The Society of Architectural Historians has recently announced an intriguing tour of Civil Rights memorials in Georgia and Alabama, October 8-12, 2009. According to the SAH website, the four-day tour will begin in Atlanta, visiting Auburn Avenue and the Atlanta… Read More ›
Preservation Education
Visitor Centers-Bah!
For your Sunday afternoon reading pleasure, and in light of my recent musings on the National Park Service and on the fate of heritage sites, may I suggest this article from Architectural Record’s March 2009 issue, “Rolling out the unwelcome mat for… Read More ›
National Register and Other Simple Tools
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the value of the non-flashy National Register, I wanted to mention how struck I was with the book Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks and its emphasis on the importance of simple… Read More ›
In Defense of the National Register
I planned to write this particular post when I first started this blog, way back in the Dark Ages of February, but for some reason, I’ve only just now gotten around to it. I felt the need to defend the… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-17-2009
Ok, while our friends in Greenville work on unraveling the mysterious funding structure of the South Delta Regional Housing Authority, let’s look around the state for historic preservation news, hopefully of a better sort than demolitions . . . July 11, 2009: Here’s… Read More ›
Whither House Museums?
Since we’re on the subject of heritage sites and the role of public history (and when I say “we” I mean “I”), I thought I would share a link I came across in my vast amounts of research on the… Read More ›
More Musings on the National Park Service
I’ve been thinking more this weekend about the role of the National Park Service in light of the issues raised last Thursday in On Recreating History. As an aside, would thinking about the role of the National Park Service on a… Read More ›
On Recreating History
I read an insightful short article in the Summer 2009 issue of The American Scholar (pp. 6-7) by Christopher Clausen titled “Sesquicentennial Excess: Must we erase evidence of later commemorations at Civil War sites?” (You can buy the journal at… Read More ›
MDAH Preservation Press newsletter
One of my faithful readers sent along this new electronic newsletter–or e-zine to hipsters like me–put out by MDAH’s Historic Preservation Division. It’s called Preservation Press, and its inaugural issue opens with a statement of purpose: The Historic Preservation Division of… Read More ›
Getting Back to Myths
I’m sure you all remember my post a couple of months ago about the fun stories I heard at the Columbus Pilgrimage explaining various architectural features (if you have a bad memory or, even worse, didn’t read it originally, you… Read More ›
Military-Themed Day Trip to Hattiesburg
Those of you who love both military history (and really, what’s not to love about guns and tanks and troop movements?) and museums have probably already checked out the Mississippi Armed Forced Museum at Camp Shelby. Camp Shelby, of course, has been… Read More ›
MDAH CLG Grants, 2009
While looking at the History Newsletter on the MDAH website, I noticed (albeit very belatedly) that MDAH has also announced their Certified Local Government grants for this year. Just in case you missed it, here’s the most relevant part of… Read More ›
MDAH Preservation Boot Camp 2009
I saw this interesting bit in the Mississippi History Newsletter that the Mississippi Dept. of Archives & History puts out monthly. I notice that now they’ve started posting the newsletter online too, which is helpful. Free Preservation Boot Camp Set… Read More ›
Models in Vicksburg
No, I’m not talking about the kind of models that walk the runway looking thin and sullen, I’m returning to the subject of cool architectural models. Well, they’re all cool of course, but I had no idea that we had… Read More ›
A Reason for Me to Camp Out at Toys-R-Us
A Lego Guggenheim? Incredibly cool . . . . http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104465622
Book Quotes: How Buildings Learn
I read Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn way back in 1997, and it was when I really began to understand and appreciate vernacular architecture. The thesis of the book is that buildings change over time based on the needs of the users–sometimes… Read More ›
Where History Meets Architecture
And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry… Read More ›
MS Architects in Tallulah, LA
I’m always interested–and therefore you should be too–in finding what buildings Mississippi architects were doing in other states. Tallulah, Louisiana has two buildings (out of not a huge number) that we Mississippians can be proud of, Bloom’s Arcade (1930-31) by… Read More ›
Preservation Month, Etc.
I mentioned this last month beforehand, but in case you’ve already forgotten, the Images of America book about North State Street hit the shelves April 27 and there have been confirmed sightings at Lemuria here in Jackson and the History… Read More ›
Jane’s Walk in Mississippi
Two Mississippi cities, Starkville and Jackson, will host Jane’s Walks this Saturday, May 2. Jane’s Walks are sponsored by the Center for the Living City as a way to commemorate the work of Jane Jacobs, who as you might remember wrote The… Read More ›
MHT Preservation Curriculum
At the MHT business luncheon on Friday, Lolly Barnes mentioned the MHT Preservation Curriculum, now undergoing testing with 10 master teachers around the state. Five (out of eight) lesson plans authored by Chuck Yarborough of the Mississippi School for Math and… Read More ›