A couple months ago, as you recall, we highlighted the one Lustron house left in Jackson (out of originally three), and I made passing mention to the only other known Lustron house in the state up in Clarksdale. Well, lo… Read More ›
Recent Past
Blog Roundup 7-26-2010
I think the blog roundup will become a regular feature, not every week but enough to start designating it with a date like the news roundups. I hope these links help pull together lots of good blog posts you might… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-23-2010
Let’s keep one eye on Bonnie and the other eye on the preservation news around the state. And those of us who wear glasses will still have two more eyes to, like, avoid marauding oil splotches, watch tv, read a… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-16-2010
Ok, I admit that I accidentally allowed my Clarion-Ledger subscription to lapse–that happened with my home insurance recently too, and it’s getting annoying–so I probably haven’t been keeping up with the news like I usually do, other than my Wall… Read More ›
Mississippi Architect: Hinton Hall, Perkinston Junior College
The latest in our ongoing series re-printing the 2-year run of Mississippi Architect from 1963 through 1965. Today’s article is the feature in the April 1963 issue. As always, you can view the full issue, which includes articles on non-Mississippi… Read More ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-2-2010
Well, other than an ongoing gusher of oil spilling into our Gulf, destroying wildlife, killing my redfish, fouling beaches and marshes, and an early-season hurricane washing it all in faster, what else has been going on in our Magnolia State… Read More ›
Now-angry buildings were once carefree mid-century moderns
Yesterday’s picture of the former Petroleum Building in Jackson brought out the inner-Modernists in all of us, a fun jaunt back to a time when colorful buildings were considered not only fashionable but suitable for the headquarters of an oil… Read More ›
Building in Disguise
Tons of MissPres brownie points to whoever can identify this building in downtown Jackson. Hint: It’s very well disguised.
MissPres News Roundup 6-25-2010
It’s the last Friday of a hot and steamy Mississippi June, which means it’s time for another news roundup. Things have been hopping out there, so let’s get started. An update on the ongoing renovations of the “Lil’ Red Schoolhouse”… Read More ›
Mississippi Architect: First Federal Savings & Loan, Jackson
Still in the inaugural issue of Mississippi Architect, March 1963, which we introduced with Bob Henry’s first editorial, about the architectural profession, yesterday. Today we’ll pass along the first building profile, which I love for many reasons: it’s an R.W…. Read More ›
Modernist Gems in . . . Booneville?
Well, I didn’t start out the week with intention of having a Modernism theme, but since we’ve had three days of it, it just seems right throw in some pictures I took a few months ago on a road trip… Read More ›
Lustron House in Jackson
Just around the corner from the classically proportioned J.R. Flint house designed by A. Hays Town in south Jackson is a house that makes no bones about its modernity. It’s a Lustron House, one of only two or three that… Read More ›
The Beauty of Modernist Storefronts
I admit I sometimes spend a good amount of money on a book that 99.999% of the population wouldn’t pay two cents for. I found one such book on a trip to Cincinnati a while back. Published in 1946, it’s… Read More ›
The Old Benwalt Hotel Blows Its Top
I have a bit of fondness for architectural oddities, and the Benwalt Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, with its impressive Quonset Hut roof, was a definite Oddity when I took these pictures in 2006. Beneath that rather awkward veneer is a… Read More ›
Does this mean you hate it, Miss Ada Louise?
I took the opportunity over the holidays to get back into my reading schedule and finish books that I had started during the dog days of summer. One of those was Ada Louise Huxtable’s recent compilation of her decades of… Read More ›
What Jackson’s Trustmark Bldg Might Have Looked Like
I love alternate history, where an author changes a small event in history and takes what follows to a different conclusion than what actually happened. Preliminary renderings of buildings are a real-live version of alternate history, and it’s fun, in… Read More ›
Pics of Goff’s Gryder House in Ocean Springs
Last week when looking around for a picture of the Gryder House in Ocean Springs to put in “Notes on SESAH Keynote” I realized I didn’t have any myself, and I just didn’t feel that those on the internet showed… Read More ›
SESAH’s Bus Tour: Beyond Greek Revival
Ok, I promised to post a few pictures from SESAH’s Saturday bus tour of Jackson, called “Beyond Greek Revival.” The weather did a wonderful about-face overnight from the rainy dreariness of Friday to a brilliant sunshiny Saturday, and it was… Read More ›
Notes on SESAH’s Keynote
Friday evening’s SESAH keynote lecture was co-hosted by MSU’s College of Architecture, Art + Design (CAAD), and I was glad to see a number of local architects in the crowd, along with a few young people who I presume were students… Read More ›
Notes from SESAH
Well, the SESAH conference is over as of Saturday’s bus tour of Jackson’s historic sites. I’m sure all of you were able to attend and listen to interesting papers and the thoughtful keynote lecture. If you weren’t though, rest assured… Read More ›
The International Style: Conformity, not Individualism
You have reached the end of a four-part series about The International Style by Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson. If you missed the earlier posts, you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. ———————————————————— Way back… 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 ›
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 ›
Lost Mississippi: Benton Elementary School
You may remember from Monday’s post “Mississipp’s Outstanding Post-War Schools” that the elementary school at Benton in Yazoo County was included in a list of Mississippi’s best school buildings constructed between 1945 and 1951. I also noted that this particular building was no… 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 ›
MissPres News Roundup 7-24-09
Here’s some goings-on that you might find interesting. July 12, 2009: An obituary in the Hays (FL) Daily News for architect and planner Raymond L. Eaton, who died July 7, 2009. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Eaton was a partner… Read More ›
July09 Name This Place #2
To play this exciting week-long game, see The Rules. Congratulations to Joseph A for grabbing the first points yesterday. Today we’ll go to a different part of the state and a different era. Current Standings: Joseph A: 2 points tsj1957:… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 