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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Preserving Ranch Houses
Although not really a new concept in the preservation world, the interest in preserving ranch houses and other mid-century buildings caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal in “Plain, Common . . . and Historic?.”
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When Concrete Blocks Were the Latest Fad, Part 2
In yesterday’s post, we learned about Vicksburg’s first concrete block building, the Bonelli Building on Washington Street. Mr. Bonelli’s idea apparently caught on quickly because within a few months, a Vicksburg contractor, J.W. Mann, had set up a plant to… Read More ›
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When Concrete Blocks Were the Latest Fad, Part I
Recently during my microfilm tour of the 1905/1906 issues of the Vicksburg Post in search of something completely different, I stumbled on two articles that detailed the establishment of Vicksburg’s concrete block industry, and remembering our own Thomas Rosell’s posts… Read More ›
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New Hope for Prospect Hill?
I interrupt this promised all-Vicksburg-themed week with an announcement I think is important enough to jump in unexpectedly. Yesterday, Jessica Crawford, the Southeast Regional Director of The Archaeological Conservancy, sent me this press release announcing the Conservancy’s recent purchase of… Read More ›
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Mid-Century Modernism in Downtown Vicksburg
Since yesterday’s first post was about the Vicksburg Poll Results and since the next two days’ posts are about concrete block in Vicksburg, I figured why not just make a week of Vicksburg? Back in the Spring when it was… Read More ›
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Vicksburg Poll Results
As you know, the Vicksburg poll, open the last two weeks, closed on Friday around midnight. Ok, I admit I actually closed it on Saturday morning, but not because I went to bed early, it was because I was out… Read More ›
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Time to Go to Meeting
Back in the day when school didn’t start at the beginning of August, late July and August meant camp meeting time. The Vicksburg Post took note of this over a hundred years ago. CAMP MEETINGS IN FULL BLAST The camp… Read More ›
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Penn Jeffries Krouse in Pearl River
Today’s post is the second of a two-part series about the life and work of Meridian architect P.J. Krouse by guest author Mark Clinton Davis, reprinted from July 2011 issue of The Reporter of Pearl River County. If you’d like… Read More ›
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Architects of Mississippi: Penn Jeffries Krouse
The July 2011 issue of the newsletter of the Pearl River County Historical Society, The Historical Reporter of Pearl River County, featured a long article about the life and career of yet another once-prominent but now mostly unrecognized Mississippi architect, P.J…. Read More ›
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MDAH Announces New Round of CHP Grants!
After some uncertainty about whether there would be a round of the popular Community Heritage Preservation Grant this year, MDAH has announced on their website that there is a small pool of money available on a competitive basis. The Community… Read More ›
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Charleston Cruise Ship Debate
The Wall Street Journal discusses the controversy in Charleston over the enormous cruise ship now calling the city its home. Unfortunately but predictably, the comments show how this local but significant debate, which should be about the sometimes uncomfortable interplay… Read More ›
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Halfway through the Vicksburg Poll
With 281 votes at the halfway point, there are few surprises in the Vicksburg poll so far, with the Old Courthouse holding a clear lead. After the roller-coaster ride some of these regional polls have taken us on, I’ll take… Read More ›
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Mississippi Architect, Feb 1964: Gulf Towers, Biloxi
Gulf Towers, a high-rise apartment building in Biloxi, was the featured Mississippi building in the February 1964 issue of Mississippi Architect. It might be hard to remember now, but back in 1964, before Camille and of course before Katrina, the… Read More ›
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Mississippi Architect, February 1964: It’s All About Perspective
As sometimes happens in the Mississippi Architect magazines–produced by the Mississippi chapter of the AIA from March 1963 through March 1965–we can see in hindsight today themes common to both the locally produced editorial and one of the nationally produced… Read More ›
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101 MissPres Places: Vote in the Vicksburg Poll
July is just too hot to think, so we took a little break from our on-going polling for the 101 Mississippi Places to See Before You Die list. We started building the list with readers’ suggestions back in December and now we’re… Read More ›
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MDAH Announces Grants Awarded to Civil Rights Sites
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History announced the recipients of the Mississippi Civil Rights Historical Sites grant on their website this week. These applications were due back in the Spring (I thought for sure I had announced them here… Read More ›
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Lamar County Courthouse, Bless Its Heart
JRGordon’s mention of the planned renovations of the Lamar County Courthouse in Monday’s News Roundup gave me the perfect opportunity to jump back into blogging after lounging about while Susassippi and JR took over the last couple of weeks. A few… Read More ›
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Update on Crumbling Capitol Street Methodist
The West Jackson blog has an update on the Capitol Street Methodist Church and plans for its demolition.
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Old House Journal on Google Books
Great news! Google Books has all Old House Journals online and easily searched, from the very earliest typed copies in 1975 to today!
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USS Mississippi Past and Present
If you’ve ever wandered about the grounds of the New Capitol, you might have spotted an odd sort of concrete planter on the northeast corner of the block (opposite from the much more grant Monument to the Women of the… Read More ›
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Arcadia’s Gulfport Book
The Sun-Herald announces a new Images of America book for Gulfport.
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Hot Coffee Cooling?
A while back I was going from Mt. Olive to Laurel, and decided to take the back road, County Road 532, which goes through the exotically named Covington County community of Hot Coffee. Hot Coffee isn’t an incorporated town, and… Read More ›
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Books about The City
Excellent review of books about the city and urbanism in the New Yorker.
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Linking Around for the Long Weekend
Technically this isn’t a blog roundup post, since it covers mostly out-of-state newspaper and other journalistic sources, so just consider it a way to catch up on some interesting reading during your long weekend. Here’s a story from Architectural Record… Read More ›
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Churchly Ionic German Doric with English Buttresses Style? Um . . .
As you may recall, I’ve been spending my rare and valuable-only-to-me spare time in the microfilm version of the Vicksburg Evening Post at MDAH, so I might be bugging y’all with quotes from one-hundred-year old articles from time to time…. Read More ›
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Capitol Street Methodist Is Falling Down
Once it was a landmark of growth and progress, only the second Methodist congregation in Jackson, just across the railroad tracks in the fashionable new suburban area being laid out on West Capitol Street. Then it became the symbol of… Read More ›
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Screen Doors: Not Just a Luxury Anymore
This year during Pilgrimage season, I headed over to Vicksburg to see some of the early 20th-century houses they have on tour as a contrast to the more antebellum focus in Natchez and Columbus. Two of the most fabulous houses… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 