More Wide View in Central Jackson (XPan 09)

We continue our Hasselblad XPan tour of Jackson, Mississippi.

Jackson was, and still is, a major railroad junction town. I like railroad photography and am always impressed by how massive the railroads build their bridges and infrastructure are. In the previous article, you saw the rail overpass on South Gallatin Street. If we drive north, we reach  Pascagoula Street. Turn right (east) and the road drops under the tracks.

Near the Pascagoula Street rail overpass, Jackson (30mm ƒ/5.6 lens)

The Amtrak station is just north of where I took this picture, just beyond the King Edward Hotel (now comdominiums). I later found out that I am not supposed to have clambered up to the embankment ("No trespassing").

Waste land south of Pascagoula Street (30mm ƒ/5.6 lens)

The tall building in the photograph is the 1929 Art Deco Standard Life Building. According to the National Park Service,

Originally built as a tenant office building with a retail annex, the building and annex have undergone a successful $27 million rehabilitation providing retail space on the first floor of the tower and 64 desirable market-rate housing units. The limestone, brick and terra-cotta exterior has been meticulously cleaned, the transoms of the storefronts, display windows and entrances uncovered and restored. The elaborate Art Deco marble, terrazzo floor, limestone wall panels, geometrically shaped storefront windows and decorative ceilings have been retained while finding a popular new use for this Jackson architectural treasure.

I have never been in it and need to make a trip there. 

The low building beyond the white car is an abandoned lock store. I photographed there in 2015. 

North Mill Street view north from Woodrow Wilson overpass (45mm lens at ƒ/8)

The Woodrow Wilson Avenue overpass provides a good view of the Canadian Pacific rail yards and tracks below. The public is not allowed in the rail yard, but from the overpass, you can see locomotives moving rail cars back and forth. I usually park near Mill Street and walk on the sidewalk. Cars rush by but no one cares. Many of the warehouses on the east side appear to be unused. 

Mill Street is pretty rough, with closed gas stations, warehouses, and what may have been manufacturing operations. Many of the warehouses once had tracks leading onto the properties. I wrote about Mill Street in 2016 (click the link).

Abandoned oil mill from under Fortification Street overpass (45mm lens)

Fortification Street overpass view west

The next road crossing to the south over the rail yard is Fortification Street. Just to the south is a complex of sheds and tubes, an unused oil mill. With the XPan camera, I liked the view under the overpass, sort of a no-man's land of trash and construction debris. 

These photographs are from a Hasselblad XPan camera with its spectacular 45mm ƒ/4 and 30mm ƒ/5.6 lenses. The film was Kodak Portra 160, which I scanned on a Plustek 7600i film scanner. Click any picture to see it at 2400 pixels wide.

Next time, some scenes in west Jackson. Can't you wait?

Continuing Decay in 2016: North Mill Street, Jackson, Mississippi

Dear readers, I wrote about Jackson's North Mill Street in the area near Union Station in a previous post. Let's continue our tour heading north.

Mill Street parallels the Canadian National Railroad tracks and the rail yard. Jackson has always been a major rail center. The best view of the rail yard is from the Woodrow Wilson Avenue crossover. The photograph above shows the view looking south.

There were once private homes on Mill Street. This abandoned early 20th century cottage is at 1112 N. Mill Street.

1154 Mill is a lounge with residence above.

1326 Mill Street is an abandoned supermarket. I do not know where residents of the nearby streets shop.

Clear water was bubbling out of the ground on the lot next to the supermarket. I have noted before that Jackson must lose a tremendous amount of its drinking water to pipe breaks and leaks.

The Magic Spot Sports Bar II is at 1836 North Mill. It has an ambitious mural on the north wall.

Jackson Generator and Starter Service occupies this 1927-vintage factory building. I was glad to see that it was a going concern.

Respect for the customer was molded in the concrete about the door.  I wish more companies today followed this golden rule.

A warehouse with a former spur line is at the corner of Lorenz and North Mill. It was locked but clearly unused.

Neglected 18-wheeler trailers were in the muddy field north of the warehouse.

More clean water was gushing from a break in the hydrant.

A paper recycling company occupied a steel shed and fields at 3002 North Mill Street. I could not tell if the company was defunct because the rolls of baled paper were out in the rain, seemingly abandoned.

This is a Tri-X film photograph of the recycle facility.

Drive west on West Mitchell Ave., and at the corner of Commerce Park Drive, an empty pink warehouse once housed the Traderhorn Discount Store.

The aerial photograph from Google Maps shows the railroad turntable. Tracks fan out to where there would have once been a roundhouse. One day I will try to get permission to take some photographs of the turntable (Update: not allowed).

This has been a rather gloomy view of west Jackson. This area was once a vibrant commercial and manufacturing district, but now many buildings are empty, the roads are crumbling, and the buried infrastructure decaying. I just don't have any answers.

I took these photographs with a Fuji X-E1 digital camera and various Fuji lenses.

Testing a Rolleiflx Camera in Jackson, Mississippi

My new (1960-vintage) Rolleiflex 3.5E camera with Schneider Xenotar lens came back from the repair shop, so I decided to test it one blazing hot day when I was in Jackson. I used some Kodak Panatomic-X fine-grain black and white film.

This is a former gasoline station at 100 East South Street, at the corner of South and Farish. There are still active businesses in south Jackson, but also plenty of empty buildings.

This is a historic warehouse at 300 West South Street. It is now known as the Foundry Lofts and offers modern flats for rent.

Head a couple miles north, to the intersection of West Fortification Street and Bailey Avenue, and we have a view of Bailey Avenue looking south. This is a rough part of town with many empty or crumbling buildings.

This is an example of the many closed businesses, this one at 957 Bailey. Note the window with the word "Wings."

This is a crop of the full frame, with details of the credit card stickers in the windows quite legible. Considering that this Rolleiflex has a 55+-year-old lens, I am pleased. I read that Rollei tested each and every camera for resolution using film. Cameras that did not meet specification were sent back to the production line for adjustment or to have the lenses replaced.

This is the entrance to the now-closed cotton seed oil mill at 1000 Mill Street. The site recently housed a pallet company, but most of the hulking complex of steel buildings and pipes has been out of operation for at least a decade. The bridge to the left carries East Fortification street.

The sun was blazing and the temperature about 99°F. The pavement on East Fortification was radiating lava, and I had to be careful about traffic.

But by late afternoon, the clouds rolled in and dropped a minor amount of rain. But I was tired and headed home. For some color photos of the mill, please see this 2013 post.

Technical notes

Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5 E with 75mm f/3.5 Schneider Xenotar lens (5-element with single coating on all elements).
Film: Kodak Panatomic-X, exposed at ISO 25. It has been expired 27 years but has been frozen. Slow-speed black and white films survive for years in a freezer. After decades, cosmic rays may cause fogging on high-speed films, but this slow emulsion is still fine.
Film development: Northcoast Photographic Services developed the film in a Hostert dip and dunk system using Clayton F76+ developer. I requested N-1 development (pull 1 stop) but the results were still too contrasty and harsh. Also, the film exhibited some reticulation, meaning a rinse or other chemical was too cold. I did some contrast adjustment and toning with PhotoNinja software.
Scanning: I used a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi medium format scanner at 2850 dpi. To run the scanner requires an old computer with Windows 7 and a SCSI card. The Minolta ScanMulti software was written around 1999 for Windows 98 or NT. To keep old hardware going requires not only the device you want to use but also the appropriate cards, wiring, software, drivers, and operating system.

Update: To compare with traditional black and white film, here is a high-tech digital image of the former gas station on East South Street. This was from a Fuji X-E1 camera with 27mm lens.

Dilapidated Stores, Mill Street, Jackson, Mississippi

North Mill Street runs parallel to the Canadian Pacific (and Kansas City Southern?) railroad line in Jackson. The name "Mill" indicates its former industrial origins. Today, Mill Street north of the recently-renovated Union Station is a mess, with abandoned lots, crumbling houses, and concrete slabs. This part of Jackson is imploding.

 

This is a garage at 214 Mill Street. The crumbling doors made it look abandoned. But inside, there were semi-recent cars. So possibly it is a going concern, but it is hard to tell.

This is a store that formerly occupied the corner of Mill and West Monument Streets. It has been razed. I wrote about it in a 2013 article.

 

This is an old-fashioned local corner store at 758 Mill, at the corner at West Cohea Street. It is deserted, and the roof is beginning to collapse into the upper floor. I did not want to venture inside. Stores like this once served the local residents, who did not have automobiles or the ability to reach a supermarket.

The cottage at 744 has a cheerful garden. I took this from the rickety steps leading up to the 2nd flood of the corner store. Some people below waved and said hi.

Across the street at 903 was a car shop. The tracks are behind. The Amtrak comes along this line en route to Union Station.

This is a shop at 906, across West Cohea from the abandoned 2-storey store. There is still a need for a local store to serve the residents. I have more photographs from this area, but they are on film and must be scanned. Someday when I have time....

2015 photographs taken with a FujiFilm X-E1 digital camera.

Abandoned Corner Store, North Mill Street, Jackson, Mississippi

In the previous post, I showed a photograph of North Mill Street taken from the Fortification Street bridge. A few blocks south, at the corner of North Mill and West Monument Streets, sits an abandoned brick store. It has been empty and decaying for at least a decade.

You can see the faded Dr. Pepper logo and remnants of other signs. In the second photograph, you can see the Fortification Street bridge in the distance.

This was address no. 703.  The store served the once-vibrant residential community just to the east.  Once there were many more stores along Farish Street.

The manhole covers are really fancy here.  Complete with a presidential eagle.  We will cover more of downtown Jackson in future articles.

Photographs taken with a Sony DSC-W7 compact digital camera.

Update April 18, 2015: the store has been demolished. I do not visit this area often, so I do not know how long it has been gone.