One cold misty fall-like day recently, only a month or so before the centennial of the end of World War I, I happened to be in Kansas City for the first time and decided to go to the national World… Read More ›
Architectural Research
Friday is a Gas: Rejecting Teague & The Icebox
This edition of Friday is a Gas is somewhat unique because from what I can tell this station is a one-off design and not of the usual corporate designs I’ve highlighted in the past. Keeping with yesterday’s Highway 82 theme,… Read More ›
Head Out on the Highway: U.S. 82
Today’s post is the ninth in our reprint of the 1941 publication Mississippi Tourist Guide, which focused on the many attractions along Mississippi’s newly paved highways. (Check out the Intro if you missed it.) U.S Highway 82 The “Shortest All-Paved,… Read More ›
Art in Architecture: E. A. Payne in Mississippi
Last week W. White presented some less-featured buildings from Aberdeen, which sent me into the newspaper archives, albeit without much success. However, in the Canton Times I ran across this striking architectural rendering marked “Payne, Archt., Carthage, Ills.” Other published designs and plan… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Stealing an Alabama HABS Structure – “Jacinto” Doctor’s Office
A bit of a clickbait title if I am honest, but Mississippi does have one of Alabama’s HABS structures. Located on the Old Tishomingo County Courthouse Square in Jacinto is a diminutive but vividly painted and striking building. Yet almost… Read More ›
Go Greyhound: Art Moderne in Mississippi
The former Greyhound terminal building in Greenwood is the simplest of the Art Moderne stations in Mississippi. Constructed in 1939, the building was designed by Memphis architect George Mahan. S. L. McGinnis was the contractor, and J. D. Lanham, both… Read More ›
Beat The Heat: Patio Roofs
In my searches for the history of beating the heat, I came across something I had not put much thought into the history of; covered patios and carports. Today’s examples come from 1960s ads of the Hattiesburg company Davis &… Read More ›
Suzassippi’s Mississippi: Greenwood iron columns and pilasters
Readers know I have this love & admiration thing with iron columns, pilasters, and other iron architectural elements. I spotted a few new-to-me designs in Greenwood, and wanted to continue the focus on that town’s historic architecture. There are 16… Read More ›
Did N. W. Overstreet ever live in the N. W. Oversteet house?
Several years ago, Malvaney posted some pictures of the beautiful house at 831 Gillespie Street in Jackson. According to the Belhaven Historic District National Register nomination the house was built c.1916 for Overstreet as his personal residence. The National Register nomination… Read More ›
A. Hays Town Architectural Exhibit
A friend sent me this article in the new-to-me Acadiana Advocate newspaper announcing an architectural exhibit focusing on the work of A. Hays Town, specifically his later “Louisiana Style” period after he moved back home from practicing in Jackson, Mississippi… Read More ›
Two Mississippi Hill-Burton Clinics in Architectural Record
Two Mississippi health clinics funded under the Hill-Burton program were published in the October 1951 issue of Architectural Record, a high honor for our state, which is still often overlooked in the architectural world. The two-page spread focused attention on… Read More ›
Happy 130th Birthday, N.W. Overstreet!
Happy Birthday, N.W. Overstreet! Just like Yankee Doodle Dandy, he was born on the 4th of July. Today would be N.W. Overstreet’s 130th birthday, as he was born on July 4th, 1888. Overstreet has left an indelible imprint all across… Read More ›
Mid-Century Mississippi: Jackson’s Bailey Junior High School
This article from the March 14, 1937 issue of the Clarion-Ledger manages an in-depth description of Jackson’s iconic Art Moderne school without ever mentioning its architects, N.W. Overstreet and A.H. Town of Jackson. I also realized for the first time,… Read More ›
Architect Pics: Elaine Carbrey
While searching newspaper archives for architecture awards from between 1965-1978 for our Mississippi’s Best Buildings series, I ran across an award to a student from Columbia, Mississippi who, in 1966, was studying at LSU. Architecture Award — Elaine Virginia Carbrey, daughter… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Gwin House, Lexington
The Gwin House in Lexington is no longer standing and is somewhat of a mystery to me. The MDAH Historic Resources Database doesn’t have much to say about the two-story I-house with its one-story pedimented portico, but it does give… Read More ›
“Southern Architecture Today” in 1965
Cruising around the 1965 Clarion-Ledger, I came across this article that I thought was too good not to share, not only because of the information in the text about the state of Mississippi (and Louisiana and Arkansas) architecture in 1965, but… Read More ›
Hill-Burton Before and After: Kemper County Hospital
This week’s Hill-Burton hospital, located over in the tiny county seat of DeKalb, had this eye-catching rendering in New Hospitals and Health Departments for Mississippi, which was published by the Mississippi Commission on Hospital Care around 1950. As you may remember,… Read More ›
Columbus Marble Works and its architectural culls
It’s an interesting coincidence that this post about the Columbus Marble Works is running the week of Memorial Day, not only because Columbus is a contender as having held the first Decoration Day in 1866, a holiday that later became… Read More ›
Tournalayer House in Vicksburg
A friend sent me this clipping from the Emporia Kansas Gazette, which shows a house made by the Tournalayer machine that was manufactured by LeTourneau. GIANT MACHINE POURS HOUSES LIKE THIS — Strolling up the walk for an inspection visit, a GI… Read More ›
In military lingo, MRBM = NHCEL
Congratulations to the intrepid Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model in Jackson, who received the designation of National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark from the American Society of Civil Engineers at a ceremony earlier this week!
Mississippi’s Best Buildings of 1975
This post is a follow up to a series begun a few weeks back that stimulated quite a bit of conversation about the appreciation of buildings from the late 1960s and early 1970s that are now reaching the golden fifty-year mark… Read More ›
Beat The Heat: Pan and Cover Metal Awnings
While these awnings might have reached their popularity in the 1950s, the originally filed patent date is 1935, indicating that the awnings were commercially available during the 1930s. Seeing this date has changed my perspective as to when these awnings might have… Read More ›
Jackson’s Zoo When It Was New
It’s weird how often my travels through old newspapers will lead me unexpectedly to an article that sheds light on a topic currently in the news. That very coincidence happened recently when the news broke that the organization that runs… Read More ›
Builders of Mississippi: Jordan Construction Co.
Recently, I saw these images of the construction of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson Chancery Building in the Mississippi Digital Library’s Bishop R. O. Gerow Collection. While the building’s contractor is not documented in the MDAH HRI, I believe, based… Read More ›
Mississippi’s Best Buildings of 1972
This post is a follow up to a post from a few weeks back that stimulated quite a bit of conversation about appreciation of architecture from the late 1960s and early 1970s that are now reaching the golden fifty-year mark that buildings can be considered for listing on the National Register. The buildings in today’s post are less than five years from reaching their fiftieth birthday.
HABS in Mississippi: Temple Heights, Columbus
Since Columbus has been the subject of several posts lately, I thought maybe we needed to bring up a few of the town’s most historic properties that the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) documented back in the 1930s. Maybe these… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 3-20-2018
Just because we were on vacation last week didn’t stop the preservation news from coming. We’ve got a lot to catch up on. Remember you can catch the preservation news as it breaks in our Twitter sidebar to the right…. Read More ›