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 ›
New Deal
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 ›
NPS plans to demolish . . . er . . . “remove” several National Register-listed Tupelo Homesteads. Tell them what you think by June 28!
Eight houses located on the east side of Old Hwy 45/North Gloster and one house on the west side of Old 45 in Tupelo are proposed for removal (demolition) by the National Park Service, America’s premier historic preservation agency. The… Read More ›
Memorial Day 2019
Walk through the somber courtyard of the War Memorial Building next door to the Old Capitol in Jackson and you’ll see three sets of aluminum doors. Walk even closer to see bas reliefs of implements of war throughout history.
Carson’s former Art Deco gymnasium-auditorium
Thanks to W. White’s meticulous work, many of us were fortunate to get a glimpse of the Art Deco gymnasium-auditorium in the rural community of Carson, featured recently in the Name This Place XIII: Google Street View Edition, only to… Read More ›
War Memorial Building’s Mystery Faces Revealed?
One cold misty fall-like day recently, only a month or so before the centennial of the end of World War I, I happened to be in Kansas City for the first time and decided to go to the national World… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Lauderdale Vocational Building
Lauderdale, north of Meridian, saw the construction of a vocational building, and possibly, a community center under the New Deal Administration. MDAH Historic Resources Inventory identifies the Community Center as c. 1935, located on Community House Road. I located one… Read More ›
Pearl River County Rural Schools: Part I
Discovering Mississippi’s rural Agricultural High Schools first happened when I ran across a cornerstone in Oakland, and thought ‘What is an agricultural high school?’, followed by ‘Why is only the cornerstone left’? I would get the answer to the second… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Coxburg School
Two of the buildings for the Coxburg Consolidated School were constructed with New Deal Administration funding. Holmes County considered a $20,000 bond issue for the Coxburg Consolidated school district to erect, repair, and equip “school buildings and teachers’ home for… Read More ›
An Abbreviated History of the Farmhaven Schools, 1924-1960
In 1930, Farmhaven was a small community “about 14 miles east of Canton on the Canton-Carthage graveled highway.” In 2018, that is Old MS 16/Pat Luckett Road, slightly south of current MS 16. When I began this story, it was… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Itta Bena Grammar School
Itta Bena citizens met in May 1939 to discuss the proposed new elementary school building. The old Itta Bena school building is being wrecked, preparatory to the building of a new school building to serve that community. (Greenwood Commonwealth, 12 Sep… Read More ›
Mid-Century Mississippi: Jackson’s Bailey Junior High School
This article from the March 14, 1937 issue of the Clarion-Ledger manages an in-depth description of Jackson’s iconic Art Moderne school without ever mentioning its architects, N.W. Overstreet and A.H. Town of Jackson. I also realized for the first time,… Read More ›
New Deal in Magee: School Buildings
One of the New Deal projects that gets less recognition is the Civil Works Administration, a job creation program established under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, active in providing temporary employment for manual laborers between 1933-1934. Using standard Mississippi Department… Read More ›
Magee Community House: WPA or not?
Mississippi can document a number of community houses constructed under the auspices of the New Deal Administration, including FERA (Pontotoc and Macon) and WPA (Winona, Biloxi, Carrollton, Enterprise, Grenada, and Eupora). Additionally, at least 6 other facilities are conjectured to… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Edwards’ CWA Swimming Pool & Improvements
The town of Edwards used Civil Works Administration (CWA) funds to finish a school playground, construct a swimming pool, municipal park, and athletic field improvements. Windows in the two-story brick high school were repainted and repaired. A teachers’ home was… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Sunflower Agricultural High School
The Sunflower Agricultural High School in Moorhead was PWA project W1176, approved November 1936 with a $45,000 grant toward the estimated cost of $100,000. Construction began January 27, 1937 and was completed September 9, 1937 for a total of $100,298… Read More ›
History of the Holcomb Consolidated School
Knowing that many of the buildings constructed by the New Deal Administration programs are not always documented in readily accessible locations, any time I run across one that has the years in the right time span, and knowing the architects… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: National Youth Administration
It has been a while since we have featured any New Deal projects, so I thought it time to update on some of the Mississippi examples. One of my favorite programs was the National Youth Administration arm of the WPA. … Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Jackson’s Canning Plants
In earlier posts, canning plants have been mentioned in connection with some of the New Deal schools in Mississippi (for example, East Tupelo canning plant). Recently, I ran across this article on the Emergency Relief Administration’s opening of the Jackson… Read More ›
Who was Jim Farley and why was he in Mississippi?
In describing the new offices of the Highway Commission and the large number of employees housed in the Plaza Building (later known as the Standard Life Building and constructed in 1929), the Jackson New Deal (20 October 1933, p. 3) wrote: The only surprising… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Madison-Ridgeland High School addition
It has been a while since we have been on the New Deal Tour for Mississippi, so I decided it was high time to get back on the road. The Public Works Administration-funded annex to the Madison-Ridgeland High School was… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Edwards Gymnasium
Edwards High School Gymnasium, designed by architect James Manly Spain in the Art Moderne style, was constructed 1941 by the National Youth Administration (Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Historic Resources Inventory). Only a year prior, Governor Paul Johnson vetoed… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Carrollton Community House
Carrollton’s rustic style community house was constructed of native pine logs in 1935-1936 by the Works Progress Administration. Carroll Van West, who has documented a number of New Deal Administration works in Tennessee, indicates that the two primary architectural styles… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 1-11-2016
This week we are beginning the News Roundup in the non-Natchez Southwestern part of this state, specifically in Brookhaven, which has a few articles of interest. The first Brookhaven Daily Leader article is from January 7, “No longer on the… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Carthage Elementary School
After the recent news of demolished historic buildings, and possible demolition and demolition-by-neglect stories, and the buildings that were lost in 2015, it is always a pleasure to provide a deserving round of applause and highlight the accomplishments of a… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Teacherage in Hickory Flat
In a follow up from last week’s visit to the Hickory Flat cafeteria constructed by the National Youth Administration in 1939, we are still on campus. A short walk from the cafeteria building, one teacherage of the two constructed by… Read More ›
New Deal in Mississippi: Hickory Flat Cafeteria
The cafeteria for the Hickory Flat school (located in Benton County, north Mississippi) was constructed by the National Youth Administration in 1939. If you wonder what the building looked like as constructed, just look below. Other than the center double… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 