Who remembers the fast food chain Burger Chef? A few years ago, I passed through Laurel and saw a relatively intact Drive-In that was being used as a coin laundry it had a distinct look, one that I couldn’t place… Read More ›
Laurel
New Deal in Mississippi: Laurel Sweet Potato Starch Factory
One of the more intriguing finds lately for the Living New Deal project in Mississippi was the discovery of the Sweet Potato Starch Factory in Laurel. The Wausau Southern Lumber Company’s former sawmill, located at the end of South 4th… Read More ›
Mid-Century Mississippi: Subsistence Homesteads
After the post a couple of weeks ago about the National Park Service’s proposal to demolish half of the Tupelo Homesteads Historic District, I thought we needed more context about the homesteads, which were a 1930s program that attempted to… Read More ›
MDAH announces CLG grants for 2019
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has awarded grants totaling more than $78,000 to nine preservation projects in Certified Local Government (CLG) communities across the state.
Head Out on the Highway: U.S. 84
Today’s post is the twelfth in our reprint of the 1941 publication Mississippi Tourist Guide, which focused on the many attractions along Mississippi’s newly paved highways. (Check out the Intro if you missed it.) Beginning at Waynesboro in the eastern part of the… Read More ›
Head Out on the Highway: Miss. 15
Today’s post is the tenth in our reprint of the 1941 publication Mississippi Tourist Guide, which focused on the many attractions along Mississippi’s newly paved highways. (Check out the Intro if you missed it.) Dropping down straight through the predominantly rural sections… Read More ›
Head out on the Highway: U.S. 11
Today’s post is the eighth in our reprint of the 1941 publication Mississippi Tourist Guide, which focused on the many attractions along Mississippi’s newly paved highways. (Check out the Intro if you missed it.) Note: In the booklet, the paragraphs about Jones… Read More ›
Mid 20th-Century Eclectic Historicism in Laurel
We’ve had several posts on what later mid-century modern buildings (defined here on MissPres by W. White as c.1965-c.1978) were considered in their time as the best Mississippi had to offer. Let’s not forget that there were plenty of buildings… Read More ›
Happy Easter AD 2018
From the historic marker: DR. KING VISITS LAUREL On March 19, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke here at St. Paul Methodist Church to rally support for the Poor People’s March on Washington against economic injustice. King told the… Read More ›
National Register Listings, 2017 (Part II)
Yesterday, we covered the first half of the year’s National Register listings, and today we’ll finish out the list with a big batch that was listed in September 2017. It’s an eclectic group, including but not limited to a small… Read More ›
Mid-Week Mid-Century: Mississippi’s Outstanding Post-War Schools
It’s totally normal (I’m sure you would agree) to collect books like American School and University, and as I was flipping through the 1950-51 (22nd annual) edition, I came across a chapter called “America’s Outstanding School Buildings (built since 1945).”… Read More ›
Industrial Mississippi: Delco Remy Plants, Laurel & Meridian
Today’s post arises from both an interest in the Industrial Mississippi posts, but also the Friday is a Gas Series. I was curious if any motor vehicles had been produced in Mississippi, then I recalled a friend who had worked… Read More ›
Friday Under the Lights: Laurel’s Watkins Stadium
I believe tonight is the last night for regular season High School football across Mississippi and we have yet to feature a historic playing field on MissPres this fall. Tonight (Friday November 3, 2017) Laurel will face off against Natchez,… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
MissPres News Roundup 5-2-2017
Let’s start this week’s roundup with the news on the damaging storms that crossed the state over the weekend. On Monday we reported some on the damage that occurred to historic places in Durant and Flora, but reports of the extent… Read More ›
Chicken Chef: Mississippi’s Own A-Frame
A-frame buildings tend to stand out to me just because they are not too common around Mississippi, or anywhere else for that matter. The term A-frame comes from the shape of the structure, where the roof extends down steeply on… Read More ›
Roadside Mississippi: El Patio Motor Court, Laurel
Laurel’s El Patio Motor Court (1946) welcomed the increasing number of automobile tourists after World War II. The motor court’s Mission style evoked the Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts, the nation’s first motel chain, and unlike Mississippi’s two Alamos, the El Patio survives on Roadside Mississippi.
Showing The Stuff She Is Made Of: Laurel’s 1909 Building Boom
A recent story titled “Downtown Laurel in bloom, thanks to young entrepreneurs“ that ran in the Clarion-Ledger made me think about an article that highlighted a residential building boom that took place in Laurel some one hundred plus years earlier. This boom led to some… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi Historic Real Estate
One of the common complaints about historic preservationists from non-historic preservationists, particularly of the internet troll variety, is that if preservationists want to save something they should buy it or shut up about it. This is an ignorant, internet troll-ish… Read More ›
Mississippi Architects: Rathbone DeBuys (1874-1960)
New Orleans architect Rathbone DeBuys has been mentioned many times over the years here on MissPres, but recently I was surprised to see we have never had a feature post dedicated to his work in Mississippi. This was something I had not discovered until I found… Read More ›
Mid-Century Mississippi: “This building was moved from the airfield”
It is not an uncommon experience when traveling the back roads of Mississippi and talking with people about the buildings they know about to hear, “This building was moved from the airfield after World War II.” This seems most common… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 2-2-2015
Kiss those Kress neon signs good-bye, Meridianites, in a “preservation” project that defies the definition of preservation.
MissPres News Roundup 10-13-2014
In case you haven’t been in yelling distance of the state of Mississippi, the biggest news is that for the first time ever, both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in the Top 5 with undefeated records six games into… Read More ›
Architectural Siblings? Hotels Tupelo and Pinehurst
I recently was perusing the Boston Public Library’s Tichnor Brothers Collection. This collection contains approximately 25,000 office proofs of postcards of the United States published by the Boston firm Tichnor Brothers Inc. These are touristy color postcards dated circa 1930-1945. There are… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 