Another Friday, another MissPres News Roundup, just like clockwork, even though I’ve had a long and arduous week. This week’s featured song is “Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen.” August something: An article in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that I initially… Read More ›
Mississippi Towns
Know Downtown Jackson?
In the past several months, I’ve had occasion to be on top of the world–or at least of downtown Jackson–at least four times (that I can remember). Lucky for you I had my trusty camera in hand each time and… Read More ›
Newspaper Clippings: A Plea for North State Street’s Preservation
Earlier this year, as you may remember, a book from Arcadia Press authored by Todd Sanders of MDAH, looked at the history and evolution of North State Street from a corridor of antebellum and Victorian mansions to the commercial hodge-podge it… Read More ›
Happy Labor Day
For all those who, like me, didn’t really think Mississippi had labor unions, this little clip from the Dec. 8, 1946 edition of the Jackson Daily News about the Carpenters and Joiners new union hall on South State Street: It’s… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 9-4-2009
The official sponsor of this week’s News Roundup is White Shoes: Wear ’em While You Can. Well, after spending the last two weeks on the Coast, we have to bring ourselves back to reality and acknowledge that the rest of the… 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 ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-21-2009
The official song for this week’s News Roundup is . . . “Cocacabana.” Begin humming as we whirl around the state of MS: The Summer 2009 issue of “The Wellspring” (scroll to page 5) gives a nice update on the progress… Read More ›
Oh yeah? Well our Capitol has electric lights!
I saw this postcard on eBay (which I usually try to avoid in order to flee temptation) and had to buy it because it seemed a little spooky (it’s actually a little darker in real life). When I got the… Read More ›
Remembering Hurricane Camille
From the Biloxi Daily Herald, “Landmarks Lost During Camille,” by Emily Germanis, August 16, 1970: “Historically speaking, the Mississippi Gulf Coast received a great blow as a result of Hurricane Camille. At least 15 well known landmarks were wiped out, others… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 8-14-09
Well, what’s been going on this week around our fair state? Before we begin, let me just put this fact out there: August is my least favorite month, so I’m liable to be especially cranky and hard-to-please, so bear with… Read More ›
The International Style: Regularity, not Symmetry
Since I spend a good part of my life writing and reading descriptions of buildings, I naturally love symmetrical buildings. It’s so easy and simple to describe, say a Georgian Revival building, even a big building: center entrance with transom… Read More ›
The International Style: Volume, not Mass
For me, the last concept to click about Hitchcock and Johnson’s definition of the International style was the subject of the very first chapter, “A First Principle: Architecture as Volume.”
Book Quotes: The International Style
It’s been a while since we did a book quote series, and since the three earlier series included a diatribe against Modern planning principles (Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of the Great American Cities), a polemic against Modern architectural design (Tom Wolfe’s… Read More ›
An Architectural Bonanza in the Clarion-Ledger
Was I in heaven this weekend? Was it a dream? I think there were not one, not two, but three really informative articles about architecture in the Clarion-Ledger. I know I usually leave such things to Friday’s News Roundup, but… 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 ›
Back from Lexington
In yesterday’s post, we drove up Hwy 17 and got into Lexington where we saw the courthouse, the jail, the hospital, and the old stagecoach inn. Today we’ll complete our whirlwind tour by heading out from the square and looking at… Read More ›
To Lexington (Miss.) and Back
Well, I haven’t done a “To . . . and Back” posting of late, mainly because when summer really comes in, I usually don’t get much farther (or is it “further”?) than my front porch–anything else just takes too much… Read More ›
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 ›
Preservation in Mississippi 