Last month we finished Frank Brooks’ book Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi, our chapter-a-week Thursday feature for most of the late summer and fall. Recently in response to those posts, reader Leroy W. Demery Jr. has been sharing some of… Read More ›
We’ve all heard about the Hand Pointing To Heaven that tops the steeple of Port Gibson’s First Presbyterian Church and most of have probably seen it while driving down Church Street, but the interior of the church is worth looking… Read More ›
Maybe you remember the post “From Charleston to Vicksburg With Love” from a while back about the connection between Vicksburg and Charleston, SC, namely the architect of Vicksburg’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity started his career in Charleston, with… Read More ›
With all of the hype and hoopla over the summertime smash hit the Help, the many references to the old Robert E. Lee Hotel might set people to wondering about the place. Visitors to downtown Jackson might be forgiven for the… Read More ›
Happy New Year MissPres! I was on vacation for the holidays – but preservation in the news kept going (and thanks to Malvaney and Theodore who helped make sure I didn’t miss these stories while I was gone). Unfortunately, the… Read More ›
As in previous years, we’re breaking our National Register of Historic Places listings for 2011 into two separate posts to avoid piling on and to allow you time to read through the summaries and ponder. Some of these listings have… Read More ›
As is traditional in this quiet week after Christmas and before New Years, we look back at the year and recount our wins and losses. We usually start with the “sad list” of buildings who lost their battle against time… Read More ›
The current Biloxi City Hall was built as the U.S. Federal Building in 1905-08. The city acquired the building from the federal government in 1960 after the New Federal Building in Biloxi was completed. In my opinion it is the… Read More ›
Before taking us through the annual “Year in Review” posts, Malvaney asked some of us regular contributors about our favorite posts of the year. One of my favorites was the Friday Malvaney did the “Where Have All The Buzzards Gone?”… Read More ›
Word has come from Belhaven University in Jackson this week about disturbing recent structural shifts in the East Wing of their iconic Fitzhugh Hall. Built in 1911, the building was significantly rebuilt and altered after a 1927 fire. Now the… Read More ›
Y’all know how I love to find a cornerstone on a building–even new buildings. They are gifts that hand down essential knowledge to passersby about when a building came to be and who had a hand in bringing it from… Read More ›
The Yazoo City Light, Water and Sewage Plant built and operated the second oldest municipal street railway in the United States.
Last Saturday I got out of Jackson, avoiding the maddening Christmas shopping traffic, and headed down southwest to Port Gibson. I usually take Highway 18 through Raymond, Utica, and Carpenter and through the steel truss bridge that spans Bayou Pierre…. Read More ›
Vicksburgers were especially proud of their 8-story skyscraper–the tallest building in the state when it was finished in 1907–and these images prove that they wanted to share their urbanity and modernity with the outside world.
This may surprise everyone, but today’s Roundup is the final one for 2011 because of the end of year posts we have planned the next two weeks. A lot of the news I saw this week were local press releases… Read More ›
With a midway total of 602 votes and one more week left in the Jackson poll, the two capitols are duking it out at the top, followed by a peloton of skyscrapers, the War Memorial Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fountainhead”… Read More ›
My mother was from a large Vicksburg family, and for that reason, relatives’ tales of the trolleys were standard and frequent. As a child, my mother rode the streetcar to school and back each day, and my uncle soaped the tracks on the hill passing the Bijou Theater many a summer night!
“Are you interested in Roofing?” Apparently at the turn of the 20th century an unknown Biloxi builder was, as Montross Metal Shingles are featured prominently on several Biloxi structures. While many companies produced a pressed metal shingle the Montross Metal… Read More ›
It was November 19, 2010, when I posted what I thought would be a fun somewhat off-beat Friday post, entitled “Miles to Go Before I Sleep.” Examining a new book I had bought called 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You… Read More ›
Mississippi’s streetcar lines included a small operation in the McComb area. A letter from Mr. C.H. Douglas, mayor of McComb, November 25, 1960, states that streetcars operated between McComb and Godbold’s Wells, located east of Summit.
Sometimes I sit down to write a post thinking I know what I’m talking about and then as I write and check the facts I thought I knew, I realize that I was completely on the wrong track. For instance,… Read More ›
Since I can’t resist the joke – this week’s Roundup is stuffed with tidbits from around the state . . . Now that the joke’s out of my system, let’s get to the actual news. First, wonderful news from the… Read More ›
Some contemporary residents of Pascagoula and Moss Point may be surprised to learn that streetcars formerly provided their area with a very fine system of public transportation!
Today’s post is Chapter 8 in our series re-printing Frank Brooks’ “Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Stories about Streetcars,” originally published in 1983. View other posts in the series at the “Streetcars” tab. ——————————————————————– The quaint old city of Natchez… Read More ›
A couple of weeks ago, I was in Charleston, South Carolina, to attend the annual meeting of the Southern Society of Architectural Historians (which group, as you recall, met here in Jackson in 2009). I admit I skipped out on… Read More ›
When Meridianites voted on a streetcar referendum on July 23, 1925, only 316 citizens voted to retain trolley transportation. Less than six weeks after that vote, busses were already following much the same routes previously covered by the trolleys with the exception of a new business district loop.
Preservation in Mississippi 