Carrollton, MS

Preserving a Mississippi Landmark

Nostalgia is the key factor energizing the residents of Carrollton, Miss., to restore an old log cabin—the simple, rustic appearance of which belies the complex and emotional ties between the building and the town.

Locals are quick to tell stories of their fathers and grandfathers, uncles and great-uncles, who built the Carrollton Community House in 1936 under the Depression-era Works Progress Act. Since then, their children and their children’s children have used the building for high school dances, birthday parties, family reunions, club meetings, and wedding receptions. The community house, understandably, holds generations worth of memories for the town’s nearly 325 citizens, so they weren’t about to let the now crumbling building die.

Though many had talked about the deteriorating condition of the log structure, it wasn’t until a group of locals last year organized the Community House Restoration Fundraising Drive that rebuilding really began.

“Anybody can take credit for this campaign,” group Chairwoman Diane Slocum says. “It takes all of us working together to do this.”

Members, including Mayor Annie Mae Wilson and Margaret Adams (whose father helped construct the community house 65 years ago) went to work soliciting funds and supplies from businesses and city officials, mailing letters to current and former residents, asking for donations at class reunions, and even calling people they thought might contribute.

Fueled by newspaper articles and word-of-mouth, fund-raising efforts spread throughout the state and to surroundings states, prompting former residents to send checks and write encouraging letters.

“Carrollton is a magical place which holds wonderful memories for both of us,” wrote Fane and Buster Young of Drew, Miss., “not the least of which is that we were married there 20 years ago this August.”

The campaign also has caught the attention of state Rep. Mary Ann Stevens, who is helping secure a federal matching grant.

Within six months, community leaders came close enough to their initial goal of $50,000 to begin restoration in February. The first order of business is to repair or replace logs damaged by water and termites and to fix the fireplace that is becoming detached from the outside of the building.

Located in north Mississippi, Carrollton rests on the bluffs of the Mississippi River Delta. The community house is just off the main road to town—a road worn more than 100 years ago by the paths of riders on horseback. Carrollton’s citizens take pride in that most of the buildings in town and surrounding the courthouse remain as they were in the early 1900s.

“Carrollton is our poster child,” says Robert Parker Adams, preservation architect and president-elect of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, based in Jackson. The organization, dedicated to preserving historic buildings and their settings, began a project called The Ten Most Endangered Historic Places, which included the community house.

Adams donated his expertise to the project by detailing which logs need repairing, and demonstrating how those repairs should be carried out to restore the building, named a Mississippi Landmark in December 2000.

Henderson Campbell will oversee construction—which is fitting, Adams says. The 71-year-old logger and carpenter remembers when the community house was built and helped repair some damaged logs 25 years ago. Now he’s showing others how to maintain the log building.

The community house has certainly made a lasting impression on most who’ve come across it.

Bill Moore, a musician from Clarksdale, Miss., wrote, “In the early ‘60s, I played in a rock and roll dance band named the Countdowns. We played for a graduation dance at this building, and I have remembered through the years the good times we had there and how nice everybody was to us.”

The Carrollton Community House is a working example of how the Southern sense of place is embedded in its land and buildings.

“If we let our old structures crumble,” Adams says, “there will be no memories left and no buildings to house them.”

Theresa Vigour is a Winona, Miss.-based writer.

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