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.

• Local People, this is what we think of your sacrifice

  By ELMalvaney on May 12, 2011 • ( 14 )

  

  Yesterday, I passed by the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in downtown Jackson and saw that demolition of the Agriculture Building, one of the pair of barrel-vaulted buildings at the west side of the fairgrounds, was well underway. As you might recall… Read More ›

• Mississippi Architect, December 1963: Neshoba General Hospital

  By ELMalvaney on May 11, 2011 • ( 2 )

  

  Today and tomorrow, we’ll look at a couple of articles from the December 1963 issue of Mississippi Architect, a monthly publication undertaken by the Mississippi chapter of the AIA from March 1963 through March 1965. If you recall, the posting… Read More ›

• Two feet high and risin’

  By ELMalvaney on May 10, 2011 • ( 2 )

  

  I had some other posts ready for this week, but yesterday I found myself obsessively checking around on various websites to see where the Mississippi River’s water was, and this brought to mind Johnny Cash’s song about the 1937 Flood,… Read More ›

• Vote in the Oxford/Holly Springs Area Poll!

  By ELMalvaney on May 6, 2011 • ( 3 )

  We took a break during April from the polling for the 101 Mississippi Places to See Before You Die list, but now that it’s May, it’s time to get back into it. As a reminder of where we’ve been, we’ve… Read More ›

• Builders pics: William J. McGee

  By ELMalvaney on May 5, 2011 • ( 2 )

  

  I found both of these obituaries for William J. McGee, in my recent productive search through the Gill Collection at MDAH (“Pioneer Club Scrapbooks,” vol 3 of 3). They contain in a few paragraphs a humanizing portrait of the builder… Read More ›

• Two Contests, Cash Available!

  By ELMalvaney on May 4, 2011 • ( 0 )

  Let’s take a break from the bad news of late and look at two contests recently announced. First, the National Park Service’s NHL Photo Contest on Flickr–so far no Mississippi NHL has won a place in the top group in… Read More ›

• Rolling Fork’s Amazing Red Barn Collapses

  By ELMalvaney on May 2, 2011 • ( 13 )

  

  Sometime late Friday night or early Saturday, the beautiful, amazing structure on Highway 61 on the south side of Rolling Fork, known affectionately as “The Red Barn,” collapsed. The cause is not known, but the U.S. Corps of Engineers, owners… Read More ›

• The All-New 2011 10 Most Endangered Places List

  By ELMalvaney on April 29, 2011 • ( 23 )

  

  You heard it here first (or second if you attended MHT’s Unveiling Party last night at Jackson’s Duling School, right in the heart of my funky Fondren neighborhood). As usual, I did not win any of the artwork I bid on,… Read More ›

• Abandoned Mississippi: First Christian Church, Jackson

  By ELMalvaney on April 28, 2011 • ( 40 )

  

  Jackson’s First Christian Church doesn’t exactly fit in with some of our other Abandoned Mississippi sites. It doesn’t sit crumbling, left alone in the woods or out in a field, far from the city. From the outside, in fact, the… Read More ›

• Touring River Road in the Springtime

  By ELMalvaney on April 27, 2011 • ( 4 )

  

  While in New Orleans, I saw more than just the abandoned Charity Hospital and Harper manhole covers. In fact, I toured for the first time a few properties on the famed River Road, once lined with grand plantation houses all… Read More ›

• They Fought the Feds and the Feds Won

  By ELMalvaney on April 26, 2011 • ( 3 )

  

  A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit in on a lunchtime roundtable discussion at the Society of Architectural Historians meeting hosted by the Louisiana chapter of the Modernist preservation group DOCOMOMO (a slightly difficult but fun-to-say… Read More ›

• 2011 CLG Grants Announced

  By ELMalvaney on April 25, 2011 • ( 6 )

  I had a quiet Easter and enjoyed getting outside in the beautiful late Spring weather. Take advantage of it while it lasts, because it won’t last much longer. Over the weekend, I checked in on the MDAH website and found… Read More ›

• Easter 2011

  By ELMalvaney on April 22, 2011 • ( 1 )

  

• Stepping on Jackson, Mississippi in NOLA

  By ELMalvaney on April 21, 2011 • ( 19 )

  

  Last week, while y’all were having fun trying to win the Name This Place contest, I was down in New Orleans slaving away. Well, I have to be honest, I was spending my free time and even some of my… Read More ›

• Lawrence County’s River Road Listed

  By ELMalvaney on April 20, 2011 • ( 1 )

  

  As some of you may recall, last June we ran a post about the efforts of a group in Lawrence County to get their historic river road designated as a Mississippi Landmark. (Actually, as it turns out, the group was… Read More ›

• Central Poll Results

  By ELMalvaney on April 10, 2011 • ( 2 )

  

  I’m taking the liberty of posting on Sunday because this coming week, beginning tomorrow, we have a whole new round of our popular but lately neglected Name This Place contest. This time we’re offering a whole new twist, and I… Read More ›

• A Mystery: Which building(s) were “The Fairgrounds Motel”?

  By ELMalvaney on April 8, 2011 • ( 6 )

  

  After yesterday’s post about the Agriculture and Industry buildings on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds, a new MissPreser Catherine sent me a couple of links she found on the internet that bring the confusion over which buildings were the ones used… Read More ›

• Balancing Industry with Agriculture

  By ELMalvaney on April 7, 2011 • ( 3 )

  

  I was wandering around the Mississippi State Fairgrounds on a beautiful Sunday afternoon recently and saw that one of the twin buildings standing at the Jefferson Street front of the fairgrounds is named “Agriculture” and the other one is named… Read More ›

• Mississippi Architect, Nov. 1963: LaRue Residence, Jackson

  By ELMalvaney on April 6, 2011 • ( 27 )

  

  Today’s post from the November 1963 issue of the Mississippi Architect introduces us to a house I’ve never seen and don’t even know where it is to look for it. The information presented locates it on a “private lake north… Read More ›

• Mississippi Architect, Nov. 1963: We Build With Confidence (and Cool New Materials)

  By ELMalvaney on April 5, 2011 • ( 1 )

  

  In his editorial for the November 1963 issue of Mississippi Architect, Bob Henry sets forth a little history of the architectural profession in Mississippi, not only showing the increasing professionalization of the state’s architects but the large numerical growth after… Read More ›

• 101 MissPlaces–Halfway through the Central Poll

  By ELMalvaney on April 1, 2011 • ( 1 )

  

  One week into the two week poll for the central part of the state (from Canton to Carrollton and points in between), it’s time to check in on what’s happening. After an initial spurt on Friday and Saturday, things have… Read More ›

• Architectural Twins–Jackson Bungalows

  By ELMalvaney on March 31, 2011 • ( 8 )

  

  Well, when I wrote my first post on architectural twins, I certainly didn’t expect it to become an on-going series, but I think this might be the fourth post on that theme, which means it was meant to be a… Read More ›

• Newspaper Clippings: Leflore County Courthouse (1904-05)

  By ELMalvaney on March 30, 2011 • ( 4 )

  

  I spent a little time at the state archives this weekend scrolling through the microfilm newspapers. It was packed Saturday morning, and competition was fierce for the two remaining microfilm copiers in service. One thing I’ve learned in my years… Read More ›

• Historic Places, Models, and Maps

  By ELMalvaney on March 29, 2011 • ( 3 )

  

  Sometimes I get stuck in a rut on the internet, visiting only the few sites that are part of my routine. Then out of the blue, I find out that people have been working like busy bees on this other… Read More ›

• Polling in the Center

  By ELMalvaney on March 25, 2011 • ( 2 )

  

  We’ve polled in three of the four corners of the state (Natchez, Coast, Northeast), so I figure it’s time to move back to the center. Today, we’ll open the poll for what I think of as the Yazoo Bluffs region–Carrollton,… Read More ›

• Even More Spring Preservation Events Galore!

  By ELMalvaney on March 24, 2011 • ( 2 )

  In case you haven’t been keeping track of the Mississippi Heritage Trust’s home page, they’ve announced that this year’s unveiling of the 10 Most Endangered Places List will take place at a gala event on Thursday, April 28. This list… Read More ›

• Round the Blogosphere 3-22-2011

  By ELMalvaney on March 22, 2011 • ( 0 )

  Hard as it is to believe, it’s been 5 weeks since our last look around at what’s going on in the blogosphere, so let’s get to it, shall we? Over on the online journal Places (which I wasn’t familiar with,… Read More ›