Lost Victorian House: 1210 Finney Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

In early July, my wife and I drove on Finney Street and saw the city inspector's paint marking on a handsome old 2-story wood Victorian-era house. That means trouble, that the house is scheduled for demolition unless the owner completes required repairs to bring it up to the city's safety or habitability standards. This house had been used as a rental for years or decades and was in ratty condition.

But there was scaffolding around the porch and some timbers had been replaced. We hoped it could be saved. These old houses can endure decades of neglect, but once the roof begins to fail, water causes rot.

Bad news. On Saturday, September 2, 2017, I bicycled along Drummond Street and saw the trucks on Finney Street. A demolition crew was at work smushing the Victorian house and loading the timbers and debris into trucks. Was it not worth deconstructing it to save 100+-year-old joists and flooring? Well, that is how we lose our architectural heritage along with irreplaceable virgin timber wood beams.

The square photographs are from a Hasselblad film camera with the 50mm Zeiss Distagon lens, using Kodak Panatomix-X film. The last picture is from a Nexus 4 telephone (sorry, no room for the Hasselblad on my bicycle).

Lost flood zone houses: Marys Alley, Vicksburg, Misissippi

As of January 2016, another flood is surging down the Mississippi River. The high water, predicted to be about 52 ft above gauge zero on the Vicksburg gauge, will inundate low-lying areas west of North Washington Street. The 2011 flood reached 57.1 ft, a record, but even at only 44.6 ft, the Kings subdivision, located north of the Anderson-Tully Vicksburg sawmill, is subject to some degree of inundation. As a result, residents of homes built on ground level have often needed to evacuate, and the homes were repeatedly damaged. Finally, many of these low houses were purchased and removed via a FEMA program. As of 2012, all the houses along Marys Alley were gone. Click the link to see an aerial photograph from an older post.

These little houses were pretty rough by the time they had been condemned. I guess they were 1940s vintage, semi-shotgun style. They were elevated off the ground a few feet and probably had survived several high water events. But some other houses in this area were 1960s- or 1970s-vintage with slab foundation. A slab house in a flood-prone area?

These are scans of 120-size Kodak Panatomic-X film, exposed with a Fuji GW690II camera with 90mm EBC Fujinon lens. The camera was tripod-mounted. I scanned the negatives with a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi medium format film scanner.

The following list shows historic crest levels at the Vicksburg gauge, from the National Weather Service:

Historic Crests
(1) 57.10 ft on 05/19/2011
(2) 56.20 ft on 05/04/1927
(3) 53.20 ft on 02/21/1937
(4) 52.80 ft on 06/06/1929
(5) 52.50 ft on 04/28/1922
(6) 51.60 ft on 05/13/1973
(7) 51.50 ft on 02/15/1916
(8) 51.00 ft on 04/20/2008
(9) 50.20 ft on 04/16/1897
(10) 49.90 ft on 04/27/1913

And here are some low water records. You can see that the total water level range can be as much as 64 feet.

Low Water Records
(1) -7.00 ft on 02/03/1940
(2) -6.80 ft on 11/01/1939
(3) -5.80 ft on 01/06/1964

Update: Shotgun shacks demolished, Mary's Alley, Vicksburg

In 2010, I posted some photographs of the cottages and shotgun shacks on Mary's Alley, in the Kings area of North Vicksburg. The houses had been condemned by the City because they frequently flooded.

As of mid-2012, the houses are gone. This is a recent aerial photograph taken with 6-inch pixel resolution. The footprints of the former houses are outlined in yellow. The footprints were based on 1995 aerial photography.  I converted one of the layers in the 1995 Microstation .dgn files to ESRI Shapefiles.  As you can see, many of the houses in this area have been demolished. Deconstruction...

 Map created with ESRI ArcMap GIS software version 10.0

Shotgun Shacks, Rigby Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Rigby Street is an out-of-the way dead-end lane west of Washington Street. Drive west on Polk Street, cross Washington Street at the fire station, and you are on Rigby. The houses in these photographs were west of Oak Street.


Once there were probably tens of shotgun shacks lining both sides of the street, but in 2006, only four were left. They were examples of the ubiquitous narrow one-floor wood houses built in great numbers during the early 20th century. The first one beyond Oak was 507, occupied in May 2006 when I took this photograph.

The second was 509, also occupied and reasonably neat.


No. 513 had clearly been deserted for years and was being overtaken by the vines. This reminds me of shows on the SyFy channel, were evil vines overcome and squash a house, often with the occupants inside.

513 had once been fixed up with wood paneling on the walls. The original fireplace had been boarded up. You can see wood tongue-and-groove where the door trim has been removed. I am not sure if the walls were ever plastered or if originally they had cheesecloth tacked to the wood with wallpaper over the cheesecloth (a common practice here in the late-1800s and early 20th century).

As of August 2011, all of these houses are gone, and the jungle has grown so luxuriously, there is little evidence that the house lots ever existed.

(Photographs taken with a Sony DSC-W7 digital camera.)

Deconstruction, Johnson Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Johnson Street runs from Washington Street east down a hill steeply, turns right, and joins Lee Street near the Vicksburg High School football field. Like may other streets in town, it follows the crest of a loess ridge, the only practical pathway in a complicated topography. In the 1980s, this was a vibrant neighborhood with a church and tens of houses. Over the years, most of the shotgun shacks have been demolished, and today, I think only five houses are occupied. The Vicksburg Post recently printed a list of houses on the City's demolition list, which inspired me to record them. The first Johnson Street property on the list was 723, which is perched precariously over the gully. This was a common practice in the early 1900s. Because streets ran along the ridges, houses were built with the front door approximately at ground level while the rear of the house was supported with posts high over the gully below. Most of the condemned houses are pretty rough. The City demolishes them and places a lien on the owner to cover the cost. Over time, more and more lots are being cleared off - deconstruction. Some of my family members in other states and countries find it hard to believe that there is no demand for the land. The MB church has an engraved cornerstone which states that the congregation first organized in 1863. I met a gent in a nicely-painted house near the church who pointed out places where shotgun shacks formerly stood. No. 753 below is the last of this architectural style left on Johnson. Someone is repairing it. The following two houses, nos 715 and 751, are still occupied. The neighborhood was quiet and there were birds everywhere. I took these photographs on 31 January, 2010 with a Sony DSC-R1 digital camera, tripod-mounted. 

Update July 30, 2011: Here is a 2007 photograph of the cheerful blue house at 752 Johnson.