I’m a couple of weeks late in my “end-of-year posts” but as Thomas Rosell mentioned in his last post, sometimes life takes over, and in my case, December just got away from me, so here we are, better late than never. As in previous years, obviously our list of lost friends is nowhere near comprehensive but highlights those buildings that were important local or state landmarks and that made the news. Now that local newspapers are suffering and have limited local news, I’m sure many buildings in historic districts are being lost without any comment, and that’s something we try to rectify here on MissPres, but we can’t be all places at once. (So, if you know of a local preservation issue that needs to be mentioned here, please take the time to shoot us an email or comment on one of our posts so we can follow up.)
It’s one thing for hurricanes or tornadoes or even fires to take away our historic places, but it’s harder to swallow when, as with the three major demolitions in this year’s list, perfectly livable buildings become the victims of public or private malfeasance, negligence, or pure oldee vindictiveness.
DEMOLISHED . . . erm that is, “SALVAGED” BY LOWNDES COUNTY SUPERVISORS, June-Sept. 2018: Lipscomb House (c.1885), Columbus
Lipscomb House, 223 6th St., Columbus, Miss. April 2013 Google Street View
Read more . . .
- Economic Hardship and Historic Preservation in Mississipp: An Overview and Case Study in Columbus
- What Lowndes County Has Done to Columbus’s Lipscomb House
- Four Years, Six Demolitions–Columbus’s Disappearing Historic Buildings Through Google Street View
DEMOLISHED BY FORREST COUNTY SUPERVISORS, Sept. 29, 2018: Pat Harrison Waterway District Office. One of Mississippi’s best public mosaics went to the landfill over a weekend.
Pat Harrison Waterway District Office, 6081 Highway 49, Hattiesburg (1960-2018)
Read more . . .
- Working Under Cover of Weekend, Forrest County Demos Pat Harrison Building
- Pat Harrison Waterway Building before Forrest County destroyed it
DEMOLISHED . . . erm, that is because it’s Columbus, “SALVAGED” BY NEW OWNER PETER IMES, November 2018: Beckrome (1836), Columbus
Beckrome House, Columbus, MS – Photograph from CIRCA listing, Colin Krieger, Realtor
Read more:
Stay tuned . . .
Lest you think Columbus is finished with its tomfoolery, remember that the Columbus Redevelopment Authority still has plans to demolish most or all of the Burns Bottom Historic District–see MissPres News Roundup 3-20-2018. Maybe we can get through 2019 with a better resolution on the part of Columbus to treasure its wealth of historic neighborhoods and landmarks.
Catch up on previous end-of-year posts . . .
Categories: Demolition/Abandonment, Historic Preservation, Hattiesburg, Columbus
Preservation in Mississippi 
this kind of post is always sad to read. ‘sic transit gloria mundi’.
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The destruction of the mural was heinous and criminal.
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I’ll add a building to the list. “Pop’s” an early Sambo Mockbee (c.1978) design was demolished. More recently it was Grants Kitchen.
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Oh my goodness! I was a frequent visitor to Grant’s Kitchen and was sad to see it had moved and the building demolished, but I had no idea it was a Mockbee! I did think the interior had some interesting details, but I never took any pictures, phooey!
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This post would be much, much longer if we had the time to do regular News Roundups. That is where most of our Auld Lang Synes of past years were culled from. But, like Malvaney said, paywalls and newspaper reporting cut-backs have seriously affected what becomes “news.” Combined with schedules that prevent Malvaney, Rosell, or myself from doing time consuming News Roundups and no MissPres readers stepping up to volunteer to take the job, and we are left with only three (now four with Rosell’s comment) historic buildings chronicled as being demolished in 2018. Who really believes that only four important historic buildings were demolished in 2018? Not me, for one.
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The Jaquith building that used to be the negro infirmary at the tuberculosis sanitorium, now Boswell Regional Center, was demolished. It was in poor shape but I was sad to see the place go. Had a ringside seat for the demo…I wondered what things the place saw in its lifetime and if it was sad or relieved to go.
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