Every year when I sit down to compile this post, I get a little discouraged to see what landmarks, large and small, have disappeared from the Mississippi landscape. But I also build up some renewed determination to fight just as hard in the coming year to preserve the historic landmarks that are still standing. As long as they’re still standing, they have a chance–once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. As always, this list is not comprehensive; as W. White’s posts last year showed, even some of our most preservation-minded towns lose pieces of their historic districts, small houses, commercial buildings, and the like, without many people noticing. I’m looking at you, Columbus, Oxford, and Meridian–consider that perhaps demolishing your town piece by piece is not progress.
A NEW YEAR, ANOTHER DEMOLITION IN DOWNTOWN MERIDIAN, Jan 2017: Former Citizens National Bank (1901), Meridian–the slipcover had just been taken off the storefront, revealing a building that should have been a shoo-in for restoration.
Before slipcover was removed:
See also: Meridian Demolitions and Why Ordinary Houses Almost No One Cares About Should be Preserved
DAMAGED BY TORNADO, LATER DEMOLISHED, Jan-March 2017: Historic core of William Carey University, Hattiesburg
Tatum Court Administration Building (1912), William Carey College, Hattiesburg. Photo June 2013.
Johnson Hall (1919), William Carey College, Hattiesburg. Photo June 2013
Ross Hall (c.1919), William Carey College, Hattiesburg. Photo June 2013.
William Carey Campus 1-22-2017
Johnson Hall under demolition, February 2017
See also:
- MissPres News Roundup 1-23-2017
- MissPres News Roundup 1-30-2017
- MissPres News Roundup 2-6-2017
- MissPres News Roundup 2-21-2017
DEMOLISHED, March 2017: F.M. Weed House, 1007 Iberville (c.1900), Ocean Springs
1007 Iberville, Marble Springs Historic District, Ocean Springs. Photo 2009 by FEMA from MDAH HRI database.
DEMOLISHED, July 2017: Administration Building (1940), Mary Holmes Junior College, West Point
Mary Holmes Comm. College Administration Building. Photo Jennifer Baughn, MDAH 2014 from MDAH HRI db. Accessed 4-17-17
See also:
DEMOLISHED BY DEVELOPER ALAN LANGE, September 2017: David Fondren House (c.1905), 1950s commercial building, and the former Que Sera restaurant in Jackson--for a low-to-mid-range hotel that will as a crumb to the neighborhood, according to the developer, have interior decoration that will “reflect Fondren.”
former site of Fondren House. Fondren Neighborhood, Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi from Jackson Free Press
See also:
- Jackson’s Fondren Neighborhood: Historic and Hip
- MissPres News Roundup 9-5-2017
- MissPres News Roundup 9-26-2017
- MissPres News Roundup 10-3-2017
DEMOLISHED, November 2017: Garry-Breazeale House (c.1890), Kosciusko
DEMOLISHED, October-November 2017: Mt. Carmel Baptist Church (former Main Street Baptist, 1913, William Drago, architect) Hattiesburg–wherein $340,000 of Hattiesburg’s tax dollars were spent to demolish a privately owned building that should have been repaired with insurance money after the 2013 tornado.
Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, after Feb 2013 tornado. Photo by Vicki Myers, MDAH.
Vacant land where once one of Hattiesburg’s architectural landmarks stood.
See also . . .
Categories: Demolition/Abandonment, Disasters, Hattiesburg
Preservation in Mississippi 
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