I don’t know as much about today’s Lost Mississippi subject as I usually try to when posting. But an archivist friend of mine (always make friends with the archivists) sent me a copy of this International-style house in Waveland from… Read More ›
Lost Mississippi
Pleasure Domes Past…Biloxi’s Broadwater Beach
Only the tattered remains of an elaborate marina today mark the site of one of Biloxi’s largest and most famous resort complexes. The Broadwater Beach holds a firm place in the memory of many a resident of the area, but… Read More ›
Lost Mississippi: Concord, Natchez (1789-1901)
Last week’s WPA Guide to the Magnolia State mentioned the Natchez mansion “Concord” very prominently in its discussion of the evolution of architecture in Mississippi. Concord must have been an amazing place because although it burned in 1901, it has… Read More ›
Paved, Not Saved…Biloxi’s Buena Vista Hotel
The Buena Vista threw open its doors on July 4th, 1924 to an admiring crowd of eager spectators. Built on a larger scale than the Tivoli, yet not matching the sweeping grandeur of the Edgewater Gulf, the Buena Vista would… Read More ›
Meridian in the Beginning: Avery House
A while back, I ran a post lauding city directories and especially the 1889 Meridian directory that included a section called “Metropolis of the Southwest” with beautiful line drawings of landmarks in the boom town that was Meridian in the… Read More ›
Salvaging the remains of the Sprague
Last week, Marty Kittrell ran a series of photos on his beautiful photo blog of the remains of the once-great steam towboat Sprague, which plied the Mississippi and ended up as a theater on the banks of the river in Vicksburg after WWII…. Read More ›
The Edgewater Gulf Hotel, Queen of the Coast
If one hotel alone were to capture the spirit and grandeur of the faded elegance of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Edgewater Gulf would likely be the candidate for the honor. On February 26, 1926, ground was broken for the… Read More ›
The Tivoli Hotel in Biloxi….The One That Got Away….
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 ›
Remembering the Heidelberg
Mississippi State University Digital Archive CHARM Collection. Rand Clayton Papers. Photographer unknown. Taken 1963- date of subject is likely earlier. The image has been colorized. B/W original The Hotel Heidelberg was a fixture on Capitol Street for fifty five years. The … 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 ›
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 ›
Lost Mississippi: Institute for the Blind, Jackson
In response to a reader’s request after last week’s School for the Blind post, it seemed only fitting that I follow up that first-ever in the “Abandoned Mississippi” series with a first-ever “Lost Mississippi” post about the institution that preceded… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 