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CHURCH
STREET
Victorian Moro-Byzantine Revival Architecture in
PORT GIBSON, MISSISSIPPI
The
Fruit of Inspired Aimlessness
By Johnny Stucco |
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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. | |
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