We visited the Old State Capitol which was built in the 1839 and was used until the 1903. Then we went to the New State Capitol which was moved into in 1903. We walked through the center of the city to do this and we ended up in the brand new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
The Old State Capitol has been turned into a history museum. Just as when we visited the capitols of Maryland and Louisiana, there was so much to the history of this state that we would never have found out otherwise. For example the ongoing early conflict between the plantation growers of the southwest that were very much of the same social milieu and culture of the Mississippi plantations of Louisiana versus the independent small landowners of the north part of the state.
The Civil Rights Museum much like the Holocaust Museum is incredibly sobering when you see just how oppressed people were by slavery, how little things changed after the Civil War and how difficult the struggle has been for African-Americans.
We are staying in a historic district of town but are not going to have time to take pictures around it as we are off in the morning. Our house (an Airbnb) is very quirky
Lawn ornament
I think we can summarize this city as a place of monumental architecture and sculpture
The architecture is pretty good, especially the interior detail
The sculpture - well this is not Florence (no disrespect intended Jacksonians because we love this place)
We arrived at the campus of the Old Capitol
Mississippi takes its engagement and commitment to our armed forces of its whole history very seriously
Inside the Old Capitol
This was pretty cool
It is a device for reflecting gas lamps to make them brighter
The House of Representatives
The Senate
This is a 'capital' not a 'capitol'
And it is a...?
If you answered Ionian or Doric...
...go back to Greece for further study
It is Corinthian
Walking through town
The city's first skyscraper from 1923
The Govenor's Mansion
Neo-Greco style
Presbyterian Church
Super enormous Methodist Church
(only part of the complex)
Not sure I understand the use of 'pagan' ancient architecture style for a Christian church
The head minister's house
Finally we get to the New Capitol
Go through the gates of time
Get a feel for the whole perspective
Dome from the inside
The active House of Representatives
The active Senate
In the Senate Chamber we met
Carlos King
of the IT Support Staff
He regaled us with stories of the capitol like the fact that the columns are not actually stone but were made with a technique to replicate stone. An Italian craft person was imported when it was built to do it and he trained locals in the technique. While it was done to save money at the time, that technique is actually more expensive that stonework today. Carlos also had a very interesting family with members all over the LA area and in the Netherlands. We traded stories about being in the Netherlands. We love these interactions as we travel.
Various other ceiling treatments
There wasn't much in the way of sculpture that excited me
Yet I saw this rather innocuous decoration
But looking at it from a different angle revealed something quite different
Other detail in the building
As we finished up at the Civil Rights Museum we saw this
The State Fair is about to begin
A good time for us to be leaving
Tomorrow we are heading off to Alabama
1 comment:
the state fair looks like a lot of fun!!
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