Author Archives
In addition to ruling over the MissPres universe with an iron fist, Malvaney enjoys reading, wandering around old buildings, stopping to smell the magnolias, fiddling with databases, and sitting on the porch with a good book and a big ol' dog. Non-interests include but are not limited to tweeting, texting, Instagramming, planking, Candy Crush, Donald Trump, and unecessarily destructive home renovation shows.
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Help Save the Durant Depot
Today’s guest post is by Sharron Cauthen, Chair of the Durant Historic Preservation Commission in Holmes County. Durant Historic Preservation Commission and City of Durant Work To Preserve Durant Depot (Illinois Central RR) This year the Durant Historic Preservation Commission is… Read More ›
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Tornado Damage in Hattiesburg
We’ve seen a few pictures of damaged historic buildings in Hattiesburg, and today we’ve got a broader view of the damage, which takes a relatively straight line from I-59 northeast along Hardy Street, clips the corner of USM, and heads… Read More ›
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Early Damage Reports from Hattiesburg
According to the African American Military History Museum Facebook page, the USO Building that houses the museum and the former Eureka School down the street both sustained heavy roof damage that is now being exacerbated by the rain that’s expected… Read More ›
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How Mississippians of Heart Seek to Save an Historic Landmark
As is our tradition on MissPres, we celebrate the end of our fourth year by returning to the Old Capitol, our touchstone since our first post back in February 2009. Today’s post is long, maybe too long, but I think… Read More ›
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Behind the scenes at Rosedale, Windsor, and Walthall
On this hump day, a short post to point you to some interesting behind-the-scenes pictures from historic preservation projects going on around the state. If you’re on Facebook, you may want to connect with the MDAH Technical Services page, which… Read More ›
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Streets and Numbers and Municipal Identity
Have you ever thought about street numbers and how they came to be? If so, check out this article from Preservation in Print’s October 2012 issue, “Addressing Urban Disorder” by Richard Campanella: The number on your door may seem like… Read More ›
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The State Stonemason’s Scandal
Today I’m really excited to be able to reprint an article by David Dockery, Director of the Surface Geology Division of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, that appeared in the DEQ newsletter Environmental News in February 2010. This article really opened my eyes to the… Read More ›
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Abandoned Mississippi: Kings Daughter’s Nurses Home, Greenwood
I was in Greenwood recently and while there I decided to go check on a hunch I had about a scene in The Help. I don’t actually have a great visual memory, but for some reason, this scene reminded me… Read More ›
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Newspaper Clippings: Old Capitol’s First Restoration
Today’s peek back into the newspaper archives reminds us of when the stucco was taken off during the Capitol’s first “restoration,” billed as the “most accurate humanly possible” by the interior designer Earl Hart Miller.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. in Laurel, Mississippi
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Webster County Courthouse Burns
We heard early yesterday that the Webster County Courthouse in the tiny town of Walthall caught fire around 2:30 AM and was not completely under control until 7 o’clock. Tom Freeland at the North Mississippi Commenter posted an update yesterday afternoon. Preservation architect… Read More ›
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Shelby Foote on Mount Holly
I recently read through the Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy (1997) and came across this interesting little tidbit from Shelby Foote about Mount Holly south of Greenville, which had been owned by his grandfather after the Civil War:… Read More ›
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Mississippi by Air: Piney Woods School
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Sam Kaye, noted architect/preservationist, dead at 72
Originally posted on Local History Announcements:
The Commercial Dispatch By: Carmen K. Sisson January 3, 2013 Sam Kaye Sam Kaye, noted as one of the state’s leading historic preservationists, died Tuesday, leaving a legacy that his friends and colleagues say… -
Mississippi’s Connection to the New York Public Library
Before we get back to our regular programming next week, I thought I might catch up with a few interesting tidbits I’ve come across in my news reading over the holidays. If you’re a new reader, you might not catch… Read More ›
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2012 in review
As they did last year, WordPress.com, which hosts this and millions of other blogs, helpfully put together a 2012 annual report. Here’s an excerpt: About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 170,000 times in 2012…. Read More ›
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National Register Historic Districts 2012
As you know, National Register listings can be either individual places, as shown in yesterday’s post, or larger groupings of buildings known as historic districts. Historic districts can be as small as a handful of houses in a rural community… Read More ›
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National Register Listings (Individual) 2012
The National Park Service oversees the National Register of Historic Places, the most popular tool nationally for recognizing historic properties. According to the NPS: The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy… Read More ›
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Auld Lang Syne: Mississippi Places Lost in 2012
We lost some very old friends this year and some friends we hardly had a chance to meet. The list is shorter than last year’s, but still contains some significant places that we will no longer have around. As usual,… Read More ›
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Historic Buildings in Mobile Damaged in Christmas Tornadoes
Several of Mobile, Alabama’s historic buildings were damaged in the tornadoes that swept through in the nasty weather on Christmas Day, including Murphy High School, Springhill Avenue Temple, and Trinity Episcopal Church. Keep up with updates at al.com.
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Mississippi Landmarks 2012
In the Interregnum between Christmas and New Year’s we traditionally take time to list the year’s accomplishments in preservation, as well as our losses. Our scheduling is a little off this year due to the timing of Christmas early in… Read More ›
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Historic House Museums Struggling?
According to the Washington Post’s “Struggling to attract visitors, historic houses may face day of reckoning,” history sites such as Monticello, Colonial Williamsburg, and Stratford Hall are struggling amidst long-term attendance declines. This is a topic we’ve been covering here on… Read More ›
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LEGO Jackson, LEGO Bailey Junior High
I missed the opening event for this year’s LEGO Jackson on December 8, but I made sure to head over to the Arts Center of Mississippi, where the Mississippi Museum of Art used to hold court before moving to their… Read More ›
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Mississippi’s Eagle
As a preface to this post, you might want to read an earlier post on the USS Mississippi figurehead and the new USS Mississippi submarine: USS Mississippi Past and Present.” If you’ve had occasion to wander around the New Capitol… Read More ›
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Happy 12-12-12 Day
In honor of the one and only 12-12-12 day any of us will ever see (unless we can get that Youth Serum working so we all live to be incredibly old and wise yet fit and trim, making all the… Read More ›
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Before and After: Hilton Hotel, Jackson
I’m not sure what architectural style the old Jackson Hilton, built sometime in the 1970s (?) on North State Street would have been called, but all of its style–whatever it was–is gone gone gone today in its current incarnation as… Read More ›
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Should Preservationists Require That New Buildings Look New?
Should preservationists require new buildings in historic districts to appear new, rather than mimicking the design vocabulary of the older surrounding buildings? Ronald Lee Fleming argues in “Preserve and Protect” that it’s time to re-think this approach, and “Long march of… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 