I can’t believe it’s the end of February! I keep thinking Spring should be in the air, but so far, other than the birds that have come back to make their nest under my window awning, I can’t see the… Read More ›
African American History
Grants for Rosenwald Schools
The National Trust has announced a fifth round of grants for Rosenwald schools, courtesy of a partnership with the Lowe’s Foundation. According to the NT website: For the fifth consecutive year, Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation has partnered with the… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 2-12-2010
Can we hope for a snowy Friday? Or better yet, a snowed-in Friday when I can rise from my bed, take a peek out the window to assess the state of the streets, and decide that the wisest course of… Read More ›
Overstreet Interview, Part 2
We’re in the middle of a three-part transcription of a conversation between our own N.W. Overstreet, perhaps Mississippi’s most prominent 20th-century architect, and A.J. Boase, the manager of the Structural Bureau of the Portland Cement Association. The interview took place… Read More ›
Asia Missionary Baptist Church, Lexington
A while back I did a post on some of the excessively cool historic churches in Lexington and I bemoaned my stupidity and laziness in not taking a picture of one of my favorite churches in town, Asia Missionary Baptist… Read More ›
Bynum School: The Last One-Classroom Rosenwald in MS?
Whenever I go up toward Oxford, I like to check in on the Bynum School off the beaten track in Panola County. I’ve been around to lots of places that used to have Rosenwald schools, and as far as I… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-21-2009
The official song for this week’s News Roundup is . . . “Cocacabana.” Begin humming as we whirl around the state of MS: The Summer 2009 issue of “The Wellspring” (scroll to page 5) gives a nice update on the progress… Read More ›
SAH Civil Rights Memorial Study Tour
The Society of Architectural Historians has recently announced an intriguing tour of Civil Rights memorials in Georgia and Alabama, October 8-12, 2009. According to the SAH website, the four-day tour will begin in Atlanta, visiting Auburn Avenue and the Atlanta… Read More ›
The International Style: Regularity, not Symmetry
Since I spend a good part of my life writing and reading descriptions of buildings, I naturally love symmetrical buildings. It’s so easy and simple to describe, say a Georgian Revival building, even a big building: center entrance with transom… Read More ›
Mississippi’s Outstanding Post-War Schools
It’s totally normal (I’m sure you would agree) to collect books like American School and University, and as I was flipping through the 1950-51 (22nd annual) edition, I came across a chapter called “America’s Outstanding School Buildings (built since 1945).”… Read More ›
Partial Collapse at Mississippi Industrial College
Although I haven’t seen anything online about it yet, I’ve heard from a reliable source that Catherine Hall (1906) at Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs suffered a partial collapse during a bad storm last week. Those of you who have… Read More ›
Dealing with Difficult Histories
I don’t know if any of you saw this article in Sunday’s Clarion-Ledger (“When Art Offends,” June 7, 2009) about the awkwardness of the Depression-era mural in Jackson’s Eastland federal courthouse–what to do about the stereotypical and degrading depictions of the black characters… Read More ›
Where History Meets Architecture
And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry… Read More ›
To Clarksdale and Back
I’ve been up to the Delta recently, all the way to Clarksdale. I love going to the Delta–any time of year, it’s always interesting and it seems to have a certain light that makes it all seem more lush. People… Read More ›
Jackson’s Municipal Library
The Northside Sun published an article last week about the old Municipal Library in Jackson. Besides being a pretty cool Modern structure designed by the prominent Jackson firm of N.W. Overstreet & Associates, the building is significant for its Civil Rights… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 