This unpretentious little piece of real estate on the east side of downtown Natchez occupies a triangular section where M L King (formerly Pine) Street intersects with St. Catherine Street and Jefferson Street. This area has long been known as… Read More ›
Historic Preservation
Tag Tuesday: 1750-1799
Among the many nerdy activities I undertake in order to keep myself off the streets and out of trouble is the organization of my library of digital photographs, now up around 100,000 images, including a bunch of scanned postcards that… Read More ›
MissPres at 10: The Old Capitol’s Red Brick Phase
Preservation in Mississippi is 10 years old today–can you believe it? Traditionally, we take the day of our anniversary to go back to the subject of the original MissPres post, the Old Capitol: not just one of Mississippi’s most historic sites and… Read More ›
Friday Film: Tupelo Mill Village
About Blue Magnolia Films and its bicentennial project . . . https://misspreservation.com/2018/01/19/friday-film-duncan-morgan-brick-layer-of-natchez/ https://thesipmag.com/blue-magnolia-films-community-filmmakers-tell-mississippis-story/ http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2017/11/19/locals-participate-in-statewide-filmmaking-project-for-states-bicentennial/ https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/a-storytelling-revival-in-mississippi More Tupelo?
“Near depot, old stand, good trade”: Victoria Hotel in Magnolia
In 2013 I photographed the former Victoria Hotel in downtown Magnolia, but was able to learn very little about it. A member of the family who owned it in the early 2000s contacted me recently after finding my blog post… Read More ›
National Register Listings, 2018
Last year saw seven new Mississippi places listed on the National Register, ranging from an African American public library to a post-World War II Jewish temple, two architecturally significant houses, and a church in Neshoba County that may or may not be nationally significant.
Mississippi Landmarks 2018
Our second “2018 Highlights” lists the historic properties that were designated as Mississippi Landmarks by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 2018. The Mississippi Landmark designation isn’t the same as National Register listing, and to read about the… Read More ›
Auld Lang Syne: Friends we lost in 2018
I’m a couple of weeks late in my “end-of-year posts” but as Thomas Rosell mentioned in his last post, sometimes life takes over, and in my case, December just got away from me, so here we are, better late than… Read More ›
Top 11 MissPres posts written in 2018
Before we get too far into 2019, or just plain float away from all this rain, let’s take a look back at the most popular posts written during 2018. If you missed any of these posts now would be a… Read More ›
Cully Cobb and John Stennis Salute Their Friend N. W. Overstreet Upon His Retirement
Fifty years ago, at the end of 1968, Noah Webster Overstreet retired from his architectural practice, bringing to a close the most important architectural career of any Mississippi architect. Overstreet received numerous tributes upon his retirement, including letters from Senator… Read More ›
In Memoriam: William Murtagh, First “Keeper of the National Register”
An October 30 obituary in the Washington Post remembers William Murtagh, preservationist, architectural historian, author of Keeping Time: The History and Theory of Preservation in America, and the first person to hold one of the coolest titles in the federal government, Keeper… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Lauderdale Vocational Building
Lauderdale, north of Meridian, saw the construction of a vocational building, and possibly, a community center under the New Deal Administration. MDAH Historic Resources Inventory identifies the Community Center as c. 1935, located on Community House Road. I located one… Read More ›
Is Another Antebellum Columbus House – Beckrome – In Danger Of Being Demolished?
I was reading The Dispatch’s website Thursday regarding a couple of stories also posted on Preservation in Mississippi’s Twitter feed about how the MDAH has not made R. E. Hunt High School, Columbus’s African American high school, a Mississippi Landmark… Read More ›
Pearl River County Schools: Part II
Last week we looked at some of the Pearl River County rural schools, many of which were consolidated schools, and all of which were white schools. This week presents a look at the schools for African American students under the… Read More ›
Pearl River County Rural Schools: Part I
Discovering Mississippi’s rural Agricultural High Schools first happened when I ran across a cornerstone in Oakland, and thought ‘What is an agricultural high school?’, followed by ‘Why is only the cornerstone left’? I would get the answer to the second… Read More ›
Mississippi Builders: Christian (Chris) Thompson
Today’s post is about a builder from the Coast’s early boom period when Gulfport was first established, and Biloxi’s hotel trade was really taking off. Christian Thompson was a younger brother of Builder/Architect O.E. Thompson. The elder Thompson is likely… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Coxburg School
Two of the buildings for the Coxburg Consolidated School were constructed with New Deal Administration funding. Holmes County considered a $20,000 bond issue for the Coxburg Consolidated school district to erect, repair, and equip “school buildings and teachers’ home for… Read More ›
Friday is a Gas: Rejecting Teague & The Icebox
This edition of Friday is a Gas is somewhat unique because from what I can tell this station is a one-off design and not of the usual corporate designs I’ve highlighted in the past. Keeping with yesterday’s Highway 82 theme,… Read More ›
Abandoned Mississippi: I. Y. Johnson House, Aberdeen
Before I get started on the post, I would like to thank Jennifer Baughn, Chief Architectural Historian at the MDAH’s Historic Preservation Division for providing me with the historic sites survey form for the I. Y. Johnson House and for… Read More ›
Art in Architecture: E. A. Payne in Mississippi
Last week W. White presented some less-featured buildings from Aberdeen, which sent me into the newspaper archives, albeit without much success. However, in the Canton Times I ran across this striking architectural rendering marked “Payne, Archt., Carthage, Ills.” Other published designs and plan… Read More ›
Carrollton Pilgrimage, Oct. 5-6, 2018
Carrollton Pilgrimage and Pioneer Day will be October 2-35-6, 2018, with historic homes, local churches, historic Merrill Building, Gee’s Store, and the Masonic Lodge.
A Look at a Few Historic Buildings in Aberdeen
I do not travel around through Mississippi, going from small town to small town, like I used to. I do not have the time, anymore. Really, who does have the time? It seems like all the preservationists I know are… Read More ›
N. W. Overstreet-designed Alcorn County Courthouse Centennial on October 4
On October 4, the City of Corinth and Alcorn County will hold a centennial celebration for the historic Alcorn County Courthouse, a landmark designed by the dean of all Mississippi architects, Noah Webster Overstreet. That makes this an opportune time… Read More ›
HABS in Mississippi: Stealing an Alabama HABS Structure – “Jacinto” Doctor’s Office
A bit of a clickbait title if I am honest, but Mississippi does have one of Alabama’s HABS structures. Located on the Old Tishomingo County Courthouse Square in Jacinto is a diminutive but vividly painted and striking building. Yet almost… Read More ›
E. K. Myrick, “the popular garage man” in Greenwood: Ford Dealership in retrospect
Mr. E. K. Myrick, the popular garage man, whose place is on Main street, next to the corner of River Front, has purchased the River Front Stable building and the lot upon which it stands and the lot to the… Read More ›
More Art Moderne in Greenwood
Following up on last week’s Greenwood Art Moderne Greyhound bus terminal, this week features a remodeled-to-Art Moderne corner service station. It is part of the Central Commercial and Railroad Historic District and Mary Warren Miller (1985) described the building: Dr…. Read More ›
Lucky 13: Hurricane Katrina’s Anniversary
It’s hard to believe it has been 13 years. Trying to think of something that is Hurricane Katrina related we’ve not yet shared, I came across this presentation by Mississippi Heritage Trust’s past Executive Director, David Preziosi. It is an… Read More ›