Pascagoula Street runs east-west through downtown Jackson, passing south of the old King Edward Hotel and south of the Union Station. I was not around here decades ago, but I assume this was a busy commercial and industrial zone, with the nearby Union Station serving as a hub for commercial travelers and the rail lines providing freight service.
The area is quiet now. Empty parking lots and concrete pads attest to how much has been lost. This sign for the Jackson Safe & Lock Co. has a 1940s or 1950s look.
Vagrants have pried back some of the fencing and, I assume, stay in the building. I took the interior picture by placing my camera on a window ledge and using a remote electric release. Digital cameras are very convenient for this type of work.
This is a 2001 Kodachrome slide from the parking lot just west of the old lock company (I can't recall if it was operating then). The building in the distance was the deserted King Edward Hotel. Originally built in 1923 as the Edwards House, it hosted Mississippi's most prominent visitors, entertainers, and politicians for decades. The hotel closed in 1967. When I took this photograph, the King Edward was a deserted shell and had been empty for almost 35 years. The good news is that a partnership coordinated by Historic Restoration Inc. of New Orleans rebuilt the King Edward and the grand old hotel reopened in 2009.
A few blocks south at West South Street is an old warehouse, probably typical for this area in the early-20th century. A tattoo shop occupies the ground floor. It seems an effective way to reuse a historic commercial space.
The 2001 Kodachrome was taken with a Leica M3 camera with 50mm f/2.8 Elmar lens, tripod-mounted.
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