spoody

NCB, consider moving the following threads to the new Jackson forum: TWO LAKES PROJECT 2006 MAL'S ST PADDY PARADE JACKSON ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER

I'm pleased to see the new construction and interest in State street. Of course, I can still remember when I was a kid and all the grand old houses that lined both sides from downtown to Milsaps College. a bunch still remain and are just as grand and beautiful as ever but way too many were demolished to make way for 50's and 60's tacky, with some exceptions of course. many of these tacky buildings were promptly abandoned in the heyday of the flight to suburbia. I am so glad to see the rebirth. Now, to change horses, the Jubilee Jam downtown music festival returned this weekend with a vengeance, after a one year hiatus due to finances and Katrina (sponsors weren't in a position to step last year). The Mrs. and I were down there Friday night but forgot to take the camera. It was great to see the Jam back. We had a blast. There was a huge crowd Friday night but even more came out Saturday. Here are some pictures from the Clarion Ledger: The Clarion Ledger Jubilee Jam pics

City Hall, Jackson, Mississippi. One of only a handful of buildings not torched by Sherman in the Civil War. He called Jackson "Chimenyville" because chimneys were the only thing left standing at so many of the structures burned down. It is said he spared city hall because the the top floor was a Masonic Lodge and he was a Mason. Anyway, here it is..... the front: and the back (maybe it's other way around?):

allright, here a few pics from saturday's 2007 Mal's St. Paddy's parade and it was a doozy this year. The biggest crowd ever, biggest I've ever seen by far. It was a great and glorious day for sure. only problem, my battery in my camera ran down so I didn't get but a few pictures and hardly any of the parade itself. Here we go: a shot down S. Lamar St. - the convention center will be down that street - will get construction pics soon. I like this shot of the portico of the governors mansion and trustmark bank building in the background these cardinal gals for st. looey were looking good people gathered around children's activities early in the morning on N. State. There were once block of buildings in Jackson like those shown here that were torn down for "urban renewal" and to make room for parking lots. what a shame. people pouring over the Pearl St. overpass coming to the parade. here's Frank watching over things here's one that shows gaps left from old buidings torn down as mentioned above and finally, I wanted to include one from last summers saint/colts game at Memorial stadium that I thought was cool and forgot to post.

the old Jitney 14 is open and thriving. It is a locally owned McDade's market. The McDades have carefully kept the tradition alive. Brent's Drugs, also locally owned, is in the Parkins Drug location in the same Olde English Village. If you ever get back to Jackson, stop by and check them out. Every Saturday morning, the Belhaven Market Place (local crafts and foodstuffs fair) is held in the parking lot and can be a lot of fun - lots of activities. That will start back up in the spring and go until Christmas.

tombarnes, the arena in Pearl will not be built - the deal fell through, the guy did not have the finances after all. Considering the flack they caught for requiring the guy to submit financial records and proof of financial backing before demolishing Smith=Wills stadium, the Jackson city council is looking pretty good right about now. re: the new downtown arena - I know it's relatively small, but for now I believe it's the perfect fit. I'm torn between the locations proposed though. I've always thought the area on Jefferson street at the site of the old city works yard on the bank of the Pearl River would be a great place for an arena. But, that was before the new convention center (serious site work has started in earnest, by the way) and the fabulous Telcom center. Now, I would like to see the arena located in the convention district and in the proximity of the King Ed and Standard Life buildings. The SL bldg will likely be devloped by the King ED developers as soon as the police headquarters are relocated to their nearly complete renovated building. The convention center, telcom center, and arena could all be used in conjunction with some huge gatherings. Plus they say they are close to announcing a new large hotel across the street from the cc and tc. I'm a hockey fan. a few years ago when we still had our team here (the Jackson Bandits), one of the most fun things I've ever done was when my wife and I took the train trip with other Bandit fans to New Orleans to see the Bandits play New Orleans' team at the New Orleans Arena. with our beautiful Union Station train depot, I can see lot's train passengers coming to town for convention district events, (including hockey). By the way, we lost our team because of the coliseum - no alchohol sales and, get this, no home games during most of January, all of February, and most of March, because of the gigantic Dixie National Rodeo and state high school basketball tournaments during that time. As for as a larger arena is concerned, I believe that should be a joint effort by the metro area governments, with all entities involved in funding, etc. And I believe the perfect location would be somewhere inside a 1/2 mile circle with the center of the circle at the stack (I55-I20 junction). That is not only close to downtown Jackson but is essentially the center of the state if not the crossroads of the south (Jackson's old nickname). A perfect area, in my opinion, for that large joint metro arena, is the area just west and north of the "stack" , on the east bank of the Pearl river on highway 80, where currently a trucking company, a truck parts type place, an adult bookstore, and an adult motel/massage parlor are now located. that location is highly visable and horribly underused at present. the land is flat, plenty adequate for a large stand alone arena, and all the parking necessary, on a kind of peninsula between the 'stack' and river.

more stuff about the old capitol green project and the rfp

Here are a few pics of the late Eudora Welty's house that recently was opened as a museum. The famous Jackson author lived across the street from Belhaven College in the the great old Jackson neighborhood of the same name. Miss Welty's father was vice president of the Lamar Life insurance compamy in charge of selecting the architect, the design, and the construction of the fantastic Lamar Life building that I love so much, downtown. On a recent tour of the house and gardens, the tour guide pointed out construction debris from the L.L building that Mr. Welty had hauled in to use in the garden. The foundation of a club house his son built is granite from the LL bulding. the front of the house. back of the house and part of the garden a building on the Belhaven campus across the street from the Welty house

Tom, ironically, just a week or so ago as my wife and I drove past the old library, I commented that I wished someone could find a use for the old building. Obviously, Mr. Duckworth was way ahead of me. I'll get by there soon and take a couple of pictures of the place to post. The building is certainly nothing special achitecturally - a basic 50's utilitarian government structure. Hopefully, he has a good designer on board to do something special with it.

actually, the area is due south of the old capitol building. Commerce st. runs north/south between S. State st. and Jefferson st. The area is largely an old commercial, light industrial, warehouse area that grew up along the long ago abandoned G,M, & O railroad line. Also, South state street was long ago the car dealership area of Jackson and is lined with old dealership buildings that had the show room end on State St. and the service end of the buildings on Commerce. Very few of the buildings in the area are of any architectural interest, but all be refurbished and renovated to make a really nice area. One of the old car dealership buildings has already been done, with commercial and offices on the state street end and clubs and bars on the commerce street end. Done right, and it appears they want to do it right, this can be fantastic. I would like to see some good developement on Jefferson street behind (east) of the old capital and west of the fairgrounds, particularly the old abandoned Naval reserve building which is was built to look like the structure(?) of a battleship. this could be a very cool building, in the right hands. I'm very excited about what's on the immediate horizon for downtown Jackson. Lot's of things happening.