My least favorite post of the year, but one of the most necessary. We look back at what we’ve lost this year to help us remember why we fight to preserve our historic places–we lose enough by accident or natural disaster much less to willful demolition. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. They can’t be replaced.
LOST TO FIRE, Jan 2016: Enterprise United Methodist Church (1930s), Enterprise
Enterprise United Methodist Church, Corner of Bridge Street & River Road, Enterprise, MS (Google Streetview)
LOST TO FIRE, Feb. 2016: Isaac N. Ellis House (1891, George F. Barber, archt.), 258 S. Extension St., Hazlehurst
DESTROYED BY HIGH WINDS, April 11, 2016: Belzoni Fire Tower (c.1940), Hwy 49
DEMOLISHED, Summer 2016: Gilmer Hotel (1965), 321 Main St., Columbus
DEMOLISHED, July 2016: Waters Building (1960), Columbus
COLLAPSED, July 2016: Commercial Building (c.1870), Natchez
DEMOLISHED, Aug 2016: Bungalow (1930s), Handsboro–this stands in for all the little bungalows lost this year because they don’t have white columns
LOST TO FIRE, Oct 2016: Kingston School Cafeteria (c.1919), Adams County
DEMOLISHED, Dec. 2016: Pocahontas Tee-Pee, Hwy 49
Pocahontas Tepee (c.1980). It may not have been historic, but it was a for-sure landmark on Hwy 49.
A Toast to Absent Friends:
Libby Hollingsworth (1933-2016)
Isaac the Peacock of Prospect Hill (c.1999-2016)
Categories: Belzoni, Churches, Columbus, Demolition/Abandonment, Gulfport, Hazlehurst, Historic Preservation, Lost Mississippi, Natchez, Preservation People/Events
Preservation in Mississippi 
What a sad list. I’m sorry to learn of Isaac the Peacock passing. I hate to add another name to the list, but Frank Brooks Jr author of the popular “Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi” passed away earlier this year.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/djournal/obituary.aspx?pid=178101330
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Thanks for posting a note on the death of Frank Brooks. I thought I had done this a number of months back but apparently didn’t. Frank and I corresponded frequently. He truly was a renaissance man. We shared a common ancestor in Alexander French who was killed on Washington St in Vicksburg when stepping off a trolley in 1918.
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I always hate to see heritage sites lost.
I enjoy your site. Keep up the good work.
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Sad list; especially the exhuberant Libby Hollingsworth. She was such a cheerleader for preservation in Mississippi. Her knowledge was vast and she and husband Al made great contributions. I’m thankful the list wasn’t longer!
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A painful necrology.
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Ah I was just reminded by a news article that the City of Ocean Springs and Jackson County colluded to destroy the historic Swingster Building http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/jackson-county/article124346569.html
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yes, always sad to see such a list– suspect there were more. too. the barber-designed house in hazelhurst particularly sad to note. and, yes, as a child, i ‘went up’ into many of the fire-watching towers in south mississippi. (don’t think i could do that walk now!)
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