200th anniversary of his birth, the Avery Library at Columbia University featured an exhibition exploring the legacy of Andrew Jackson Downing. The exhibit… “…showcases several editions of Downing’s publications and those of his many successors. It offers a glimpse into… Read More ›
Mississippi’s Historic Playing Fields
It’s football time again folks. This reminded me of an excerpt of a news roundup from this spring… Rick Cleveland’s article “Hometown teams are what make Mississippi, Mississippi” highlights a Smithsonian exhibit that is about to begin touring Mississippi. “In… Read More ›
Going Inside: Ole Miss Chapel, c.1915
This fascinating picture comes from an even larger image, titled “Views on Campus, University of Mississippi,” a photo by John C. Coolvert that is available as an electronic record on the MDAH catalog. I had never noticed this interior view,… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Stanton Hall, Natchez
HABS photographer Lester Jones took a grand total of one photo of Stanton Hall in 1940, and because there are no photographer’s notes, it’s not clear why this grand historic home, now a National Historic Landmark and open daily for… Read More ›
Monterey in Mississippi
If you’ve been around MissPres for a while, you’ve know we’re big fans of “McAlester’s Field Guide” or more properly A Field Guide to American Houses. This was originally published in 1984, and I wore my paperback copy out by the time… Read More ›
Happy 160th Birthday, Louis Sullivan!
To commemorate the 160th anniversary of Louis Sullivan’s birth (which I foolishly missed on September 3rd) I’d like to pull from the archives a newspaper clipping regarding his most noted apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright visited the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a guest… Read More ›
Before and After on Jackson’s North State Street
BEFORE: AFTER: The photos tell the story of the resurrection of the Merrill-Maley House, built in 1907 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. After years as an antiques shop, and maybe a decade of vacancy and… Read More ›
Mississippi Streets: Richton, c.1910
I like this postcard because of its obvious hand-tinting, but Richton has changed so much since its boom years as a lumber producer that I couldn’t really find where this view was taken. My best guess is that this is… Read More ›
Industrial Mississippi: J.A. Olson Company, Winona
When I began this post, I knew nothing about the J.A. Olson Company of Winona, but now through the wonders of the internets, I know that it manufactured mirrors and frames, that its headquarters was in Chicago, that this was… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 9-7-2016
This mid-week news round-up is less varied than last week’s round-up, but it still features some good information. Starting off with some concerning news regarding several large rehabilitation projects in both Gulfport and Natchez. In Gulfport, Virginia attorney Robert Lubin… Read More ›
Labor Day 2016
On this Labor Day, we stop to consider an interesting footnote to the construction of Mississippi’s New Capitol, which I stumbled on by browsing around the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America database of historic newspapers. It seems that soon after construction… Read More ›
Mississippi Streets: 1920s Corinth
Today’s Mississippi street-scene comes from the Corinth, Miss. Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History: The twenty black-and-white photographs in this collection were produced ca. 1920 by McCord’s Studio in Corinth. The images are of commercial buildings, houses,… Read More ›
What’s the deal with the metal silos?
I love driving the back roads of the Mississippi Delta. Even if there aren’t any buildings or people, there’s always the landscape to take pictures of, and the sky. I especially love coming up on agricultural buildings, gins, the rare old… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 