Old Railroad Machine Shop, Levee Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Kansas City Southern (KCS) rail yard, Levee Street, Vicksburg (Panatomic-X film, Spotmatic camera, 135mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens, ⅛ sec ƒ/11.5)

Levee Street runs along the Yazoo Canal waterfront following the west edge of Vicksburg. Formerly, warehouses, silos, and machine shops of various types lined the road. Many have been demolished over the decades, but it still has an industrial look, especially with the presence of the Kansas City Southern railroad shunting and work yard right next door.  

Levee Street view north (28mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

Levee Street view south (28mm ƒ/3.5 Takumar lens)

I have seen this old workshop since I moved to the area. It is clad with miscellaneous materials of interesting textures.

 

I see junk inside the shed but never any activity. I assume the railroad owns it.

South side of workshop with railroad track and parts (28mm ƒ/3.5 lens)

The building was secure and I did not want to trespass. I do not know if railroad tracks ever went into the work area.

This brick shed is on the grounds of the KCS rail yard and may be decades old. The mid-century buildings are steel utility construction, so I assume this brick shed is early 20th century. Long-term readers may remember that I wrote about a handsome 1890 brick office/utility building that once stood in the rail yard. Sadly, the railroad demolished it in 2011. 

Kodak 135-36 Panatomic-X film, expired 1991

I took these photographs on 35mm Kodak Panatomic-X film. Kodak discontinued this wonderful, fine-grained, black and white film around 1990, but an eBay seller offered a brick which he claimed had been frozen. My experience with cold-stored 120-size Panatomic-X is that it is almost perfect, with no fog or other deterioration. These frames are from the first roll of three that I bought from that vendor. I exposed the film at EI=25 in a Pentax Spotmatic camera. I also tested my newly-acquired 28mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens. Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film in Xtol developer. I will show more Panatomic-X examples in the future.

Partial Reuse: Cotton Mills of Tupelo, Mississippi (B&W film)

Former Knitting Mill, S. Green St., Tupelo, Mississippi

Knitting Mill from S. Spring St., Tupelo

Dear Readers, I am continuing my ongoing exploration of towns in Mississippi with this short visit to Tupelo.

Tupelo is a city in northeast Mississippi just off the Natchez Trace Parkway. In the early 20th century, the city was a major cotton processing center, as demonstrated by huge brick mills. They are now mostly unused but may have future life as apartments, stores, or wedding/party venues. (I am specifically not using the term "repurposing," which is trendy today.)

These postcards from the Cooper Postcard Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History give you an idea of the industrial power of cotton processing early in the 20th century.

I stayed in Tupelo in May of 2018 and spent a morning exploring.

The Tupelo Cotton Mill (300 Elliott Street) formerly housed a wholesale supplier but now is being used as an event venue. I could not go in but walked around the hulking building.

A shed across the parking lot housed a serious coffee roaster.

The Gravlee Lumber Company on Spring Street has closed. I can't tell if this part of town is being revitalized or not.

Some interesting old industrial equipment was on the lot next to Gravlee Lumber.

Oh oh, Elvis is back. Maybe he never left. After all, he was born here in Tupelo.

The BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) and KCS (Kansas City Southern) cross lines at an interesting X-crossing just east of Spring Street.

For now, that is all. Tupelo warrants a return for some more exploring. The rectangle black and white photographs are from 35mm Fuji Acros 100 film in my wife's 1971 Pentax Spotmatic camera with various Pentax Takumar lenses. The two square frames are from Ilford Delta 100 film exposed with my Rolleiflex 3.5E medium format camera with its fabulous 75mm ƒ/3.5 Schneider Xenotar lens.

Small Towns in Mississippi: Holly Springs

Holly Springs is the county seat of Marshall County, Mississippi. It is near the border with southern Tennessee and is southeast of Memphis. It is in the hill country east of the Mississippi Delta, but its early history was intertwined with cotton cultivation and processing.

Holly Springs Depot, from Cooper Postcard Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

The post card from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History shows cotton bales stacked near the railroad depot.

The depot, with its distinctive towers is still standing and in good condition. I was there late in the day and the building was empty; I am not sure who uses it. The 1800s brick shed still has railroad equipment in and around it.

Mississippi Industrial College, from Cooper Postcard Collection, Mississippi department of Archives and History

For years, I had wanted to visit Holly Springs to see the remains of the Mississippi Industrial College. According to Hill Country History:

Mississippi Industrial College was an historically black college founded in 1905 by the Mississippi Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church under the leadership of Bishop Elias Cottrell (1855-1937).  Bishop Cottrell’s goal was to create a college for African Americans and provide them with liberal arts education and industrial training. Mississippi Industrial College’s campus was located on a 120 acre lot, across the street from Rust College, a competing historically black liberal arts school.

Classes began at the College in January of 1906, and in May the school already had over 200 students.  By 1908 Mississippi Industrial College had 450 students.  Mississippi Industrial College was one of the most important black colleges in Mississippi for many decades, until the end of segregation resulted in increasingly low student populations. The college closed in 1982 and remained empty.  During the 1990s, the Holly Springs Police Department and other businesses moved into the newer of the buildings, but they eventually abandoned the property as well.

The once-handsome buildings at the College have been deteriorating for three decades. One of the more modern structures housed the police department and some other city offices for a few years, but I think all campus buildings are empty now.

Preservation Mississippi wrote about the deterioration of the Carnegie Auditorium in 2010. Consider, at one time, the auditorium could seat 1000 people. In a small college in a rural area! The builders had lofty ambitions that they could bring the arts and culture to their students and members of the surrounding community. As of 2018, the building is structurally unsound and dangerous. (The color image above is a digital file.)

Sadly, there is not much left to explore at the site. The historic buildings are unsafe. Notice the stone slab steps.

On Rte 7, we came across an old-fashioned Texaco station, complete with its horizontal stripes on the roof above the pumps. Someone is using the property as a repair shop and storage depot for old trucks.

That is all for Holly Springs. The town was not too inspiring photographically. It suffers from serious poverty and decay. And the historic college is is very poor condition. The black and white photographs are from Kodak TMax 100 film, exposed at EI=80 and developed in Xtol developer. I used my wife's 1971 Pentax Spotmatic camera and scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner.

The Mississippi Delta 32: Satartia

Lift bridge, Yazoo River, Satartia Road (photograph taken from levee)

Satartia is a charming little town (village) on the east bank of the Yazoo River in Yazoo County, about 32 miles north of Vicksburg. According to Wikipedia, "It is Mississippi's smallest incorporated municipality by population. Located on the east bank of the Yazoo River, Satartia was once a thriving river port, and is one of the oldest non-Native settlements in Yazoo County." Although the 2017 population was only about 54, the village has a number of well-preserved historical cottages and homes.

Satartia Grocery, 304 Plum St., Satartia (Ektar 25 film, 35mm Super-Takumar lens)

Satartia Grocery (35mm Super-Takumar lens). The Fordice sticker on the door refers to the former governor, whose administration was marked by racial discord, race-baiting, scandal, corruption, and drinking.

Satartia Grocery photographed through glass (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Shed behind Satartia Grocery

Not too hot - yet (digital file)

The Satartia Grocery must have once provided supplies and food staples to the town's residents. I could not tell how long it has been closed. I assume residents now must drive to Yazoo City or Vicksburg to buy groceries.

Some of the houses in town are occupied; others are empty but not abandoned. This part of the town is east of the Yazoo River levee and is therefore out of the flood zone.

On Old Hickory Street, not far from the junction with Rte 3, I saw this old Sears Roebuck trailer.

Former grist mill (Ektar 25 film, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

West of the levee, the land drops and was pretty wet as of May 27, 2019. This shed's contents (if any) likely stayed dry this year. A gent from a house nearby said this was once the grist mill.

I crossed the lift bridge and headed west on Satartia Road but could only drive a couple of miles before the road dropped under the water. If the road were open, it would take you to Holly Bluff, another small agricultural Mississippi Delta town which I photographed in 2016 (click the link).

This ends out short visit to Satartia. Most of the photographs are from long-expired Kodak Ektar 25 film, taken with a Pentax Spotmatic camera and various Pentax Takumar lenses. The Ektar 25 had odd color shifts, but I was able to partly correct them with the automatic color function in Photoshop CS3.

Update March 2021: A friend sent me some 120 size Ektar 25, which I used in and around Vicksburg (please click the link)