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 ›
Architectural Research
Pigeons to Pearls…The King Edward Flies Again
Thursday, the 17th of December, 2009, was an important day for downtown Jackson. Developer David Watkins snipped a scarlet ribbon and the King Edward was back in business after forty-three years of solitude. Arduous as the task was, Watkins and… Read More ›
Before and After: Mississippi River Basin Model
There’s a new blog on the block, and I think a good number of you might want to add it to your blog reader. Created by “Kodachromeguy” and based in Vicksburg (I think this is the third photo/history blog from… Read More ›
Goodbye Old Capitol
Since the very first post on Preservation in Mississippi last year was about the opening of the New Old Capitol, I decided it would be fun to just have the first post of every year be about the Old Capitol,… Read More ›
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Barnes and Link report in
Well, here we are at the end of this four-part series looking back to when the New Capitol was taking shape there on its double block on the north side of town. Today, the two reports mentioned in yesterday’s post,… Read More ›
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Git-R-Done
Here’s the third part of the always-exciting “Report of the State House Commission to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1902.” If you’re coming in late, pick up Part 1, in which the commission hires an architect, and Part 2, where the… Read More ›
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Hiring the contractor
Continuing our reading in the “Report of the State House Commission to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1902” . . . In yesterday’s post, we saw the formation of the State House Commission and their almost superhuman speed in hiring an… Read More ›
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Hiring an architect
Back in December, I mentioned in “More Architect/Builder Pics: Link and Barnes” that I wanted to post more about the New Capitol and how it came to be. That will be our project for this week. Tucked at the back… Read More ›
An Architectural Primer for Mississippi
Two articles have gone up on the Mississippi History Now site that will help give a good basic view of architecture in the Magnolia State. For those unfamiliar with it, History Now is the online publication of the Mississippi Historical… Read More ›
Add these to your long-weekend schedule
First, a good article in the New York Times about the interest in restoring Rosenwald schools, “Black Schools Restored as Landmarks.” As usual, it concentrates on Rosenwald schools in Eastern seaboard states and ignores Mississippi, which had the second-highest number… Read More ›
Architectural Twins
I’ve been out and about the Magnolia State braving wind, snow, sleet, and broken water mains to scout out cool old buildings and bring you, my loyal MissPres readers, a report of what’s out there. As you remember, I drove… Read More ›
Before and After: Mississippi Coliseum
I know you’re all pondering yesterday’s ponderous post, so today I thought I’d go easy on you with just a couple of pictures. Besides that, my snug little historic house in Fondren is currently suffering a drought of sorts, due… Read More ›
Does this mean you hate it, Miss Ada Louise?
I took the opportunity over the holidays to get back into my reading schedule and finish books that I had started during the dog days of summer. One of those was Ada Louise Huxtable’s recent compilation of her decades of… Read More ›
Stumped?
As of today, I’m unilaterally and without UN sanction declaring myself the winner of the Jackson Details mini-contest, which has been out on the World Wide Web for over two weeks now. Out of the five detail photos from downtown… Read More ›
Meridian in the Beginning
One of my favorite things is looking through old city directories–aren’t they cool? Ok, maybe not cool in the traditional sense, but interesting. One that contains all sorts of valuable information is the 1888 directory for Meridian, the first one… Read More ›
National Register 2009 (Part 2)
The second of a two-part retrospective on the National Register of Historic Places listings for Mississippi this year. As with the first part from yesterday, all of the below including photos has been provided by our kind-hearted preservationist friends at the… Read More ›
Overstreet’s Plan for the Capitol Complex
I thought this post would be especially interesting when read in light of the three-part article last week, which, if you missed, you can pick up at Part 1 here. While looking through the N.W. Overstreet subject file at MDAH a while… 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 ›
From the Archives: 1940 Overstreet Interview
This week’s series will introduce you to an interview with our own N.W. Overstreet back in 1940. The interview was hosted by the Portland Cement Association at its Spring meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York and was published in the PCA’s magazine Architectural Concrete. This particular interview gives us insight not only into the technical aspects of Overstreet’s 1930s concrete buildings, but also (since we’ll never have the chance to interview him ourselves) shows us a little bit of his background, personality, and spirit.
Bailey Jr. High and the Mystery of Life
I recently noticed that Google has now archived the images from the Life magazine photo collection and also made all of the magazines in their full cover-to-cover glory available through a normal Google search. This has given me the opportunity… Read More ›
Even more archt/builders pics: Brune, et al.
I’m still working on getting pictures of the MDAH CHPG projects, so in the meantime, I thought I would add another picture or two to our collection of architect and builder photos. These come from a source that Carunzel brought to my… Read More ›
More Architect/Builder Pics: Link and Barnes
I’m always on the hunt for pictures of the architects and builders who designed and built all these lovely buildings in our Magnolia State. Recently I came across not one but two in the same source, the Mississippi State House Commission… Read More ›
The Edgewater Gulf Hotel, Queen of the Coast
If one hotel alone were to capture the spirit and grandeur of the faded elegance of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Edgewater Gulf would likely be the candidate for the honor. On February 26, 1926, ground was broken for the… Read More ›
What Jackson’s Trustmark Bldg Might Have Looked Like
I love alternate history, where an author changes a small event in history and takes what follows to a different conclusion than what actually happened. Preliminary renderings of buildings are a real-live version of alternate history, and it’s fun, in… Read More ›
Pics of Goff’s Gryder House in Ocean Springs
Last week when looking around for a picture of the Gryder House in Ocean Springs to put in “Notes on SESAH Keynote” I realized I didn’t have any myself, and I just didn’t feel that those on the internet showed… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 11-6-2009
Well, there’s a thick stack of papers piled up waiting for me to get around to a news roundup post after two weeks of skipping it. So without further ado, here goes: To me, the most exciting article of the last… Read More ›
Who are these people and why are they staring at me??
Last week when SESAH was meeting in the War Memorial auditorium, a lady asked me if I knew who the faces were that formed the capitals of the four columns in front. I had to admit that in fact I… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 