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OLD WESSON PUBLIC SCHOOL

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1893, J. J. Harty, builder. 8th St. at Wool St.

The architect of this, the finest Romanesque Revival school in the state, is unknown, but a contemporary newspaper article identified the builder as Harty of Greenville. The two-story brick building’s wide facade is composed of a double-tiered wooden porch with balustrades framed by three-story square stair towers with round-arched windows and corbeling. Among the largest public schools in the state when it was built, it contained a lunchroom on the ground floor, an assembly room with stage on the first, and ten classrooms with offices on the second. Abandoned in 1960 for the nearby Wesson Elementary School, the building later functioned as a youth center, with a skating rink in the auditorium. It has stood vacant since 1994, but renovation work with state grants in 2003 and 2008 has helped maintain this community landmark.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Jennifer V.O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio with Mary Warren Miller
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What's Nearby

MILL TOWN MALL (MISSISSIPPI MILLS PACKING AND SHIPPING ROOMS)
HENRY STRONG HOUSE
DOWNTOWN BUILDINGS
MISSISSIPPI SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (WHITWORTH COLLEGE)
U.S. POST OFFICE

Citation

Jennifer V.O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio with Mary Warren Miller, "OLD WESSON PUBLIC SCHOOL", [Wesson, Mississippi], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MS-02-SC8.

Print Source

Buildings of Mississippi, Jennifer V. O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio. With Mary Warren Miller. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021, 290-290.

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