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: Forrest Hotel, Hattiesburg
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
-
Vacation Postcards: Holiday Inn Southwest, Jackson
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
-
Vacation Postcards: Gautier Tiki Restaurant
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
-
Vacation Postcards: Holmes County State Park
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
-
Hand Pointing to Heaven Now Pointing Toward Virginia
Yesterday morning, bright and early, the famous Hand Pointing to Heaven high atop the steeple of Port Gibson’s First Presbyterian Church came down to the ground and is now on its way to Virginia where it will be repaired and… Read More ›
-
Beauvoir damaged in TS Cindy tornado
Beauvoir in Biloxi is reporting significant damage to the 52-acre grounds from a tornado spawned as Tropical Storm Cindy’s rain bands came ashore Wednesday morning, according to an article on newsms.fm. Thankfully, the house itself, built in the 1850s, and… Read More ›
-
Roadside Mississippi: Jackson’s Free Tourist Camp
It may seem impossible to believe today, but in the early days of automobile tourist travel, Jackon’s leaders (or some unnamed civic group, perhaps an automobile club) decided it would be a great idea to build a rustic cabin on… Read More ›
-
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Modern Banking in Downtown Jackson
I found this to-die-for postcard showing Jackson’s Trustmark Bank (formerly First National Bank) building a few weeks ago and was surprised to win it on eBay. Opened in 1956, the building was designed by two Jackson architectural firms, James T. Canizaro and Overstreet, Ware & Ware… Read More ›
-
Mississippi’s Very Own Sanborn Man: Owen T. Palmer
As I was searching through the various digital newspaper collections for references to the Sanborn Map Company for yesterday’s post “Who Were Those Sanborn Men?“, I ran across a 1945 article in the Daily Herald about the presentation of a certificate… Read More ›
-
Who Were Those Sanborn Men?
In case you didn’t catch it, Thomas Rosell noted at the end of yesterday’s news roundup that the Library of Congress is gradually publishing its digitized collection of the full-color Sanborn Insurance Maps. Currently, Mississippi only has three sets: Pascagoula for… Read More ›
-
Memorial Day 2017
“The floor plan calls for an open court at the entrance to be designated the court of honor. Dignified columns will be used to lend a cathedral effect. The structure will be situated well back from North State street, allowing a long sweep of lawn, which will be formed into a parkway.”
-
Port Gibson’s Wintergreen Cemetery damaged
Port Gibson’s Wintergreen Cemetery, an oasis of cedar trees dripping with Spanish moss amongst evocative grave markers and beautiful iron fences, suffered damge in the strong storms that passed through the state on Sunday, according to a post on the… Read More ›
-
Mississippi Builders: Bilbo McHuley
Last week’s post on African American designer/architect W.A. Lattimore mentioned that he worked with builder Bilbo McHuley, and that reminded me that I’ve been sitting on this ad for a “McHuley home,” published in the February 22, 1964 edition of… Read More ›
-
Join MHT in Cleveland for Listen Up!
From our friends at the Mississippi Heritage Trust, an invitation to join with other Mississippi preservationists and “building huggers of all stripes” in Cleveland, Miss. June 8-9. In addition to hearing speakers and eating good food, you will tour the… Read More ›
-
HABS in Mississippi: Marschalk Printing Office, Natchez
Interestingly, given our discussion about photographers on last week’s HABS post, this week’s subject, the Marschalk Printing Office in downtown Natchez, was photographed on different occasions by two different HABS photographers, the first our familiar friend James Butters, and the… Read More ›
-
HABS in Mississippi: Messinger House, near Edwards
Like our last two HABS sites, the Col. Moore House in Winona and the old Grist Mill near Macon, this week’s Messinger (or Messenger) House starts out as a bit of a mystery but gets a little clearer as we… Read More ›
-
Mississippi by Air: Jackson during the Easter Flood, 1979
If you’ve been paying attention to the weather in the last two weeks, and who could avoid paying attention, you know we’ve gotten a lot of rain (approximately 13 inches at my house in the last 13 days), and it’s… Read More ›
-
What are Mississippi’s earliest arts sites?
Today’s guest post by Dr. Suzannah A. Patterson is a request for your expert assistance in identifying important Mississippi sites in the area of arts and entertainment. If you know of sites she doesn’t mention below, drop a line in… Read More ›
-
Reports of Mississippi Tornado Damage
It’s still a little early to tell, but it looks like at least a few of our historic places around Mississippi, especially on a northeast line from about Flora through Durant, took a hit from yesterday’s nasty weather. Here are… Read More ›
-
Mississippi Streets: Greenville 1913
-
HABS in Mississippi: Col. Moore House, Winona
When I first started this post, I didn’t know where in Winona the Col. Moore House was, or even who Col. Moore was, and unfortunately, the sparse record in the MDAH Historic Resources Database informed me that it was no… Read More ›
-
Mississippi Streets: Capitol Street Viaduct, Jackson
Although the railroad bed was not raised over Capitol Street and other east-west downtown streets until 1926, when the new Union Station was under construction, this little “what if” rendering in 1917 shows that city officials and probably many residents… Read More ›
-
Industrial Mississippi: Corinth Machinery Company
Although the 1951 Manufacturer’s Record doesn’t have any text discussing the Corinth Machinery Company, the magazine does have this great aerial view of the 3-story 1869 building front and center, along with the subsidiary structures in this industrial complex that stood… Read More ›
-
Roadside Mississippi: El Patio Motor Court, Laurel
Laurel’s El Patio Motor Court (1946) welcomed the increasing number of automobile tourists after World War II. The motor court’s Mission style evoked the Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts, the nation’s first motel chain, and unlike Mississippi’s two Alamos, the El Patio survives on Roadside Mississippi.
-
Good Friday in the Magnolia State
-
Let’s nail the thieves who did this to the Shaifer House
Word has been spreading for the past 10 days on Facebook and beyond about an act of bold thievery, of pure thugery, perpetrated on the National Historic Landmark Shaifer House out in the woods near Port Gibson, but yesterday I… Read More ›
-
Newspaper Clippings: Vicksburg courthouse and its cypress foundation
I came across this article recently in the Vicksburg Daily Commercial Herald, Apr 17, 1888, and knew it had to find the light of day again, there’s just so much interesting information in it. The cast of characters includes… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 