Another Random Walk around Vicksburg, Mississippi (2021-2023)

Downtown

In the last article, I looked at houses along South Washington Street. Let's take a semi-random walk in the southern part of Vicksburg plus one view downtown and see what interesting photons passed through my camera lens and into the film emulsion. Most of these frames will also be from color negative film, mostly Kodak Ektar 100. Please click any picture to see more details.

Downtown Vicksburg from China Street (Royal Gold 25 film, Leica M2, 50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens)

As of 2023, The Vicksburg apartments are being renovated. Residents had to move to other accomodations around town. I hope this continues a downtown revival. The brick building in the left is the long-unused Junius Ward Johnson YMCA. It has been empty for at least 20 years. 

South Washington Street Area

View west towards the Mississippi River from Washington Street (Hasselblad, 80mm ƒ/2.8 lens)

This the view west to the Mississippi River (the shiny water at the horizon). The Yazoo canal is out of sight just beyond the water tower. The water tower is a remnant of the cotton compress, of which very little remains now. With an amazing view like this, in most cities, a neighborhood like this would have gentrified. This one is still a mess.

Washington Street view north near Bowman Street

Tri-State Tire, 2209 Washington Street

This unusual building with decorated arches was once an ice company. Then, in the 1960s, it was the Seale-Lily ice cream store. Mr. Christ bought it in the 1970s and converted the building into a tire business. His daughter, Susan Christ, runs the business now and provides courteous and efficient service. I wrote about Tri-State in 2018. 

1009 (?) Bowman Street

1007 and 1009 Bowman Street

Turn right from Washington Street onto Bowman Street. Some of the housing stock is seriously degraded. 

Magnolia School, Bowman Street

The former Magnolia School has been unused since at least the mid-1980s. Former windows were bricked in decades ago. From the 1920s to the 1950s, this was one of the most progressive schools for African-American students. J.G.H. Bowman, the principle of Magnolia Avenue High School, was highly respected for his dedication and accomplishments in running the school. The street is now named after him. 

807 Speed Street

It looks like the occupants ran out of blue paint. Speed Street is pretty rough.

Drummond Street Area

Pink house, 2721 Green Street

Ducks in a row, 911 Bowmar Avenue 

2815 Drummond Street

This four-unit apartment has been empty for at least five years. The front porch is sagging. As so often with these older houses, status unknown.

Johnny's truck, Candee Street

This ends our short walk around Vicksburg. I took the 2023 photographs with Kodak Ektar 100 film using my new Pentax Spotmatic F camera and 50mm ƒ/1.4 or 55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lenses. Watch for more Vicksburg photographs soon. Thanks for coming along!

Heading Downtown on Foot: Drummond Street, Vicksburg (B&W film)

In early 2018 in the 35MMC photo blog, I wrote about how I was trying to be a bit more spontaneous with my photography. I wrote a short review of my little Olympus Trip 35 camera, which was was light and handy.

The Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera is a lot bigger then the Trip 35, but it also can be hand-held and is very convenient. I thought, why not load it with some Kodak Tri-X 400, walk downtown, and photograph whatever caught my fancy? What follows below is a walk along Drummond Street heading north, towards downtown Vicksburg. This was early 2020, before the Trump Virus semi-confined us to home. I added a few frames from other dates. In the future, I will write an article about some of the architecture along Drummond Street.

At one time, Drummond Street was lined with these magnificent oak trees. I think they were planted in the 1910s or 1920s to line the street. Over time, many have been felled as they rotted or huge limbs broke off. I do not see any present horticultural program to redecorate our streets. Maybe it is considered unnecessary, but we have a hodge-podge of trees now.

This one of the many crepe myrtle trees. These grow quickly and make pretty blossoms that last for weeks during the mid-summer. They add a nice splash of color to the scene.

Welcome Mississippi style. This 1920s cottage at 2904 Drummond was empty for several years but has been nicely restored. A gent name Mr. Moses lived here many years ago. He told me he was a refugee from a famine in Palestine.

Top Five, corner of Drummond and Bowmar Streets (Leica IIIC, 50mm ƒ/1.4 Canon lens, BW400CN film)

The Top Five gets a lot of business. It may be the only grocery store for several miles (excluding the Quick Stop a few blocks north). There is an occasional shooting here, but I now see some video cameras on the power poles pointing towards the store.

Bowmar Ave. near Drummond Street (Tri-X film, 4×5" Tachihara camera, 180 mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar IIN lens)

This is a 1988 photograph of Bowmar Ave near the intersection with Drummond. The Top Five is at the middle right. A friend lived in the apartments on the left in the 1970s. They look pretty rough now.

Continue north and at least two of the Victorian-era houses still have their original fences. The architect must have specified the length of the fence units and then assembled them when he completed the brick retaining wall. Nice workmanship.

This is a view west along Speed Street, which intersects Drummond. The concrete pattern indicates that this is original concrete street from the 1920s. Oddly, while taking this picture, I experienced one of the very rare times that someone objected to photography. A short, pugnacious, Type A white guy confronted me and ranted away for awhile. Then he left. I am sure he felt very macho, penile, and powerful for the rest of the day.

The bees liked this post box. I hope the postman saw the danger before he tried to use it. This looks like an old-fashioned box but is recent.

Letitia Street in 1997 (Agfa Scala film, Leica M3, 50mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens, yellow filter)

Cottage off Letitia Street (Tri-X, 4×5" Tachihara camera, 180mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar IIN lens) 

Letitia Street drops downhill from Drummond approximately across the street from the Vicksburg Gas & Water office. 1920s cottages and some newer warehouses line the street. The dark rectangle hulk at the left center is the long-unused Magnolia School on Bowmar Street. It has been empty for decades, status unknown.

Heading north, we reach the Quick Stop at the corner of Drummond and Belmont Streets. This gas station is usually busy.

Kansas City Southern rail line after ice storm, photograph from Monroe St. bridge (Tri-X film, 4×5" Tachihara camera, 180mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar IIN lens)

Half a block north, a bridge crosses a valley and the Kansas City Southern railroad tracks. This is an odd alignment, and I assume the railroad used a natural gully when the track was laid out well before the Civil War. Trains need to negotiate this curve slowly. Once you cross the tracks, Drummond becomes Monroe Street.

Kansas City Southern rail line, photograph from Belmont Street (Tri-X film, 4×5" Tachihara camera, 135mm ƒ/4.5 Schneider Xenar lens, green filter)

This is a view of the railroad cut from a parking lot off Belmont Street. In the 1980s, I remember there being more little cottages on the opposite slope. Kudzu has enveloped the slope, covering some gardens/farms that were once below the houses.

Cottages below West Pine Street (Tri-X 400 film, Leica M3 camera, 90mm ƒ/2.8 Tele-Elmarit lens, green filter)

This is a 1996 tele view of some of the cottages on the slope. Compare with the 2002 photograph above, where the lowest cottage has been totally enveloped with kudzu.

This is the American Legion building where some precincts vote in state and national elections.

This ends our short walk on Drummond Street. The former Vicksburg Hospital was on Monroe Street just a short distance north. I will scan some of those photographs some day (when I make time).

Demolished: the Speed Street School, Vicksburg, Mississippi

For many years, a handsome brick school stood at the corner of Speed and Marshall Streets, in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Location of former Speed Street School, Vicksburg, Mississippi

This is a historic neighborhood east of Washington Street with late 1800s and early 20th century houses.

The school, located at the crest of the hill, was a handsome, traditional brick structure with large, airy windows to allow plenty of light.  Contrast with today's typical, prison-like box, optimistically labeled a super school. According to the Vicksburg Post, the Speed Street School was designed by Vicksburg builder/architect, Mr. William Stanton, and was built in 1894.

"The three-story, brick building at 901 Speed St. was built in 1894 and housed Speed Street School until 1940, making it the last remaining 19th century public school building in Vicksburg. Its fall into disrepair can be traced only to recent decades, with its conversion in the late 1960s to rent-assisted living spaces under a number of different owners. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985."

According to the Nomination Form for the National Register of Historic Places,

"On January 14, 1895, the Speed Street School opened as South Vicksburg Public School No. 200. As late as the mid-nineteen-thirties it was one of only two white elementary schools in the Vicksburg public school system. The district also included a white high school and two schools for black students of all grade levels (Cooper, Sect. 3). Upon its closing in 1940, the Speed Street School was sold to the Allein Post #3 of the American Legion. It was again sold in 1968 at which time it was divided into low-rent apartments." 

The historical background in the nomination is interesting reading.

The entry foyer once had separate doors for boys and girls

It was a stately building, with tall, elegant windows.  The original double hung sashes were still in place,  They were probably in poor condition, but still, they were 120 years old.  The lower photograph was taken from the second floor of an apartment complex across the street.

After the tenants were removed, I explored the property.  The children abandoned some toys.

This hallway was on the north side.  An identical hall was on the other side of the wall on the right.

The door in the back led to the auditorium

The interior was grim.  There were two main halls inside on each floor with adjoining classrooms. Originally, one side of the building would have been for boys; the other side for girls. My mother went to elementary school in Nazi Germany, and she said the boys were separated from the girls with barbed wire and strictly prohibited from interacting.

This was one of the basement apartments.

The 2-story auditorium was added to the rear of the building in 1930.  The steel truss beams look newer, but possibly the roof was replaced more recently. Originally, it was a decent venue for gatherings and school events. I think the auditorium had been closed off from the apartment residents in recent years. Once the building was in demolition, the workmen stored plumbing fittings and junk there.

The building was condemned in 2008 after sewage backed up in the plumbing. Two former City employees told me that shootings, drugs, and rapes plagued the building when it was used for low-cost housing. A friend of my daughter lived there.  She reported that her apartment was one of the few with a permanent telephone.  The other tenants would come to use the phone and then steal things from the family.

The neighborhood has deteriorated, and no one was interested in restoring the building because the revenue stream would never cover the costs. A Bogalusa, Louisiana-based company, Will Branch Antique Lumber, recycled the bricks, wood floors and support beams.  It was hard, dirty, dusty work to deconstruct. Some of the roof joists were huge, made from old growth timber of the type we no longer can get.

I hate to see a building like this torn down, but at least the materials will be reused rather than discarded, as is typical now. Will today's commercial buildings and McMansions have anything worth recycling in 100 years? I doubt most will even be standing in 50 years.

For more information, Preservation in Mississippi had an article on the Speed Street School in 2009 (click the link).

Photographs 1,2, and 4 (the black and whites) were taken on Kodak Panatomic-X film with a Fuji GW690II camera, film developed in Rodinol 1:50.  The rest were taken with an Olympus E-330 digital camera with the 14-54 mm lens, or a FujiFilm F31fd compact camera, all tripod-mounted.