Author Archives
Thomas J. Rosell
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Top 11 MissPres posts written in 2016
Before we get too far into 2017, let’s take a look back at the most popular posts written during 2016. If you missed any of these posts now would be a good chance to catch up. If you remember them,… Read More ›
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Tweets From The Past Week
Just a quick post to catch up on some of the recent @PreservationMS tweets. If you’re not a Twitter person you can always see the MissPres tweets on the Homepage under the heading “NewsUpdates.” Can't get enough of this c.1960 rendering… Read More ›
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With Gratitude
2016 has been quite the year: the struggles, the places we’ve lost. I am hopeful we learned from these losses to maybe prevent similar losses in the future. Looking beyond, I would like to share this list of the things I am grateful… Read More ›
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Fredrick Law Olmsted Records Now Available.
A friend recently sent me a link to the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, National Park Service Digital Archives Flickr page. If you are unfamiliar with his name, you’re likely familiar with his work such as NYC Central Park, Niagara Falls… Read More ›
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Mississippi’s Early Concrete Skyscrapers
Recently I came across the Hattiesburg Mississippi Industrial Edition for May 1908. It will most certainly be the source of many future blog posts, with lots of photographs, descriptions, and accounts of goings-on in the Hub City. Of all the civic boosting that is done in… Read More ›
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An Aladdin Craftsman in Tunica?
Back when I was looking for historic playing fields to feature in the Mississippi’s Historic Playing Fields post, I was scoping out the athletic fields in Tunica across School Street from the former High School. The athletic fields, including this baseball diamond, are estimated… Read More ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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Newspaper Clippings: Hattiesburg’s Ultra Modern J.C. Penney
In July of 1945, the Hattiesburg J.C. Penney store at 122-126 W Pine Street suffered a significant fire. This provided an opportunity for the company’s branding efforts to be put to use with a complete rebuilding of the store. Sixteen… Read More ›
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MissPres News Roundup 8-30-2016
This is my first attempt at a news roundup so please be forgiving. If you have any additional information about any of these stories, or if you have your own preservation news from your neck of the woods, please let… Read More ›
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Roadside Mississippi: Dairy Freeze, Crystal Springs
The Dairy Freeze in Crystal Springs opened up c.1951 at the intersection of Hwy 51 and what I believe was old Hwy 27. With Hwy 51 being the main drag between Jackson and Baton Rouge / New Orleans, the stand likely… Read More ›
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Going Inside: Loy Bowlin’s Beautiful Holy Jewel Home
The home of the Original Rhinestone Cowboy, Loy Bowlin began life as a somewhat typical craftsman bungalow in McComb. Over the years Mr. Bowlin added his own decoration consisting of glitter, rhinestone, and paint to his house. After his passing… Read More ›
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An Ill Wind Brings New Rules: What Hurricane Camille Changed
As a way of commemorating the 47th anniversary of Hurricane Camille this week, let’s look back at two structures that are prominent features of the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s skyline. While it is apparent that disaster shapes our physical environment in what is lost, as… Read More ›
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Gulfport’s Gutman House: “Dreams of the Dwellers and Creator”
Bruce Goff designed two houses in Mississippi during his career. The Gryder House (1960) in Ocean Springs is a frequent topic here on MissPres. The other Goff design was the Gutman House (1958) in Gulfport. It is likely not as… Read More ›
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Kremser’s Air Conditioning For Your Comfort, Kremser said.
Last week’s post regarding the rise in popularity for modern & ranch houses throughout the South brought up the question, when did air conditioning become a standard feature in home construction? Kremser’s Sheet Metal Works was apparently one of the first local… Read More ›
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Help Identify the Mississippi Mystery Houses
The Library of Congress needs our help! That’s right, our defacto national library, the second largest in the world, has some historic images of Mississippi buildings that are unidentified. These images are the work of Frances Benjamin Johnston, whose 60-year career as… Read More ›
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Bruce Goff’s Mississippi Work in His Own Spoken Words
Comments by architect Bruce Goff about his two Mississippi Coast houses, the groovy Gryder House in Ocean Springs and the spaceship Gutman House in Gulfport. Plus the best construction sign award goes to “We Don’t Like Your House Either.”
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What is an Archipedia?
Mississippi architecture is about to get its due on the Society of Architectural Historians’ online database, Archipedia.
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Happy Birthday Bruce Goff & Frank Lloyd Wright
June 8 is the birth date shared by architects Bruce Goff and Frank Lloyd Wright. While Wright, born in Wisconsin in 1867, is better known, Goff, born in Kansas in 1904, is one of the few architects that Wright would… Read More ›
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A Piece of Pascagoula History on the Market
I recently saw a Pascagoula real estate listing that caught my eye. The former Pascagoula National Bank at 535 Delmas Avenue is on the market. Originally built in 1938, the bank is the only building I am aware of that R…. Read More ›
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Mississippi Architects: Rathbone DeBuys (1874-1960)
New Orleans architect Rathbone DeBuys has been mentioned many times over the years here on MissPres, but recently I was surprised to see we have never had a feature post dedicated to his work in Mississippi. This was something I had not discovered until I found… Read More ›
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N. W. Overstreet, 1928
If you missed it, or if last week’s History Is Lunch series presentation by Michael Fazio has you hankering for more N.W. Overstreet, below is a brief biography of Mississippi’s homegrown architect from a 1928 publication with the long winded title From Mississippi Today :… Read More ›
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Mail Order Mississippi: Geo F. Barber Design E-25 / No. 781
We’ve previously had a brief introduction to architect George F. Barber here on MissPres. Barber, who lived in Knoxville, TN from 1888 until his death in 1915, did a significant mail order plan business across the United States. The Knox County… Read More ›
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Friday Puzzler: A Tale of Two Domes
Here is a Friday puzzler for all you puzzle masters out there. You might be familiar with “Tale of Two Domes” a saga in which architect George R. Mann claimed that the Mississippi New Capitol building’s dome is based on… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 