Mouldering Unused: Vicksburg's former Post Office and Federal Court House

Former Post Office and Federal Court House, undated post card

Former court house from Monroe Street (135mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

The former U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is an imposing limestone edifice at 820 Crawford Street in Vicksburg. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History's Historic Resources Inventory describes it as a Classical Revival building begun in 1935 and completed in 1937. It was designed by architect Claude Lindsley under the administration of of Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect of the Treasury from 1933 to 1939. 

A five-story, stuccoed, Classical Revival office building, facing north, with a flat roof. The first floor facade is scored to look like stone and has three sets of double bronze doors with fanlights and elaborate bronze entablatures and eight casement windows with transoms. The three entrances are recessed behind large arches. The second, third and fourth floors are separated from the fifth floor by a heavy cornice and from the first floor by a heavy belt course on which is inscribed "United States Post Office and Court House". The facade of these floors is broken by two recesses dominated by three-story Ionic columns and pilasters. The original lobby is intact.

In 2003, the federal government planned to transfer the Post Office to the City of Vicksburg, but the plan fell through and the City never took possession. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that the building contained asbestos throughout that had not been removed. Possibly this or other potential maintenance issues convinced the city to not accept the property. The federal government sold the building to private owners around 2007.

Vicksburg's new post office is a functional but totally uninteresting (OK, ugly) building on Pemberton Boulevard. Because of reduced need for space, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi relocated to the city of Natchez. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, my friends in the Cam-Arts camera club and I met in a conference room on an upper floor in the building. At that time, the US Army Corps of Engineers Lower Mississippi Valley Division occupied offices on the upper floors. It was a comfortable room with reclining, sleep-inducing plush chairs and a 1970s color scheme.

At one time, there was a well-equipped photographic darkroom somewhere in the building. Via a convoluted path, I ended up with a giant stainless steel sink that had once been in this darkroom. In 2003, I donated it to Vicksburg High School when the art teacher taught a photography class. The City plumbers plumbed the sink, which I hope it is still in place.  

Several times, I asked Shirley Waring, who represents a company that owns the building, if I could take some photographs inside. She agreed but subsequently never responded when I sent emails or called. Nancy Bell, director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation, told me that one photographer offered serious money to photograph inside, but to no avail. 

This handsome old building sits, leaks, and moulders, year after year. Fate: unknown. 

Handsome entrance with arched doorways (28mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens.

Ramp added long after original construction (24mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar)

Arched doorway with heavy bronze doors (24mm lens).

Detail of facade above arch (24mm lens)

A now-rare fallout shelter sign has survived

The rear of the building was distinctly more utilitarian, with a loading dock and fire escape stairs.

Original steel frame windows (30mm ƒ/10 Kodak lens adapted to Leica thread mount).

Loading dock stair (30mm ƒ/10 lens).

As I wrote above, this fine old building sits unoccupied and unmaintained. Eventually, decay, leaks, and plumbing issues will render it uneconomical for anyone to reuse it (this may be already happening). Too much time has passed. Who will pay to demolish it? 

I took the 2023 photographs on Kodak Plus-X film with a Pentax Spotmatic F camera. The last two photographs are on Fuji Acros film.