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.

• Vacation Postcards: Jackson TraveLodge

  By ELMalvaney on September 24, 2012 • ( 8 )

  

  MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.

• Going Away Party for David Preziosi, MHT

  By ELMalvaney on September 20, 2012 • ( 2 )

  

  This is late notice, but tonight (Sept 20) between 5:30 and 7 PM, a going-away party will be held at Brent’s Drug Store in Fondren for David Preziosi, longtime director of the Mississippi Heritage Trust. David has accepted a position… Read More ›

• Before and After: Admiral Benbow Inn, Jackson

  By ELMalvaney on September 20, 2012 • ( 23 )

  

  I haven’t done a Before-and-After in a while, but one of yesterday’s masonry screens came from the old Admiral Benbow Inn (now Admiral Retirement Center) and reminded me I had an old postcard from its glory days of colorful panels… Read More ›

• In Praise of Masonry Screens

  By ELMalvaney on September 19, 2012 • ( 13 )

  

  I’ve pretty much fallen in love with masonry screens since I first started noticing them a few years ago. Most popular in the 1950s through 1970s, these decorative concrete block are a low-cost way to create a wall, provide privacy… Read More ›

• Meridian Federal Courthouse makes the New York Times

  By ELMalvaney on September 18, 2012 • ( 9 )

  

  Thanks to MissPreser John C for passing along this link to an article in the New York Times this week, “Last Chapter for a Court with a Place in History.” The Meridian Star has recently announced that the federal courthouse… Read More ›

• A Little Blog Roundup

  By ELMalvaney on September 17, 2012 • ( 2 )

  In lieu of a News Roundup, why not check out what’s going on in architecture and preservation round the internet?

• Where in the world is Frank Lloyd Wright?

  By ELMalvaney on September 14, 2012 • ( 4 )

  In “Go East, Old Man: An Architect’s Archive Is Sent Packing,” the Wall Street Journal’s Eric Felten bemoans the recent announcement that Frank Lloyd Wright’s priceless archive of drawings, correspondence, and office records has been sold by the Frank Lloyd Wright… Read More ›

• Which Modern Landmarks Will You Explore?

  By ELMalvaney on September 13, 2012 • ( 7 )

  

  DOCOMOMO, the creatively named advocacy group for Modernist buildings, is asking “Where will you explore?” in its sixth annual tour day on October 6. Unfortunately, Mississippi doesn’t have any tours, but a number of other Southern states, including Louisiana, are… Read More ›

• HABS Photographer Jack Boucher (1931-2012)

  By ELMalvaney on September 12, 2012 • ( 6 )

  

  Jack Boucher, HABS photographer, documented the high and the low of Mississippi’s architecture, from the finest craftsmanship to the slave quarters to the privies. Through his photos, we can still experience in just a small way some of the landmarks that are now gone, including Assembly Hall, where Mississippi’s territorial legislature met.

• Rev. H.D. Dennis (1916-2012)

  By ELMalvaney on September 6, 2012 • ( 7 )

  

  Rev. H.D. Dennis, who created a “visionary art environment” or “Bible Castle” around his wife’s rural store Margaret’s Grocery north of Vicksburg, died September 5, 2012. Margaret herself died in 2010, and the Grocery has been decaying ever since. Our… Read More ›

• Mississippi Architect, September 1964: Moss Point Municipal Building

  By ELMalvaney on September 6, 2012 • ( 5 )

  

  The new Moss Point Municipal Building, designed by H.F. Fountain of Biloxi was the subject of the September 1964 issue of Mississippi Architect magazine. Unfortunately, this building’s life was cut short by Hurricane Katrina, as I believe it flooded like… Read More ›

• Mississippi Architect, September 1964: At the Beginning of the Mississippi Museum of Art

  By ELMalvaney on September 5, 2012 • ( 2 )

  

  Most of us have probably been to the Mississippi Museum of Art in downtown Jackson for one reason or another. For a small-state art museum, they put on some pretty big shows while also keeping it real with their Mississippi… Read More ›

• Happy Labor Day

  By ELMalvaney on September 3, 2012 • ( 0 )

  

  In honor of Labor Day, which according to the Dept. of Labor webpage is “a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers,” I thought it might be worthwhile to reprint… Read More ›

• More Reports from the Isaac Front

  By ELMalvaney on August 31, 2012 • ( 6 )

  

  More reports trickle in from the around the state as Isaac has finally trundled off, except for a couple of feeder bands that soaked me late Thursday night as I tried to walk my dog. Thomas Rosell sent in a… Read More ›

• Early Reports Are Good from Biloxi

  By ELMalvaney on August 30, 2012 • ( 3 )

  

  After the longest, determinedest tropical storm/hurricane most of us have ever endured, we’re finally starting to calm down a bit from Isaac here in Mississippi. Thomas Rosell reports from Biloxi that he lost electricity around 3 this morning but is… Read More ›

• Pictures from the Mississippi Coast

  By ELMalvaney on August 29, 2012 • ( 2 )

  You can see up-to-the minute photos from various sites along the Mississippi Coast on the Mississippi Gulf Coast Facebook page.

• Lost Mississippi: Father Ryan House, Biloxi (1841-2005)

  By ELMalvaney on August 29, 2012 • ( 15 )

  

  On this 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we think of our friends and landmarks on the Gulf Coast and hope to see them on the other side of Hurricane Isaac. Meanwhile, we pause to remember another one of our landmarks… Read More ›

• Modernist Storefronts of Pascagoula

  By ELMalvaney on August 23, 2012 • ( 11 )

  

  Pascagoula, better known for its colonial-period Old Spanish Fort (aka De le Pointe-Krebs House), actually has some really interesting mid-20th-century buildings for the architectural explorer to examine. The commercial strip on Delmas Avenue in particular, although partially covered as a downtown “mall” as part of an urban renewal scheme in the 1970s, still has a few nicely done Modernist storefronts.

• Three Early Fall Happenings

  By ELMalvaney on August 22, 2012 • ( 0 )

  

  Since we’re having such unseasonably (but welcome) low temperatures lately, we know it’s time to start thinking about September and early fall events. Three have popped up on my radar lately, ranging from the far north (Holly Springs) to central… Read More ›

• Lost Mississippi: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fuller House

  By ELMalvaney on August 17, 2012 • ( 9 )

  

  Forty-three years ago today, Mississippi lost one of its handful of Frank Lloyd Wright designs, a house in Pass Christian known as the Fuller House. Located at 317 Sandy Hook Drive, the house, designed in 1951, was considered part of… Read More ›

• Welcome To Our Fine City

  By ELMalvaney on August 16, 2012 • ( 9 )

  

  Many towns use their historic (or newer) water tanks to announce their name to visitors, such as Mendenhall or nearby Magee. But others go the extra mile, getting creative with landscaping to bring their name closer to earth. Possibly the… Read More ›

• Mississippi and Skuna Valley Railroad Being Torn Up

  By ELMalvaney on August 15, 2012 • ( 0 )

  MissPres reader Matthew sent me a heads-up last week about the Mississippi and Skuna Valley Railroad (1925-2008), which operated primarily as a lumber line between Coffeeville and Bruce, Mississippi until 2008. The 22-mile line is currently being torn up after… Read More ›

• Gulf Park Update

  By ELMalvaney on August 15, 2012 • ( 14 )

  

  Intrepid MissPreser and Gulf Coast preservation reporter Mark Davis took note of recent comments on the March 2010 Gulf Park post and went down to the campus, located right on Beach Boulevard in Long Beach, to see the state of things… Read More ›

• Gargoyles and Grotesques I Have Known

  By ELMalvaney on August 9, 2012 • ( 3 )

  

  Thomas Rosell remarked after yesterday’s post that there is a difference between gargoyles and grotesques, namely that gargoyles serve a function as a downspout, while grotesques are, well, I guess “ornamental” may not be the best term, but mainly their… Read More ›

• Show Me the Alligator Gargoyles!

  By ELMalvaney on August 8, 2012 • ( 20 )

  

  Last week when I was working on the Tower Building post, I opened up that valuable little book Jackson Landmarks, compiled and published by the Jackson Junior League back in 1982. Every time I peruse this book I find something new,… Read More ›

• Round the Blogosphere 8-6-2012

  By ELMalvaney on August 6, 2012 • ( 1 )

  

  This probably doesn’t qualify as a full-fledged Round the Blogosphere, but since JRGordon didn’t find much in the Mississippi newspapers for a News Roundup, I thought I’d throw out a few articles I’ve bookmarked recently from the outside world. First… Read More ›

• Going Inside: MSU’s Chapel of Memories

  By ELMalvaney on August 3, 2012 • ( 8 )

  

  We had a little fun at MSU’s expense in yesterday’s “MSU’s Love Affair With Building Plaques,” but the truth is, MSU has many many great buildings on its campus. In fact, I’m going out on the limb here to assert… Read More ›