Thursday evening at the restored historic Lowry House in Jackson, the Mississippi Heritage Trust announced its latest list of Mississippi’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places. As always, the announcement was followed by food, fellowship, and a silent auction of artwork… Read More ›
Cool Old Places
New Deal in Mississippi: National Youth Administration
It has been a while since we have featured any New Deal projects, so I thought it time to update on some of the Mississippi examples. One of my favorite programs was the National Youth Administration arm of the WPA. … Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Three Round Banks
When I was in Meridian looking at the old Sears building last week, I discovered for the first time (although I’ve driven past them numerous times) two mid-century banks in the same area. They reminded me of a former bank… Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Homogeneously Eclectic Yazoo City Storefronts
Yazoo City’s downtown may qualify as the most homogenous in the state, by which I mean of the same period and of a piece. As most of you probably know, a great fire took out a couple dozen blocks of… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 10-3-2017
Another week’s worth of mixed good and bad news. Let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. This is getting a little too meta for me. A news story in the Jackson Free Press quoted last week’s news MissPres round-up regarding… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: The Castle, Aberdeen
A castle. In Aberdeen, Mississippi. Have you seen it?
Overstreet & Town Concrete Buildings
I present to you for your weekend perusing pleasure the following book: Architectural Concrete for Small Buildings published in 1937 by the Portland Cement Association. The book is available to view online over on archive.org thanks to the Association for… Read More ›
Historic For Sale: Waverley
Recently, we’ve seen a spate of important landmark buildings up for sale around the state: Mt. Hope, Gillespie-Jackson House, among others. It seems to me that what they have in common is that they were saved or lovingly preserved by… Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: In Praise of Masonry Screens
I’ve pretty much fallen in love with masonry screens since I first started noticing them a few years ago. Most popular in the 1950s through 1970s, these decorative concrete block are a low-cost way to create a wall, provide privacy… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Booth Form Gas Station c.1960s-c.1980
This week’s Friday is a Gas post is not about a specific brand of station, but rather a specific type of station form. This week’s stations represent the antithesis of the full-service station: the booth form gas station Aberdeen, Mississippi… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Phillips 66 Stations c.1950-c.1970s
During the c.1950-1970s, Phillips had two station types: an oblong box, and the batwing or gullwing design. The latter of these was my holy grail of gas stations. I honestly thought I would never find one in Mississippi, let alone… Read More ›
Valentine Diners: Falk’s Waffle Shop
I confess, at first glance, I had no idea what would have prompted John Margolies–as featured in Thomas Rosell’s post in July–to take a photograph of Pud’s Package Liquor on Route 49, Gulfport, even for the sign and the vivid… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-9-2017
Let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. Following up on the partial collapse of McComb’s downtown theater, MSNewsNow has reported that approximately 75% of the collapsed roof of the building was removed by July 31, with the remainder expected to… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-1-2017
Let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. History professor Andrew Kahrl tracks racial discrimination through the tax assessor’s office. This article provides interesting insight concerning race and property ownership and cites several Mississippi examples in Edwards and Waveland. It also touches… Read More ›
Roadside Mississippi: Fountain Grill
We’re taking a break this week from the “Friday is a Gas” series since we had a gas station related post on Wednesday, but today’s post is still about a roadside-tastic building constructed c.1965. I’ll wager a guess this was the… Read More ›
No Longer An Eyesore: Confronting The Gasoline Station
A while back I found a 1925 article in Laurel’s Daily Leader that was interesting for the fact that it was an architectural critique, but I wasn’t quite sure how to share it. Fast forward to the research I’ve been… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-25-2017
Let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. The lead story this week is the partial collapse of McComb’s downtown theater. While it looks bad, hopefully an engineer with an understanding of historic buildings can be brought in to give a… Read More ›
Photographer John Margolies Images Now Available Online
Last year Malvaney’s post about roadside Americana photographer John Margolies ended with the wish that someday his photos, which had been donated to the Library of Congress, would be made available for the public to see. That day has arrived, my… Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Modernism in the Mississippi Delta
One thing that surprised me when I moved to Mississippi and ventured into the Delta–a place that I had understood from various news stories had been forgotten by time–was how much the region had changed over the latter half of… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-18-2017
Let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. Starting with bad news from West Point, the Daily Times Ledger ran a story with the headline titled “Mary Holmes alumni react to demolition.” This demolition alluded to by the headline is that of… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-11-2017
Two weeks since our last round-up and a lot has happened so let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. Starting on the coast in Gulfport, a new developer is taking over former Gulfport VA redevelopment project. Virginia Attorney Robert Lubin… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Humble c.1950-c.1960
I’m excited about this week’s post because I found some period photographs of example stations in their prime, so I can verify the brand along with what features are original. The image above shows a Humble branded station with a… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 6-28-2017
What happened to June? It’s hard to believe it’s almost over but let’s jump right into this week’s roundup. From Meridian two stories this week. The first is regarding preservation grant funds. According to the Meridian Star: The Charles L…. Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Humble, Enco, Esso, and Exxon c.1960-c.1970
I had planned for a post on this station later in the Friday is a Gas series, but due to the tornado damage this building suffered last Friday, I thought it might be good to highlight it in hopes of… Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Modern Banking in Downtown Jackson
I found this to-die-for postcard showing Jackson’s Trustmark Bank (formerly First National Bank) building a few weeks ago and was surprised to win it on eBay. Opened in 1956, the building was designed by two Jackson architectural firms, James T. Canizaro and Overstreet, Ware & Ware… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 6-20-2017
Lots of good news this week so lets jump right into this week’s roundup. Good news from Starkville this week, compared to the news last week that fourteen structures including three historic houses were demolished. Starkville Police to open new offices in restored… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Pan Am/Amoco Stations c.1930-c.1940
Per Malvaney’s request and the plethora of examples received in the comments to last Friday’s post, this week we’ll focus on the Pan Am/ Amoco Stations of the c.1930s-c.1940s. Unfortunately this station type is not listed in the handy-dandy 2016… Read More ›