Last Wednesday’s post by Thomas Rosell on Apartments on Jackson’s North Street commented on builder Tom B. Scott, who is credited in the MDAH database with three buildings in Jackson, followed by the intriguing question “Does anyone know more about Mr. Scott?” Readers’ comments added that he was one of four Scott brothers in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Jackson, and newspaper research indicated he arrived in Jackson in 1928 working with the Jackson Land Company, and subsequently formed Tom B. Scott & Company, Contractors in 1930. It turns out that there is a lot more to the story of Tom B. Scott (and his brothers and their wives), and just enough holes in the stories in the Clarion-Ledger between 1921 and 1978 to make me wonder “where exactly did these people live?”
Clarion-Ledger, Jan. 17, 1926
Tom B. Scott comes to Jackson
The Jackson Daily News mentions Tom B. Scott on December 10, 1921 in connection with the sale of land in the Hicks-Crisler Subdivision, with Charles C. Scott of Scott & Scott as the attorney. In 1924, the Clarion-Ledger reported the owners of Country Club Place had secured Tom B. Scott from Santa Monica, California as the new manager of the Jackson Development Company (Sept. 14, 1924, p. 6).
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Scott Welcomed to Jackson.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Scott, who have been in California and points in the west for several years, are now making Jackson their place of residence and during the week will take possession of the home on the Clinton Boulevard formerly owned by Mrs. M. W. Curry. Mr. Charles Scott, who has been in the Bellenger home, will be with these new comers. Mr. Scott is associated in business with his brothers, Scott and Scott. Little Miss Sybil and Master Thomas, Jr., are the children of this happy family circle. (Clarion-Ledger, July 13, 1924)
The Jackson Development Company was established in 1923, with Dr. J. O. Segura as president, W. C. Wells, vice president, and Charles Scott, secretary-treasurer. Jackson Development Company purchased the property of Mrs. M. W. Curry on Clinton Boulevard for the development of what would become Country Club Place, described as
…the largest and most beautiful subdivision ever opened and offered to the people of the Capital City.
By 1926, Scott was building homes in a number of subdivisions, including Belhaven, and apparently opened his own company:
Tom B. Scott & Co. End Successful Year….built a large number of homes in Jackson during the past year…came to Jackson about two years ago…had experience in this business both in Wyoming and California. (Clarion-Ledger, January 17, 1926,p. 7)
1927 Arlington & Peachtree house constructed by Tom B. Scott; pictured as it is currently
Apparently in 1930, Jackson Development Company defaulted on payments to Mrs. Curry, and a portion of undeveloped Country Club Place was sold at auction (Clarion-Ledger, Dec. 13, 1930). The Jackson Development Company does not appear in local news after 1934.
The Scott Brothers in the Early Years
Frank T. Scott completed Millsaps College in 1914. He was an attorney and served as city judge and sheriff. In February 192?, he and his wife moved into the “splendid colonial home in Woodland Hills” off Old Canton Road near Fondren. Charles C., also an attorney, and his new wife moved into their new home in Woodland Hills in November 1928. Tom B. Scott and his wife were living in Country Club Place in 1928. Dr. W. W. Scott moved to Jackson in April 1928, and gave up his medical practice to become manager of the Jackson Baking Company plant at 519 S. President in July 1928. He re-opened his medical practice in January 1929 in the Century Building. By this time, Tom and his wife were living at 911 Euclid with their daughter Sybil and son Tom, Jr., but in January 1933 they moved into their new home at 1004 Euclid. The Clarion-Ledger Dec. 17, 1939 reported the Scotts sold their home at 1004 Euclid to William Young Westervelt, and described it as a 2-story white frame house. However, in 1941, and subsequently in all news articles, the Tom B. Scotts remained at 1004 Euclid.
Tom B. Scott continued to construct houses in a number of subdivisions, including Country Club Place and Belhaven, sometimes in association with builder J.R. Flint. He built the Bufkin Duplex in 1939 and the Isidore Lehman house off old Canton Road, designed by James T. Canizaro.
Among his commercial buildings (including renovations and alterations) were the W. G. Avery Body Company on Larson between High Street and Spengler, Millstein’s on Capitol and Farish, Dixie Glass Bottling Company, Ethredge-Hemphill-McGee Building at 520 E. Capitol, and Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home on West Street (now 350 High Street.)
Clarion-Ledger, Aug 12, 1934
Scott also did renovations and alterations on several schools, including Barr, Duling, Power, and Lanier High School.
On April 14, 1946, Tom B. Scott was elected Vice-President of the newly organized Associated Building Contractors of Mississippi. He died in 1978, according to a legal notice in the Clarion-Ledger by his son, Tom B. Scott, Jr., attorney handling the affairs of the deceased. I can find no obituary for Tom, Sr. or his wife, Lola Emery Scott.
Categories: Architectural Research, Jackson
Preservation in Mississippi 
Wow ask and you shall receive! Thank you Suzassippi for this in-depth look at Tom B. Scott’s career. That is a name we will have to keep an eye out for in the future. I’m curious as to his time in California. From the examples you’ve shared it doesn’t look like he was interested in bringing elements from the California craftsman bungalow movement to Mississippi. Although perhaps the craftsman style was passe by the time he arrived in Jackson and the interest has shifted to period revival?
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After the post was ready, I did discover 3 paragraphs about Tom B. Scott from the 1918 History of Wyoming, Vol. 3, published by S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. of Chicago. Mr. Scott was born in Porterville, Mississippi in 1892, son of Samuel B. Scott. In 1913, Scott went to Greybull, Wyoming, and in 1915 was appointed postmaster at the age of 23. He was a Democrat, Mason, and treasurer of the Hoye Refining Company of Greybull, and owned a block in town. He married Lola Emery of Kansas in 1915, and their daughter Sybil was born in 1917. They were living in California in 1922 when their son Tom, Jr., was born in Pasadena.
I have not been able to locate anything about his time in California thus far.
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I’ve also found an obituary for the delineator of the Millstein’s rendering.
Robert Cook Jones, 76. a retired architect with the state Department of Education and an artist, died early Sunday in Jackson following a long illness. Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Crystal Springs United Methodist Church with the Rev. Cecil Jones officiating. Burial will follow in the Crystal Springs City Cemetery. Jones, a member of a pioneer Crystal Springs family, received his architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He worked in the division of building and transportation in the Education Department for 33 years and was a member of the American Institute of Architecture and the Council of Educational Facility Planners International. Jones also had numerous art shows around the state and he was commissioned to paint the scenes which now hang permanently in the new City Hall in Crystal Springs. He is survived by his wife, the former Mary Evans; one son. Robert Evans Jones; one daughter. Elizabeth Jones of Crystal Springs; and one sister. Mrs. W A. Redding of Crystal Springs.
Clarion Ledger Jackson, Mississippi Monday, June 23, 1980 page 22.
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Information from the MDAH database on R.C. Jones: “Born in Crystal Springs, MS, attended Mississippi A&M College (MSU) from 1922-1926, graduating with a degree in Engineering. During the summers, he worked in the office of C.H. LINDSLEY. Through this contact, he met Gabriel Ferrand, head of the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and obtained a scholarship for his first year there. He graduated from Washington in 1931 with a B. of Arch, after working the summers with the St. Louis firm LaBeaume & Klein. Returning to Jackson aftr graduation, he worked in the office of HULL & MALVANEY and then HULL & DRUMMOND from 1933 until about 1939 when he became the draftman for the SCHOOL BUILDING SERVICE in the Miss. Department of Education. He continued with the department, promoted to assistant director of the SBS by 1945, apparently for the rest of his career, at least until the early 1960s.” http://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/rpt.aspx?rpt=artisanSearch&Name=jones%2C%20robert&City=Any&Role=Any
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I believe Tom B. Scott Jr was President of First Federal Savings and Loan which was renamed Unifirst in about 1975. He had Scott and Scott Attorneys which was affiliated with the S&L.
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Tom, Jr. was indeed a banker and an attorney. His sister, Sybil was married in 1941 to Lt. R. C. Jones. He was killed in 1942 in a Memphis bomber crash that occurred right after take-off for Jackson Air Base. She remarried in 1943 to Lt. Roger Cummings of the Army Air Corps, and they moved to Jackson in 1945 with their baby daughter, Susan.
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Wow, two different R.C. Joneses in this story! Sorry to hear about the Lieutenant.
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I only noticed that today myself. Lt. Jones was from Louisiana, though, and I do not know if there was a connection. There were 5 men killed in that plane crash, and one survivor.
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The sad state today of that Peachtree Street bungalow disheartens me. I drove by it Sunday and it has holes in the side, rotten windows and is totally unkept and looks horrid. The owners need to restore it or sell it to someone who can.
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