I was in Greenwood recently and while there I decided to go check on a hunch I had about a scene in The Help. I don’t actually have a great visual memory, but for some reason, this scene reminded me… Read More ›
Delta
Shelby Foote on Mount Holly
I recently read through the Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy (1997) and came across this interesting little tidbit from Shelby Foote about Mount Holly south of Greenville, which had been owned by his grandfather after the Civil War:… Read More ›
Mississippi Places We’re Thankful For
Drew Grain Elevator as seen in “Quaker Oats in the Delta“
Suzassippi’s Mississippi: Inside View of Progress on the Taborian Hospital
Ever since my first glimpse of the Taborian Hospital, I have waited for the day I would be able to go inside. Abatement complete and the general clean-up done, and the long-awaited trip inside became reality last month. I am… Read More ›
101 Places: Dockery Farms Plantation
Dockery Farms, number three in the Delta regional poll for the 101 Places in Mississippi to see before you die, was established in 1895 “to produce cotton, America’s biggest export at the time” (DockeryFarms.org). Located on Highway 8 between Cleveland… Read More ›
Suzassippi’s Mississippi: Leland M. E. Church, South
The Leland Methodist Church was constructed 1923-24 in a Mission, Spanish Revival style. The MDAH HRI database references similarity of the design of the Fayette, Alabama Methodist Church in crediting the architect (T. L. Brodie, conjectured) and builder (L. Vance, conjectured)…. Read More ›
Suzassippi’s Mississippi: Heathman Plantation
The Heathman Plantation in Sunflower County was originally known as Dogwood Ridge Plantation. It was purchased in 1871 by J. M. Heathman and renamed. Heathman was married to Lille Brown, the daughter of James Brown who built the house later… Read More ›
Mound Bayou 125th Anniversary Celebration
July 12th marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of the City of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. During the week of July 8-14, 2012, the City of Mound Bayou invites you to share in the celebration of this unique community, established… Read More ›
Taborian Hospital Project Update
Work on the restoration and renovation of Mound Bayou’s Taborian Hospital–slated to become the Taborian Urgent Care Center–is finally making visual progress after several months of planning and development. The plywood is off the doors and some of the windows,… Read More ›
Youth-led Community Development in Mound Bayou
In an update of the historic preservation work going on in Mound Bayou, we focus this week on youth-led community development. The idea is engaging youth in community development, including historic preservation and economic development. Working with the City of… Read More ›
Suzassippi’s Mississippi: Hotel Alcazar, Clarksdale
This is the New Hotel Alcazar, built 1914-15, in the Colonial Revival/Classical Revival style, another loser in the 101 Places contest. The original Alcazar was built in 1895 on an adjoining lot. The New Alcazar was intended to expand the… Read More ›
Suzassippi’s Mississippi: New Roxy Theater
Another nominee for the 101 Mississippi places was the New Roxy theater on Issaquena Street, Clarksdale. Sadly, the New Roxy fared even less well than the Greyhound station, earning a mere 2 votes or .56% of the Delta poll. The… Read More ›
Greyhound Bus Terminal, Clarksdale
The Greyhound Bus Terminal in Clarksdale was nominated from the Delta region for the “101 Places in MIssissippi to see before you die” list. It garnered only 3% of the Delta region vote, thus ensuring its place in the “Not… Read More ›
Delta Poll Results
The results are in for the Delta poll, and they show that I was wrong once again in my expectations. I really thought more Delta folk would turn out to vote for their favorite place, but in the end, we… Read More ›
Halfway through the Delta Poll
With 269 votes, the Delta poll has another week to go. Not unexpectedly, given that the Abandoned Mt. Holly post from 18 months ago is still one of the top hits here on MissPres, Lake Washington’s Mt. Holly is currently… Read More ›
101 Mississippi Places: Delta Poll
After a few weeks’ break from our polling, we’re back on the track and coming into the homestretch to cut our initial list of Mississippi places down to what will be the final 101 Mississippi Places to See Before You… Read More ›
Vacation Postcards: King’s Rest Modern Court, Greenville
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
The Future of Mound Bayou: Saving the Legacy
At the beginning of the week, I outlined the plans for the series about Mound Bayou, which just commemorated the 124th year of its founding. The intent of the posts was to provide a brief history of the origins and… Read More ›
Taborian Hospital and the Delta Health Center: The role of health care in social change and community empowerment
The Mississippi unit of the Sir Knights and Daughters of the Tabor was established in 1889 for the purpose of providing insurance–burial, life, and health care (Hodding Carter, Saturday Evening Post, February 23, 1946). Membership in 1946 had increased to… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 5-15-2011
It’s a shame that with such nice temperatures we have a lot of bad news floating around. Luckily, Malvaney took two of the stories from me the other day with the post about the demolitions in Jackson and Columbus, so… Read More ›
Two feet high and risin’
I had some other posts ready for this week, but yesterday I found myself obsessively checking around on various websites to see where the Mississippi River’s water was, and this brought to mind Johnny Cash’s song about the 1937 Flood,… Read More ›
Mississippi River Flooding Update
Preservation related news around Mississippi was light since our last round-up, which would normally mean Malvaney would catch us all up on the blogosphere. Instead, however, one of our friends at MDAH, Vicki Myers, is giving us at MissPres some… Read More ›
Rolling Fork’s Amazing Red Barn Collapses
Sometime late Friday night or early Saturday, the beautiful, amazing structure on Highway 61 on the south side of Rolling Fork, known affectionately as “The Red Barn,” collapsed. The cause is not known, but the U.S. Corps of Engineers, owners… Read More ›
Newspaper Clippings: Quaker Oats in the Delta
A while back on a trip up into the Delta, I swung through the little town of Drew to check out the Lil’ Red Schoolhouse, and then drove up the street into downtown Drew. Drew, of course, is famous as… Read More ›
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 was a place that time forgot–was how much the region had changed over the latter half… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 