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CHURCH STREET
Victorian Moro-Byzantine Revival Architecture in
PORT GIBSON, MISSISSIPPI
The Fruit of Inspired Aimlessness
By Johnny Stucco |
| It
was with mild astonishment that we came across this handsome structure
from the early 1890s. It stands today at 706 Church Street in Port
Gibson, Mississippi. Church Street is also the fabled Highway 61,
central flyway for Delta musicians goin’ to Chicago (sorry that I
can’t take you). |
Mississippi Port
Gibson Temple Gemiluth Chassed
TE photo, July 2009 |
The day we found
this building we knew we’d find something that we weren’t looking
for because we weren’t looking for anything. It never fails. You head
out the door with absolutely no expectations and before you know it;
there it is (or there they are).
Judging by the abundance of signs around Port Gibson saying “Save
Church Street” it appears there may be plans afoot of widening the
most attractive street in Port Gibson. Port Gibson is the county seat
of Claiborne County, Mississippi and Church Street is the most visible
street to people passing through town. Many of Port Gibson’s ante-bellum
homes line both the sides of Church Street. |
Temple Gemiluth
Chassed sign
TE photo, July 2009 |
While church
street in its present form is guaranteed to leave travelers with a
lasting memory of a charming Mississippi town, if “progress” has it’s
way; it will become just another highway town – indistinguishable
from its brethren in Texas, Pennsylvania or Indiana. New curbing,
new fast food franchises and new camera-equipped stop lights.
Identified by a handsome wooden sign as the Temple Gemiluth Chassed
(Gift of the Righteous), the building has a historical marker which
adds little more information than what you’ve already learned from
this article. The sign merely adds that the structure is unique in
Mississippi – but that’s immediately apparent. |
Claiborne County
Courthouse in Port Gibson
TE photo, July 2009 |
Claiborne County
Marker
TE photo, July 2009 |
Port Gibson also
has a handsome but unusually placed courthouse – complete with a stone
sentinel perched on a high column.
A bit lower on the totem of small town icons is a rare personalized
neon sign advertising Red Goose Shoes. Stores selling Red Goose “Juvenile”
shoes were strictly for the carriage trade. It was early brand-identity
and no self-respecting family of means would dream of sending their
offspring off to school with run of the mill footwear. |
Fort
Worth’s Sundance Square has made their Red Goose sign a regional
icon – just as Dallas has
done with their much-larger, red
neon Pegasus. Red Geese have long been on the list of endangered
neon so it was
a thrill to discover one in such an unlikely place.
If you’re visiting Mississippi, we hope your route takes you to Port
Gibson, halfway between Natchez and Vicksburg. Our best wishes go
to the people of Port Gibson for their success in preserving Church
Street.
© John Troesser
August 10, 2009
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage or recent photos, please contact
us. |
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