This fascinating picture comes from an even larger image, titled “Views on Campus, University of Mississippi,” a photo by John C. Coolvert that is available as an electronic record on the MDAH catalog. I had never noticed this interior view,… Read More ›
Antebellum
HABS in Mississippi: Stanton Hall, Natchez
HABS photographer Lester Jones took a grand total of one photo of Stanton Hall in 1940, and because there are no photographer’s notes, it’s not clear why this grand historic home, now a National Historic Landmark and open daily for… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Oakland Chapel, ASU
Strangely enough for a National Historic Landmark (and one of the 101 Mississippi Places To See Before You Die), we really don’t appear to have great information about the construction of Oakland Chapel at Alcorn State University. Originally built as… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-1-2016
Along with the rain we’ve been getting, I’ve been receiving showers of news roundup articles in my inbox. Thanks to all who have shared the stories from their neck of the woods. In Natchez, the City’s Historic Preservation Commission has… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Frank Warren House, Pascagoula
National Register Nomination (Edgar W. Hull House): “The house is of a French, hall-less plan with three rooms set abreast. It has a two-story, seven-bay front gallery, and a loggia and two cabinets at the back. The bricks of the… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Col. Powers House, Jackson
According to Julie L. Kimbrough’s Images of America: Jackson (p.107), the Powers House was located at 411 Amite Street, right in the heart of downtown. Looking at the 1948 Sanborn map, I was shocked to discover that it was still… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Lawyer’s Row, Natchez
View of this intersection today: HABS Survey number: HABS MS-10 See also: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ms0002/ Mississippi Historic Resources Database: “This was a long, low, hip-roofed, stuccoed brick building containing a row of offices, each opening to the street.”
Help Identify the Mississippi Mystery Houses
The Library of Congress needs our help! That’s right, our defacto national library, the second largest in the world, has some historic images of Mississippi buildings that are unidentified. These images are the work of Frances Benjamin Johnston, whose 60-year career as… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Kingston Methodist Church
From the MDAH Historic Resources Database: A hip-roofed stuccoed building with a projecting distyle portico, the Kingston Methodist Church is a highly significant example of the Greek Revival style. This significance is based on the high degree of architectural finish,… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Hope Farm, Natchez
According to the MDAH Historic Resources Database: “Hope Farm is thought to have been constructed in the late 18th century, making it one of the oldest buildings remaining in the state. It is believed that the house was constructed by… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 5-23-2016
From Ingomar Mound to Prospect Hill Plantation, from parapets falling to gravestones standing up and “Wade” handwritten on a sill, the MissPres news roundup has got it covered.
Industrial Mississippi: Blue Bell, Natchez and Belmont
I had heard of the Blue Bell plant in Natchez, but until seeing this advertisement in the 1946 edition of Manufacturer’s Record, I assumed it was an ice cream company. The World Wide Web also informs me that Blue Bell (of… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: The Manse, Natchez
HABS Survey Number: HABS MS-150 See also: HABS webpage Mississippi Historic Resources Database: “The Presbyterian Manse is one of the most significant Federal-style houses in Mississippi and exhibits the quality of architectural finish that is usually indicative of a full-scale mansion.”
MissPres News Roundup 4-25-2016
From Tupelo to Vicksburg, from Philadelphia to Jackson and down to Natchez, and even over in Arkansas (!) here’s (almost) all the Mississippi preservation news that’s fit to print.
HABS in Mississippi: Springfield, Jefferson County
HABS Survey number: HABS MS-54 See also: HABS website Mississippi Historic Resources Database–see this especially for an extended discussion of the Andrew Jackson/Springfield controversy. For an introduction to the HABS program in Mississippi: Cataloguing HABS in Mississippi, Part 1 Cataloguing… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Rosalie, Natchez
In last week’s series, “Cataloguing HABS in Mississippi,” Virginia Price introduced us to the Historic American Buildings Survey, begun in the 1930s, and explained how the federal program worked in Mississippi. Architect A. Hays Town, later known for his creative… Read More ›
1940 Inaugural Columbus Pilgrimage – Star Homes
This week, in honor of the beginning of this year’s Columbus Spring Pilgrimage, Preservation in Mississippi has been writing about the inaugural Columbus Pilgrimage, held April 14-16, 1940. Monday’s post was a short introduction about the inaugural Pilgrimage, and yesterday’s… Read More ›
1940 Inaugural Columbus Pilgrimage – Tour of Homes
Yesterday, in honor of the beginning of this year’s Columbus Spring Pilgrimage, we had a short introduction to the inaugural Columbus Pilgrimage, held April 14-16, 1940. Today’s post contains information about the twenty-two antebellum homes featured in that inaugural Columbus… Read More ›
1940 Inaugural Columbus Pilgrimage
Today is the start of Columbus’s two-week long Spring Pilgrimage. This makes it the opportune time to look back at the Pilgrimage, in fact, all the way back to the first one, in 1940. The “Program and Historical Facts” book published… Read More ›
Lost Mississippi: Andrew Jackson Donelson House
The Delta is Mississippi’s quintessential plantation landscape, more so than the areas surrounding Natchez, Aberdeen and Columbus, or Holly Springs. However, those places possess an antebellum architectural heritage, derived from the plantation economy, that is second to none. The Delta… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 11-30-2015
How about a quick News Roundup to ease ourselves back into work and life after what I hope was a (take your pick) quiet/relaxing/exciting/adventuresome/food-filled/family-packed Thanksgiving break in which you slept/worked in the yard/cooked/read/ate/watched football/avoided people/shopped on Black Friday/watched football (did… Read More ›
Newspaper Clippings: Death of an Ancient Black Builder
I can’t claim to have come across this little gem on my own. I found a reference to it in John Hebron Moore’s The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest, and just had to track it down. To… Read More ›
Mississippi Unbuilt: A Capitol at Vicksburg
In the banner of the Vicksburg Weekly Whig appear the names of Marmaduke Shannon, Publisher and Proprietor, and James K. Carnes, Editor. I’m not sure which one of them is responsible for this zinger of an editorial, but it deserves an… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 6-15-2015
Well, I have played hookey from the news roundup for so long that my list of articles was starting to really look at me askance, so to catch us all up, how about one of those Cliff Notes versions that… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 4-7-2015
From the Coast to Columbus, from Jackson to the Delta and points in between, preservationists get down and dirty in old barns looking for original windows, fight in the legislature for historic tax credits, and pass on pilgrimage traditions to new preservationists. Read all about it in this week’s News Roundup.
Wilkinson County’s Forest Home Plantation Burns
Friday, March 6, one of Wilkinson County’s plantation homes, Forest Hill, also known as Shamrock, burned to the ground. It was reported on several Facebook groups dedicated to the Natchez region, including the Natchez, MS, History group and Rodney Remembering,… Read More ›
Which Spring Pilgrimage for you?
Whether the weather agrees or not, Spring officially arrives in Mississippi on the day the Natchez Pilgrimage opens, which is this Saturday. Even if you’ve been to one or more of these pilgrimages before, there’s always something new to see,… Read More ›