Historic Courthouse Architecture (Part I)
A Photographic Essay by D. Tracy Ward
Image of old Natchez Trace – courtesy Historic American Building Survey – Library of Congress
The modern State name evolved from various Indian pronunciations that had no corresponding written spelling. “Meechee Seepe” (Choctaw pronunciation); “Mitchisipi” (1672); “Mechasipi” (1698); “Missisipi” (1722); and the current spelling “Mississippi” (1817 statehood). Regardless of the spelling – just to speak, hear or read the name is to evoke thoughts and images of that big and mighty muddy river, massive plantation homes with grand classical columns, speckled white cotton fields as far as the eye can see, huge oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from ancient limbs, dark and ominous thunder storms boiling across the sky, and the unique musical sounds of the blues.
It’s been said that handsome architecture is like beautiful music frozen in time. Ever since Hernando de Soto first explored here almost 500 years ago, the Mississippi Territory has uniquely blended its cultural and architectural compositions into a rare and enchanting melody…still in concert today.
Mississippi courthouse – image courtesy D. Tracy Ward 2010
Born from the Old Southwest, Mississippi joined the Union 200 years ago (1817) and initially grew rapidly. But the state has struggled economically since the War between the States in the 1860s. However, there is a positive result – the area still has so much of its historical countryside including farm meadows, beautiful lakes and forests, small towns with relaxed charm, and perhaps best of all, an incredible collection of classically designed buildings and related architecture. These are not just old buildings and towns but in fact intelligent design and craftsmanship by some of the most skilled and educated architects, builders and developers in the United States during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Mississippi Territory has always been a distinctive and picturesque setting for endless stories of history, romance, mystery, and mythology. How can anyone look at the beautiful old courthouse in Vicksburg (Warren County) and not immediately imagine the events – both joyous and tragic – that old building has seen in over 150 years? Oh, if walls could talk! Well actually….walls CAN talk, and we have researched and documented the “conversation” from county courthouses all around the state. Our team has enjoyed gathering information concerning the legal and political powers that influenced the historic decisions on county creation, town square planning and courthouse building design. The attention to detail in these incredible structures and unique places is proof that our forefathers applied their amazing God-given talents for the good of the community…at least in most cases! There have been a few dastardly characters along the way too of course.
Mississippi courthouse – image courtesy D. Tracy Ward 2010
My chosen profession of architecture is – and has always been – more than just drawing corbels, cornices, carvings and columns. And it’s more than building an edifice with sticks and bricks. Architects bring social order and organization, as well as a sense of community while we conceptualize, sketch, draft, and draw. These are certainly design aspects that were carefully considered when the process to create counties, town squares, and courthouse buildings began nearly two centuries ago in Mississippi. Many of those individuals involved in those decisions include Native Americans who were highly influential, as is visible in the names of towns (Pascagoula), counties (Chickasaw), rivers (Luxapilila), and the state name itself.
In our courthouse pictorial publications, you’ll discover that most early town-planning decisions carried profound meaning; nothing was accidental in the founders’ intent for cultural good, but also allowing for free-enterprise financial profit. I hope that readers learn to recapture lost meanings, to newly appreciate civic matters, and to again accept the social importance of these buildings and their surroundings to our communities … and to us as responsible American citizens.
If one truly wants to experience these places, we highly encourage our readers to travel the back roads and remote communities whenever you can jump off of those monotonous interstate highways. There is so much forgotten architecture, and as one encounters a beautiful old building with colors, proportions, and details that are obviously exceptional, it’s a feeling that you just took a time machine back to a simpler day. The United States and Mississippi in particular, is simply full of inspiring jewels of the past, and there’s a genuine adventure here for architectural treasure seekers. Many of those architectural gems are the old county courthouses and courthouse town squares, which originally established each town’s geometry, organized pedestrian and vehicular flow, dictated political and social order, and introduced classical academic Greek and Roman architecture into the wilderness of the Mississippi Territory.
Released in 2013, Historic Courthouse Architecture of Mississippi was our first publication, receiving a 2014 Heritage Award for “Preservation Education” from the Mississippi Heritage Trust. Volume 2, completed in 2015, features Historic Courthouse Architecture of Alabama. These coffee-table photographic essays allow the reader to immerse him or herself in a time and place when the United States of America was young, dangerous and at risk of total political failure! Let your imagination run free in a forgotten age and follow the footsteps of pre-historic Native-American tribes when the Southeast was being carved and developed out of an exciting, wild and remote American frontier of European settlers, deep dark forests, regularly flooding rivers & creeks, black bears, panthers and even buffalo!
Surprisingly, you’ll find much of the old character and spirit is more than visible still today. It’s very much alive in courthouse squares all across the area.
Mississippi courthouse – image courtesy D. Tracy Ward 2010
Our courthouse books for Mississippi and Alabama are available for sale. Visit our FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/HistoricCourthouses and email me at tracy@dtracywardarchitect.com
D. Tracy Ward, Architect
Originally prepared 2010 – Reedited & Uploaded December 2017 – DTW’s Blog #0002
Our Original Posts, including images when applicable, are copyrighted © 1993-2018 by D. Tracy Ward and Benchmark Design, PC. God bless America! Treasure Liberty always and pass it on! President Herbert Hoover, October 18, 1931: “This great complex, which we call American life, is builded and can alone survive upon the translation into individual action of that fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago…” (read Mark 12:30-31)
