A friend from up in Panola County recently told me about a new book about north Mississippi’s master builder/architect Andrew Johnson. Johnson emigrated from Sweden to Evanston, Illinois in 1865, and came down to Sardis, MS in 1870. Many of… Read More ›
Today’s post is the second of two articles describing Jackson in 1887, written by Mr. Moses Folsom of Des Moines, Iowa (thus his interest in native Iowans) and published by the Jackson State Ledger. Here’s Part 1. Once again, I… Read More ›
Recently, an archivist friend (and to reiterate something I’ve said before, an archivist friend is a jewel of great value, so go get you one!) sent me two articles he came across while scrolling through the newspaper microfilm looking for… Read More ›
The Carnival balls have been thrown and parades have been rolling across the coast for weeks. However you are marking the day I thought it would be fun to share a photograph of Biloxi architect John T. Collins. While not… Read More ›
Our President’s Day special edition roundup covers the state from Natchez to Oxford, from Greenwood to Waveland, cheap standardized homes to expensive standardized homes.
Recently I came across a building product I had never seen before. Several openings were made to a drywall wall and the back of the opposite drywall panel was visible, along with some manufacturers’ stencils that read: U.S. Gypsum Co…. Read More ›
From the Walter Fountain Collection-Local History and Genealogy Department of the Biloxi Public Library. This photo from the January 18, 1995 edition of the Sun Herald had the following explanatory text. Click on the image for more detail. The article refers to the enterprise… Read More ›
MissPres will be celebrating its sixth anniversary during 2015. To acknowledge this achievement we will be looking back at some of our earliest posts while sharing thoughts and any developments that have occurred since the post originally debuted. Today’s post is a… Read More ›
You may recall a 2012 post, “Mississippi Unbuilt: 1897 New Capitol,” about a proposed New Capitol for Mississippi, designed by the Memphis firm Weathers and Weathers, that was never built although it received full-page treatment in January 1897. Perhaps the… Read More ›
With winter’s cold weather upon us it might be fun to think of a warm weather vacation. On the other hand, imagine escaping the August heat of Mississippi and traveling to Atlantic City, New Jersey. That’s what amateur photographers and brothers Robert Livingston… Read More ›
On Wednesday, MissPres set a new record for most views in a day, 2,383, and most of that was on the strength of one post, Tom Barnes’ Lost Mississippi: Jacksonian Highway Hotel/Lefleurs Restaurant, originally published in May 2011. That post… Read More ›
File this nugget from Jackson’s Northside Reporter, Sept. 21, 1961, in the “Nothing New Under the Sun” file and cross-reference in the “Shocked! Shocked!” folder. This editorial was presumably written by Hazel Brannon Smith, who published the Reporter in those days,… Read More ›
A while back, Thomas Rosell introduced us to University Plaza, a group of Modernist medical clinics in Jackson just south of Memorial Stadium. Specifically, Thomas’ post focused on the clinic of Drs. Johnson and Wiener, designed by J.T. Liddle and… Read More ›
I have tried and failed to figure out where the architects’ office featured in the December 1964 issue of Mississippi Architect might be and am beginning to suspect that it fell victim to that “projected interstate highway” mentioned in the article, presumably… Read More ›
Recently I acquired Morris Lapidus: The Architecture of Joy, with no inkling of a Mississippi, but found out that we may have some of this nationally famous architect’s work here in the Magnolia State.
A while back, MissPreser W. White alerted me to a vintage publication called “Creative Ideas in Glass” for sale online. Published quarterly as “an architectural review” by specialty glass manufacturer American Saint Gobain, the brief, color booklet doesn’t have a… Read More ›
In our last post on Gasometers we saw a 1922 list of towns that had manufactured gas service. Of the eight service providers only one provided service to customers outside of the town in which the coal gas was manufactured…. Read More ›
If you haven’t read last week’s post on Gasometers, this post follows up on that discussion of the hulking, black, iron lungs that eased up and down at all hours of the day and night, depending on gas demand (for lighting, heating & cooking) and the manufacturer’s supply. We pondered what towns had gas works and the mysterious gasometers that were required to store the manufactured gas.
Here is another one of those intriguing mysteries that I cannot solve, and I have been trying since August 4th. The building pictured is currently being used as the Administration Building for the Madison County School system, and is located… Read More ›
Father of Modern Architecture and part time Mississippian Louis Sullivan would have celebrated his 158th birthday this week. To honor his birth here is an excerpt from his autobiography which is entitled Autobiography of an Idea. In this excerpt Sullivan discusses… Read More ›
The previous Mid-Century Medical post was about the little building that Is. It is not a big bold building with a prominent location. It is not a building that will likely ever have a plaque in front that reads “On… Read More ›
Just down the street from Edd’s in Pascagoula is Kevin’s Korner. I love angled windows, and I love Kevin’s shakes, burgers, and fries!
Usually this drive-in on the north side of Hwy 24/48 in Liberty (I don’t know it’s name) is covered up with cars and people when I pass through, but one time last summer, I happened to come through early in… Read More ›
Now that summer is here, it’s time to get out and enjoy a chocolate shake, hamburger, and fries at your favorite mid-century drive in, and to help you get in the mood, Friday fun posts for a while will showcase some drive-ins I’ve discovered on my travels around the state.
Several weeks ago I posted the Mississippi State yearbook photo of N.W. Overstreet. It provided a bookend to the 1970 image of Architects Naef, Gates, Matthes, and Overstreet as old men. Finding that Overstreet photo prompted me to search for… Read More ›
Not only over “street”, but over two big feet he towers over everybody else. He hails from Eastabutchie, wherever that is. His entanglement with the clouds is his ever-ready excuse for being late. Hobby, using up any-body’s blueprint paper he happens to come across. Chief occupation, drawing.
This photo was probably taken around 1950, as many of the buildings shown were built in 1948. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Mississippi_Community_College
Preservation in Mississippi 