Of all the jarring and tragic images which poured forth in a torrent in the aftermath of Katrina, among the most poignant were those of the ruins of the Tivoli Hotel. The gaping holes in the building immediately told a… Read More ›
Hurricane Katrina
MHT’s “Good Neighbor” Program
While MissPres was on vacation last week, I had more time to cruise around the vast wide world of the internet (always living out there on the edge). A post called “Donation of Historic Paint Colors Makes for a ‘Good Neighbor’… Read More ›
Katrina Survivors: Regular People Saving Their History
We’ve spent the last two weeks looking at lost landmarks and restored landmarks on the Coast after Katrina, but I wanted to end this series by recognizing that the vast majority of preservation work on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast since 2005… Read More ›
Katrina Survivors: Charnley House(s), Ocean Springs
Those of us who had the opportunity to see the Charnley house and its small guest house next door with the Southeastern Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) tour in 2003 were fortunate to walk through this amazing “beach house” and… 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 ›
Katrina Survivors: Beauvoir
After last week’s long trail of lost landmarks, I thought we should brighten up the mood a little with a few survivor stories that show that all was not lost. There are still historic places on the Coast (and inland)… Read More ›
Lost to Katrina: Tullis-Toledano Manor (1856-2005)
from National Register nomination, August 1976: As one of the most substantial and elaborate of the vacation homes constructed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during the early peak period of the area’s popularity in the 1850s, the Pradat/Toledano/Philbrick/Tullis House is… Read More ›
Lost to Katrina: Farnsworth Summer House, Pascagoula (1898-2005)
from the National Register of Historic Places nomination, 1991: Originally from Kentucky, [R.A.] Farnsworth acquired the Hunter-Behn Lumber Company and renamed it Farnsworth Lumber Company. . . .901 Beach was built as a summer home or beach house, as the… Read More ›
Lost to Katrina: Louis Sullivan House (1890-2005)
From The Architectural Record, June 1905, “The Home of an Artist-Architect–The Place of Louis Sullivan“: Down in the sunny South, between New Orleans and Mobile, where the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Mexico makes one of its beautiful indentations,… 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 ›
Lost to Katrina: Pass Christian Town Library (c.1853-2005)
From “Project Description, Pass Christian Town Library & School,” by the Pass Christian Historical Society, 2003: ‘Mrs. Roosevelt was so much impressed with your library she made me go around to see it myself. You are doing just the kind… Read More ›
Lost to Katrina: Elmwood Manor, Bay St. Louis (1812-2005)
From the National Register summary (1986) One of the earliest, extant buildings in Bay St. Louis, Elmwood Manor is a significant example of the French Colonial style of architecture in the community. No other buildings remaining from the early 19th… Read More ›
Roll Call of Landmarks Lost to Katrina
This coming Saturday will be the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destructive rage across Mississippi’s Coast. In the spirit of the newspaper clipping re-printed here for the Camille anniversary, I’ll begin this week of remembrance with a listing of Mississippi’s… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-7-2009
Well, get out your event calendars, Ladies and Gentlemen, because we’ve got a lot of ’em coming up announced in the last week or two: August 25, 2009 will find you sitting impatiently in front of the television, with your antenna… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-31-2009
Can you believe it’s almost August? After our horrible hot dry June, July has flown by with beautiful rain, coolish nights, and not-very-hot days. This is my kind of summer! This week has been very eventful, and in a good… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 6-19-2009
Starting today, Friday’s post will be a roundup of news items from around the state (and maybe a few tidbits from *gasp* outside the state) for your end-of-week edification, assuming we have enough news coverage each week. If you come… Read More ›
Happy (?) Hurricane Season
This isn’t really a preservation-related post, I guess, but it is Mississippi-related, so I at least cover half my blog title. Today, June 1, is an important day in the Mississippi calendar: it’s the beginning of hurricane season. Growing up on the Gulf… Read More ›
Yay, National Trust!
Sometimes the National Trust seems too wine-and-cheese for my tastes, but last week, the Trust got down and dirty when it brought a lawsuit against FEMA and the Veterans Administration for their trampling of preservation laws in New Orleans. All… Read More ›
Someone Please Give Me the Money to Buy This Place
The Hermitage, Pearl River County’s most historic site, is for sale. I don’t know the exact asking price, except that it’s beyond me (only because my portfolio has taken such a hit, I mean, Bernie Madoff and all those other crooks made… Read More ›
Katrina Recovery, A Second Disaster for Historic Places?
One of my many readers pointed me toward a really good article at Planetizen by Roberta Brandes Gratz of the Project for Public Spaces. The article, called “Citizen Recovery Efforts Hit Government Barriers in New Orleans” is about the trials of re-building… Read More ›
A Historic Survivor Rises Again in Waveland
I had occasion to visit Waveland this week and saw that the old Waveland School, a brick building built in 1920, is completing finishing touches before its grand re-opening. As many of us know, Waveland took a straight shot from Katrina,… Read More ›
Not (Completely) Buying the Coast Buyouts
Three-and-a-half years after Hurricane Katrina, the Corps of Engineers has finally come up with a buyout plan for the Mississippi Gulf Coast to reduce property damage from future hurricanes. (See the Sun-Herald report of the last public meeting and a good… Read More ›
Gulfport Library update
A third public meeting about the future of Gulfport Library took place on Thursday (the 12th) and this one seems to have actually produced some encouraging movement on all sides. According to the Sun-Herald article, the many interested parties, including… Read More ›
Gulfport Library Meeting
The second public meeting regarding the future of the Gulfport Library was held yesterday in Gulfport. Apparently the county, which seems to have always been more willing to consider keeping the building than the City of Gulfport has, is asking… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 