MDAH Historic Preservation Division

11/09/2022

01/23/2021

The new Community Heritage Preservation Grants awards were announced today!

At a special meeting on January 22, the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History awarded nearly $3 million on behalf of the Community Heritage Preservation Grant program

05/09/2020

City of Clinton officials and lovers of historic preservation have won a significant victory in the revitalization and preservation of histo...

02/27/2020

On February 18, Mississippi lost a noted architectural historian and preservation advocate with the death of Dr. Michael Fazio. Born in Mobile, Alabama, Dr. Fazio grew up in Birmingham. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University, a Master of Architecture Degree from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in the History of Architecture and Urban Development from Cornell University. His professional accomplishments were many. He co-wrote the popular survey Buildings Across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture, published in 2003, and was co-author of The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, which won the prestigious Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians in 2008. Most recently, he completed work on Buildings in Mississippi, coauthored with MDAH Chief Architectural Historian Jennifer Baughn, and scheduled for publication later this year. In addition to his published work, Dr. Fazio was a founding professor of the School of Architecture at Mississippi State University, where he was known as a challenging but passionate teacher. Although he retired from Mississippi State in 2005, he continued to make significant contributions to the study of architecture as an Emeritus Professor. He also faithfully served on the Mississippi National Register Review Board from 1979 until his death and was instrumental in the City of Starkville's passage of a historic preservation ordinance, chairing the historic preservation commission until illness required him to step down.

A Celebration of Life service will be held Saturday, February 29, at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Starkville at 11:00 a.m. Memorial contributions may be made to The Nature Conservancy.

02/18/2020

At noon on Wednesday, February 19, we invite you to come learn about one of Mississippi's National Historic Landmark properties. As part of the department's 'History Is Lunch' series, NASA engineer Gary Benton, who is a native of Meridian and a graduate of Mississippi State University, will present “Stennis Space Center: America’s Largest Rocket Engine Test Complex.”

In October 1961 the federal government chose an area in Hancock County as the location for a new test site for launch vehicles to be used in the human lunar landing program. At the time, it was the largest construction project ever undertaken in Mississippi and the second-largest in the country. Less than eight years later Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface, safely transported thousands of miles by a space vehicle whose boosters were tested and proven flight-worthy at Stennis Space Center.

The Stennis Center is one of ten NASA field centers in the United States. In addition to testing the first and second Saturn V rocket stages for NASA's Apollo Program, all space shuttle main engines had to pass a series of test firings at Stennis. The site also partners with companies such as SpaceX and Relativity Space to test engines and engine components for their private space efforts.

The next-generation engines and rocket stages that will carry humans aboard NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) deeper into space than ever before are also being tested there as well. The rocket will be the backbone of the Artemis program that will return humans, including the first woman and next man, to the moon by 2024.

The program will take place in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium at the Two Mississippi Museums — the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum — located at 222 North Street, Jackson, MS 39201. There is no charge to attend.

12/10/2019

The MDAH Board of Trustees awarded nearly $3 million on behalf of the Community Heritage Preservation Grant program to seventeen preservation and restoration projects at a special meeting on December 6.

10/15/2019

The last intact steam engine factory in the United States.

08/09/2019

A new resort boosts a port city’s hospitality and tourism stature with a reimagined former military installation.

07/26/2019

This morning, MDAH staff, in partnership with Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, held a Historic Windows Workshop at the Masonic Lodge on the grounds of the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum. On hand for the workshop were representatives from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, Jackson State University and maintenance staff from the Ag Museum. Presenting was Mingo Tingle, Chief of Technical Preservation Services at MDAH, and Sam Morgan, Facilities Management at Mississippi State University in Starkville.