I don’t usually have pictures with people in them because, well, I guess I’m always focused on the buildings, but after mentioning architect R.W. Naef’s picture yesterday, I figured I’d better rustle it up and show what I was talking about…. Read More ›
I know lots of people claim to be eager to see the death of paper news, that old dinosaur, delivered to your door each morning to be read with a good, healthy breakfast. They say that the internet can take the place… Read More ›
June 2, 2009: “Do Lake Plans Endanger Indian Mounds?” the Jackson Free Press asks. This is in regards to the so-called Two Lakes plan to develop the Pearl River in Jackson. I feel no need to wade into this controversial… Read More ›
Since I’ve been wandering around other people’s online archives this week, I want to bring it back home and mention MDAH’s growing digital archive. Those of you who don’t spend each and every day checking the MDAH website for new features… Read More ›
A friend who is a more careful and meticulous researcher than I am (I tend to click around and spend hours getting sidetracked on other interesting topics) pointed me to an internet resource I hadn’t known of before called Internet… Read More ›
I got a notice the other day that the North Carolina Architects and Builders Biographical Dictionary has just gone public online. You should check it out–it’s very intuitive and easy to navigate and you can follow the links wherever they… Read More ›
One of my faithful readers sent along this new electronic newsletter–or e-zine to hipsters like me–put out by MDAH’s Historic Preservation Division. It’s called Preservation Press, and its inaugural issue opens with a statement of purpose: The Historic Preservation Division of… Read More ›
Oh, did I not mention that the winner of last week’s Name This Place contest would win a virtual trip? Whoopsie! Well, it shouldn’t really matter, right? After all, I recently was told by a person with some authority in Mississippi’s preservation world (not because… Read More ›
To play this exciting game, see The Rules. Current Standings: Carunzel: 3 tsj1957: 2 doakley: 1 Everyone Else: 0 (still plenty of time to catch up!) Hint: This place has never appeared in Preservation in Mississippi or on my Flickr… Read More ›
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 ›
No, I’m not talking about the kind of models that walk the runway looking thin and sullen, I’m returning to the subject of cool architectural models. Well, they’re all cool of course, but I had no idea that we had… Read More ›
Fire broke out at Laurel’s Stewart M. Jones Middle School last Friday evening, gutting one of the three wings of the historic building. The school building, one of the finest examples of high-style Georgian Revival in the state, was built in 1927… Read More ›
Those of you who don’t read the obituaries every day might have missed the notice of the death of Robert K. Overstreet last week. Overstreet was the son of our famous Jackson architect N.W. Overstreet and he was also a… Read More ›
How Buildings Learn tries to accomplish alot that I won’t be able to adequately cover here. I’ll try to hit the high points, the ones that made the most impression on me, and leave the rest for you to find when… Read More ›
I read Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn way back in 1997, and it was when I really began to understand and appreciate vernacular architecture. The thesis of the book is that buildings change over time based on the needs of the users–sometimes… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
I’m always interested–and therefore you should be too–in finding what buildings Mississippi architects were doing in other states. Tallulah, Louisiana has two buildings (out of not a huge number) that we Mississippians can be proud of, Bloom’s Arcade (1930-31) by… Read More ›
Check out this very cool architect-designed house in my neighborhood, built in 1953 and now offered for sale. If I didn’t already have a house, I’d be buying it before letting anyone else know about it. http://731gardner.blogspot.com/ I should mention that… Read More ›
In chapter three of From Bauhaus to Our House, “The White Gods,” Tom Wolfe recounts what he sees as the almost instant change in course in American architecture after the German Modernists began arriving in the late 1930s as refugees… Read More ›
I noticed on the Arcadia Publishing webpage that a new Images of America book is coming out later this month focusing on North State Street in Jackson. Its author is Todd Sanders, an architectural historian with the Mississippi Dept. of… Read More ›
Earlier this week, I was coming back to Jackson on Hwy 49 and decided to swing off the highway into Mendenhall. It was such a nice day, albeit a little on the cool side, that I wanted to take some… Read More ›
In Friday morning’s SAH session on Architecture of the Road, Ethel Goodstein-Murphree of the University of Arkansas gave an enlightening paper called “The Common Place of the Common Carrier: The American Truck Stop.” She devoted a whole section to the Red… Read More ›
Tonight’s plenary talk was by respected architectural historian Dell Upton, Chair of the Dept. of Art History at UCLA and author of numerous books and articles, most recently Another City: Urban Life and Urban Spaces in the New American Republic (Yale University… Read More ›
I just came upon this amazing website that’s attempting to build a database of all the movie theaters in the world. Ever! A lofty goal for sure, but it looks like they’re well on their way. They have 133 entries… Read More ›
A 4th event I forgot to mention is a symposium at the Manship House here in Jackson this coming Monday (9th). Here’s a tidbit from the MDAH site: March Symposium Examines Victorian Dining Practices On Monday, March 9, from 9 a.m. to… Read More ›
Kaitlin at Preservation in Pink recently put up a very helpful post giving good internet resources for researching historic bridges. Most of us know about HABS/HAER, but I hadn’t heard of the website called Historic Bridges of the U.S. This site has hundreds… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 