Greek Revival Homes of the Mississippi Delta
The Cedars
Dairy Farms of Oktibbeha County and the Old Coop in Starkville.
Hawkins Field Old Terminal
Mississippi Industrial College
Moore Fire Tower
Old Wesson Public School
Rippy Road and Turkey Creek
Rosenwald Schools
The Watkins Museum

Greek Revival Homes of the Mississippi Delta

Today, it is a challenge to find antebellum era homes in the Mississippi Delta. Constructed nationally between 1825 and 1860, Greek Revival style homes typically featured columned, temple-front porches with front doors surrounded by a transom and sidelights. Both vernacular and high-style versions survived the vagaries of war and nature for nearly two centuries but, alas, are still endangered. Neglect and economic depression hinder the reuse of these architectural gems.

The Burrus House

1859-61
Benoit, Mississippi (Bolivar County)

Burrus House, a.k.a. Hollywood Plantation, a.k.a. "The Baby Doll House," is the last high-style antebellum house left standing in Bolivar County. The two-story columned pediment without a second-floor porch is a rare Greek Revival form. Vacancy, inadequate maintenance and lack of funds hinder its preservation. The owners are interested in selling this architectural jewel.
Update - The Burrus House - "The Baby Doll House" located south of Benoit, Mississippi, is currently for sale. If the house is not sold, the owners would like to restore it and establish a Bible center in the house.

Pugh-Blundell House

1840s
Yazoo City, Mississippi (Yazoo County)

Yazoo City’s Pugh-Blundell house cries for help amid the beautiful homes of the Town Creek Historic District. Vacancy, vandalism and rapid deterioration threaten this classic example of a Louisiana-raised cottage. Its prominent location makes its preservation all the more crucial for the integrity of the district.
Update - This classic example of a Louisiana-raised cottage is still sitting vacant amid the beautiful homes of the Town Creek Historic District in Yazoo City. No changes have been made to its status.

Griffin-Spragins House on Refuge Plantation

1833
Greenville, Mississippi – vicinity (Washington County)

In its heyday, Refuge Plantation was one of the largest cotton plantations in the world, and today, its main house, the Griffin-Spragins House, is one of the few surviving plantation homes in the area and one of the best examples of a mid-nineteenth century plantation house in Washington County. The Refuge Plantation house is threatened by the new Mississippi River Bridge that may potentially be located within 100 yards of the home.
Update - The Refuge Plantation house near Greenville continues to be threatened by the new Mississippi River bridge that may be located within 100 yards of the home.

circa 1840
Old Canton Road, Jackson, Mississippi (Hinds County)

The Cedars is one of Jackson’s oldest residences. It was constructed around 1840 as a two-room galleried cottage. At some point, a one-room schoolhouse was attached to the north side of the house, and additions were built on the rear, closing in the rear porch. Through several owners, one of whom was Governor Hugh White, and a few changes, one of the city’s few antebellum buildings has retained considerable integrity and conveys a great deal about the historical growth of the city and the formerly rural nature of areas surrounding downtown Jackson. Located on Old Canton Road south of Meadowbrook Road, the house’s proximity to Interstate-55 has already changed the surrounding neighbhorhood dramatically, and recent developments of zero-lot line residences on the adjacent properties leaves the Cedars more vulnerable than ever. Recently, the Cedars sold for a large asking price, which increases the probability that the location of the property will supercede the historical importance of the house and site.

Update - SAVED

Having purchased The Cedars and surrounding property, the Coggins donated the house to the Fondren Renaissance Association (FRA) with the stipulation that the building be moved so the lot could be developed with condos.  However, plans for the development fell through and the owners offered the lot to the Fondren Renaissance Foundation.  So the organization took on the monumental task of raising the money to purchase the property and to restore the house.  The money raised was enough to buy the property and to receive a matching grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission Building Fund to reuse the house as a community visual and performing arts center.   Renovation work was completed on the house in the summer of 2004, and it was dedicated on August 29, 2004.  Now The Cedars is home to an art gallery and is used for community functions and fundraisers.  It represents a tremendous effort on the part of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation and the many people in the Fondren neighborhood and others who gave time and money to save the house in its original location and to help bring it back to life for the community.

Opened in 1929 with great fanfare and high expectations, the Cooperative Creamery in Starkville, in Oktibbeha County represented the growth and importance of the dairy industry in Mississippi following the decline in the cotton culture. At its height in 1958, Oktibbeha County’s dairy industry relied on 123 family-run dairy farms. Today, the county has six dairy farms, and the once modern and gleaming Creamery is a roofless building shell. The Creamery’s steel frame and windows, gleaming interior tile, and yellow exterior are waiting for a new use and for recognition of their part in local and state agricultural history.

1936
Jackson, Mississippi (Hinds County)

Mississippi Industrial College

circa 1880
Holly Springs, Mississippi (Marshall County)

1940
Forest, Mississippi - vicinity (Scott County)

Located in Scott County on the Bienville Ranger District of the Mississippi National Forests, the Moore Fire Tower was constructed in 1940 by the Civilian Conservation Corps to identify forest fires and pinpoint their exact location with state-of-the-art equipment called a survey alidade. The 100 foot high tower, was constructed specifically for its site with steel A-frames, is the only one of its type in Mississippi. Its unusual features are the staircase located outside the tower, spacious cabin, hip roof with wood shingles, and wood observation deck surrounding the entire cabin. Faithfully manned since 1940, the tower was finally retired from service in 1996 due to the increasing use of aircraft for fire detection. The tower’s four-year vacancy has left it in a critical state of disrepair with rotting steps, a leaking roof, and failing metal frame joints. While it has the distinction of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places and National Register of Historic Lookouts, the fate of the Moore Fire Tower remains at a critical juncture.

Update
The Mississippi Forestry Service has allocated funds to repair and replace many of the damaged steps, fix the twisted and rusted beams, and replace the roof. Some cosmetic repairs are still to be made to the interior of the structure, but at present it is structurally sound. The Forestry Service does not plan to open the tower up to tours but may incorporate visits to the tower with other tours so that interested visitors are able to at least see the structure.

Old Wesson Public School

1893
Wesson, Mississippi (Copiah County)

Joining Mississippi’s efforts to rebuild its post-Civil War economy, Col. James Madison Wesson moved to Copiah County and established the Mississippi Manufacturing Company, later known as the Mississippi Mills. He became the engineer of a textile industry and the founder of a town called Wesson. Thousands of people were employed with the company during its peak years and as the town grew, new facilities were constructed to support its growing population. The Old Wesson School, a two-story brick veneer Romanesque Revival Style building originally built in 1889 and rebuilt in 1893 after it was destroyed by fire, is significant as one of three remaining public buildings associated with Wesson’s historic development fostered by the textile industry. A Mississippi Landmark and National Register of Historic Places property, the Old Wesson School has an unusual industrial appearance, and may have been designed by the same architect and in the same style as the original Mississippi Mills buildings. In use as a school until 1960, the building has been the focus of many adaptive reuse efforts over the years, but has remained vacant and the victim of poor maintenance and vandalism since 1994.

Update
The old Wesson School building will become the new home of the St. Ambrose Leadership College. The College is the culmination of a unique partnership between the college, Copiah-Lincoln Community College and the Town of Wesson. St. Ambrose is to be a residential college honors program and leadership school. Plans are for 20 to 30 scholarships to be awarded annually to the most outstanding male high school graduates from throughout the state.
At present, a project is underway to renovate the exterior of the building. The contractor is in the process of reroofing the building, renovating exterior windows, doors, brick masonry and all exterior woodwork. The construction is approximately 50% complete for this first phase. Funding for the construction came from two grants - a Mississippi Heritage Grant through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and an Economic Development grant from the Mississippi Development Authority. The Legislature recently approved additional funding to continue the renovation of the school.

Rippy Road and Turkey Creek

late 1800s
North Gulfport, Mississippi (Harrison County)

The Rippy Road Community near the Regional Airport in Gulfport is a rarity in Mississippi. It is a post-Civil War African-American community that retains much of its original architectural integrity. As Gulfport grew in the late 19th and early 20th century, African-Americans were drawn to the area in search of jobs. They were largely segregated from areas near the Gulf, so the community of North Gulfport was established, and a neighborhood grew in nearby Rippy Road. Over the years the old character of North Gulfport has been lost, but the small Rippy Road community has managed to hold true to its origins. Nearby Turkey Creek served the community as a recreation area since the African-American residents were not allowed to use the beaches. Both of these tiny areas are threatened by encroaching development pressure.

Update
Since the 2001 designation, the Rippy Road community has experienced a mixed success, setbacks, and unexpected new challenges. One of the homes is now on the National Register of Historic Places, and enthusiasm runs high towards having more added. Nevertheless, escalating threats of urban sprawl, de-forestation and environmental problems continually must be faced. Twelve acres of wooded wetlands abutting to the south have been slated for a rental car parking and carwash facility for the airport. Even worse, a proposed connector road between I-10 and the airport would bisect Rippy Road as well as run through both the historic "Colored School" grounds and the cemetery. The proximity to active and inactive chemical plants like the EPA-cited Gulfcoast Creosote Co., pose additional obstacles to community survival. However, hopes have been lifted by support from historic preservationists and environmental justice advocates who learned of the plight of the area largely through MHT's timely concern and 10 Most publicity.

Rosenwald Schools

circa 1910
Statewide; example, Prentiss Institute, Prentiss (Jefferson Davis County)

In 1911, Booker T. Washington, president and founder of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Julius Rosenwald, philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, met at a dinner in Chicago. The result of their ensuing conversation would change African-American education in the South as well as alter the landscape of the Southern states over the next twenty years. Washington’s ideas for improving the standards of school buildings for black students interested Rosenwald, and he donated a small sum of money to help Washington test his theories in the counties around Tuskegee. By 1920, this minute beginning had blossomed into the full-grown Julius Rosenwald Fund, which granted money to African-Americans in all eleven former Confederate states who could match the grant with money, labor or materials. By 1932, when the Fund changed its emphasis to other matters, Mississippi placed second among the states with 557 Rosenwald buildings constructed. Most of these were frame, one- and two-classroom country schools. Today, less than ten are known to still stand in the state, and most of these are abandoned or neglected.

Update
MDAH awarded a $382,000 African-American grant to the Drew School in 2000 to help cover costs of renovating the Rosenwald portion of the building and mothballing the rest of the structure. The school building will be used as a community center when it is completed. In addition, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has recently formed the Rosenwald Initiative, which will document the history of the Rosenwald Fund and aid and publicize preservation efforts across the South.

The Watkins Museum

1901
Taylorsville, Mississippi (Smith County)

The Watkins Museum building is a Mississippi Landmark owned by the town of Taylorsville. It is a monument to Mississippi journalism and is the former office of the Taylorsville Signal. Constructed in 1901, it served as a newspaper office well into the 1960s and, today, still houses the 19th century presses and newspaper artifacts used to produce the Signal. Since 1972, the building has been utilized as a museum with the Taylorsville Historical Society at the helm of its preservation efforts. The building, which is one of the few wooden structures to survive the fires that ravaged Taylorsville in the early 20th century, is threatened by deterioration to the foundation and sills, as well as a lack of funds to address the problems.

Update
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History in December 2002, awarded a $120,000 Mississippi Landmark Grant to the Watkins Museum, which is located in the old Taylorsville Signal office building. The funds will be used to make exterior and interior repairs to the building.

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