Clay Street Collapse - the Remnants

Long-term readers may remember that in 2011, I summarized the sordid story of how the late-1800s commercial building at 515 Clay Street, Vicksburg, collapsed in January of 2006. Fortunately, no one was killed, but a car was squashed. Thereafter, the City of Vicksburg and the owners of the building fought in court for years about whether they could demolish the remains, and Clay street was partially blocked for months with a pile of bricks. It was a comedy of errors.

Well, eight years later, the street is clear, but there is still debris in the old lot. This is a view looking north across the lot.

This is the view from Clay Street looking east to the site where 515 Clay once stood. The building in the back is the Adolph Rose Building.

This is a portion of the basement that survived.

This is the view east along Clay Street from the newly renovated 1903-vintage First National Bank building. Some very nice apartments, known as The Lofts, have opened there and will offer high-end downtown residences. It is nice to see the downtown revitalized.  The Adolph Rose building, in the center left, lost a big section of brick wall when no. 515 collapsed (see the first figure). The light-colored section of bricks shows the repaired section. As another example of revitalization, the old Strand Theater in the basement of the Rose has reopened. The Strand, operated by Westside Theater Foundation, offers independent international films. I wrote about the Strand in a 2011 article. Folks, support your downtown businesses and merchants!

Aug. 24, 2014 update: here is a post card from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. It is an undated view of Clay Street with the Adolph Rose building in the center of the block, behind the trolley car.