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 ›
Schools
MissPres News Roundup 1-15-2010
As much as it seems hard to believe while watching the human and structural devastation in Haiti, other events that affect our own little postage stamp have been going on this week. —————————————————- In Hattiesburg, the old high school is… 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 ›
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 ›
National Register 2009 (Part 1)
Well, we come to the granddaddy of them all, the National Register of Historic Places. What places have been listed this year and why are they important? Ask and you shall receive, the Bible says, so I came hat in… Read More ›
Mississippi Landmarks 2009
Our impulse to create lists of accomplishments and failures continues today, with a list of the newly designated Mississippi Landmarks in the state. The Mississippi Landmark designation is conferred by the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Dept. of Archives… Read More ›
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
Well, we’ve gotten to that season when we make lists of things that have happened over the past year in preparation for the new year. To start off the week, we’ll take one last look at old friends we have… 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 ›
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 ›
CHPG Project Pictures
Ok, I’ve finally scrounged up photos of all the projects given grants in MDAH’s latest round of the Community Heritage Preservation Grant program. I always find it helpful to put a picture with the dollar amount so that I can… Read More ›
MDAH Announces CHP Grants
Besides our blizzard, the other exciting thing that happened Friday was the Mississippi Department of Archives and History announced the recipients of the latest round of Community Heritage Preservation Grants after a special meeting of the MDAH Board of Trustees…. Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 11-13-2009
Ok, the pressure’s on. Must compete with MHT’s Facebook page. Must compete with MHT’s Facebook page. Must be witty and not grumpy, a beam of sunshine in an otherwise dark and cruel world. And I can do it! Because I’m… 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 ›
Acona Church and School, Holmes County
I saw so much last Saturday when I went up to the Carrollton Pilgrimage, I’m still sorting through all the pictures I took. Whenever I drive up to Carrollton, I like to swing off of I-55 and hit Hwy 17… Read More ›
Bynum School: The Last One-Classroom Rosenwald in MS?
Whenever I go up toward Oxford, I like to check in on the Bynum School off the beaten track in Panola County. I’ve been around to lots of places that used to have Rosenwald schools, and as far as I… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 9-4-2009
The official sponsor of this week’s News Roundup is White Shoes: Wear ’em While You Can. Well, after spending the last two weeks on the Coast, we have to bring ourselves back to reality and acknowledge that the rest of the… Read More ›
Katrina Survivors: Randolph School, Pass Christian
Randolph School (1928), Pass Christian, photo courtesy Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database Across the Coast, the railroad tracks formed a levee that protected the neighborhoods to the north from the massive storm surge of Hurricane Katrina. Waveland and… Read More ›
Lost to Katrina (etc.): East Ward School (1921-2008)
The Mississippi Coast has such a rich 19th-century history that sometimes the 20th century gets short shrift, and maybe the fate of East Ward School, built in 1921 and designed in an eclectic combination of the Prairie and Craftsman styles… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-21-2009
The official song for this week’s News Roundup is . . . “Cocacabana.” Begin humming as we whirl around the state of MS: The Summer 2009 issue of “The Wellspring” (scroll to page 5) gives a nice update on the progress… Read More ›
Abandoned Mississippi: Yazoo County Agricultural High School
In 1912 the Yazoo County Agricultural High School was located at Benton, and it is one of the largest and best of its kind in the state. [A] few years later a Consolidated High School was located here, graveled roads… Read More ›
The International Style: Regularity, not Symmetry
Since I spend a good part of my life writing and reading descriptions of buildings, I naturally love symmetrical buildings. It’s so easy and simple to describe, say a Georgian Revival building, even a big building: center entrance with transom… Read More ›
The International Style: Volume, not Mass
For me, the last concept to click about Hitchcock and Johnson’s definition of the International style was the subject of the very first chapter, “A First Principle: Architecture as Volume.”
Book Quotes: The International Style
It’s been a while since we did a book quote series, and since the three earlier series included a diatribe against Modern planning principles (Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of the Great American Cities), a polemic against Modern architectural design (Tom Wolfe’s… Read More ›
Lost Mississippi: Benton Elementary School
You may remember from Monday’s post “Mississipp’s Outstanding Post-War Schools” that the elementary school at Benton in Yazoo County was included in a list of Mississippi’s best school buildings constructed between 1945 and 1951. I also noted that this particular building was no… Read More ›
To Lexington (Miss.) and Back
Well, I haven’t done a “To . . . and Back” posting of late, mainly because when summer really comes in, I usually don’t get much farther (or is it “further”?) than my front porch–anything else just takes too much… Read More ›
Mississippi’s Outstanding Post-War Schools
It’s totally normal (I’m sure you would agree) to collect books like American School and University, and as I was flipping through the 1950-51 (22nd annual) edition, I came across a chapter called “America’s Outstanding School Buildings (built since 1945).”… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-24-09
Here’s some goings-on that you might find interesting. July 12, 2009: An obituary in the Hays (FL) Daily News for architect and planner Raymond L. Eaton, who died July 7, 2009. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Eaton was a partner… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 