Abandoned Hinds County School, Utica, Mississippi

Just south of the Morning Star Baptist Church at the junction of Old Port Gibson and Adams Station Roads is a one-floor, two-room cinder block school building. It has been unused for at least a decade, and part of the roof is collapsing.

This was a basic cinderblock building with steel push-out windows.

Windows facing the south let in plenty of sunshine.

My friend from Utica told me that many of these simple, two-room schools were built in the late-1960s - early 1970s for the Head Start program. They were funded by Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program in the late 1960s. According to Wikipedia,

The most important educational component of the Great Society was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, designed by Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel. It was signed into law on April 11, 1965, less than three months after it was introduced. It ended a long-standing political taboo by providing significant federal aid to public education, initially allotting more than $1 billion to help schools purchase materials and start special education programs to schools with a high concentration of low-income children. During its first year of operation, the Act authorized a $1.1 billion program of grants to states, for allocations to school districts with large numbers of children of low income families, funds to use community facilities for education within the entire community, funds to improve educational research and to strengthen state departments of education, and grants for purchase of books and library materials. The Act also established Head Start, which had originally been started by the Office of Economic Opportunity as an eight-week summer program, as a permanent program.

The inside is a mess, with stacked up old furniture and piles of papers.

There are even two pianos waiting for restoration. Much of this furniture may be from the Morning Star church, using this as a convenient storage shed.

 

As a photographer, I love the patterns of shadow and light around furniture.

 

The roof is collapsing over the small side rooms that contained the toilets.

Schools tell us a lot about our society, our respect for learning, and about our optimism for the future. I am glad some one built this modest little facility but am sad it was abandoned. Hopefully, the contemporary Head Start children have a better facility. If any readers have more information about this and other schools, please let me know.

If you are interested in some other abandoned schools:

Utica High School
The Speed Street school in Vicksburg
Two-room schoolhouse in Carpenter
Yazoo County Ag. High School, Benton

The Bonner Campbell Institute, Edwards

I took these digital frames with a tripod-mounted Fuji X-E1 digital camera and the 27 mm ƒ/2.8 lens.  The little Fuji does a nice job with color balance inside. 

Update December 2020: Mississippi Department of Archives and History sponsored a renovation of the school. It has been re-roofed and repainted. Some windows are covered with plywood panels. Ultimate use: unknown.

Possible Repair of the Hinds County Armory, Jackson, Mississippi

The last time I inspected the Hinds County Armory in 2010, it was a wet mess with rain pouring through the decayed roof and soggy debris and mud on the floor.  It was a disgrace.  The Preservation in Mississippi blog documented in 2009 how the armory had been shamefully neglected.  But possibly this historic building will not succumb to the elements.  In July of 2012, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History secured a $600,000 grant from the Federal government to complete some critical repairs and preserve the historic Gothic Revival building.  According to WLBT News, the funds will be used, ""Initially to stabilize it, put a new roof on it and then stabilize the walls and then the funds will allow to clean the inside of it and on the outside of it make it look like a handsome building again," said H.T. Holmes, the Director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History."

Hinds County Armory, northeast corner.

The shell was sober and sturdy.  Note the Gothic architectural details like the arched doors and the roofline with a pseudo-parapet.

I sneaked (snuck) in and watched workmen tearing out the roof and debris.  This is a major effort.  Will $600,000 be enough to clean out the debris, stabilize the shell, and install a new roof?  We hope so.  At least we have not lost this handsome building.

Photographs taken with a Panasonic G3 digital camera, with RAW files processed with Photo Ninja.

July 2, 2013 Update:  This morning, a fire broke out in the armory.  Cause and extent of damage are still unknown,

Photograph by Joe Ellis, Jackson Clarion Ledger newspaper.  Here is the article. Fortunately, the damage was not too severe.

Historical Hinds County Armory, Jackson, Mississippi

The historic Hinds County Armory is located on the State Fairgrounds in Jackson. Most people never see the building and it stands unused and neglected. Mississippi Heritage Trust describes this unusual building (http://www.mississippiheritage.com/list09.html):

"Completed in 1927 for the Mississippi National Guard, the Hinds County Armory is believed to be the oldest surviving 20th century armory in the state. It may be the only building from that era intentionally built as an armory. The National Guard used the building as a training facility for nearly 50 years. The armory was one of the primary mobilization sites for Mississippi troops who served in World War II. Many returning soldiers mustered out in the armory. It is one of the state’s finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture and one of the few secular buildings employing the style."

"The building was damaged in Jackson’s 1979 Easter Flood and has not been used since. The roof leaks, and the building continues to suffer from water damage and a lack of maintenance. Located on the state fairgrounds, the Mississippi Fair Commission has no current plans for the structure."


It was a handsome building, but as you can see from these photographs, it is in poor condition. The roof is collapsing and much of the wood flooring and stage has rotted. I toured one rainy day, and the water was pouring through the roof onto the debris below. It is sad or rather, disgusting; many servicemen must have memories of passing through this facility many years ago. What an outrage that the State will not take care of its property. And what happened to the $100,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History back in 2002 to fix the roof? Who benefited from these funds?


Photographs taken on 12 December 2009 with an Olympus E-330 camera and 14-54 mm lens, tripod-mounted. I also took some Kodachrome slides with a Leica film camera.