The Mississippi Museum of Art issued the following statement Tuesday.
he Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA/the Museum) today announced its selection of Belinda Stewart Architects, PA, to lead the Fountainhead preservation project at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed property in Jackson acquired by MMA in November 2025. Based in Eupora, MS, the award-winning firm specializes in the preservation, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse of historic structures. Its portfolio includes projects ranging from small historic landmarks to large-scale facilities, including Mississippi State University’s 90,000 square-foot Old Main Academic Center. It has received more than 100 awards for excellence in design and preservation. Founder Belinda Stewart made history as the first female architect from Mississippi to be named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and one of the founders of Mississippi Heritage Trust, our statewide advocacy organization for historic preservation. Her work is guided by a commitment to bring a higher purpose to the practice of architectural design. The firm will oversee the preparation of a Historic Structure Report with condition assessment, digital modeling (HBIM), and a prioritized treatment plan, and will provide full architectural services for structural repairs, landscape evaluation and rehabilitation, and modifications for accessibility and code compliance for a house museum and event venue. Investigative work and diagnostic testing will begin immediately, with a goal of a grand opening to the public in 2028. Working alongside Belinda Stewart Architects will be newly appointed Fountainhead Curator Jennifer Baughn, who joins the Museum following a distinguished 30-year career at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where she most recently served as Chief Architectural Historian, overseeing the designation of numerous properties on the National Register and as National Historic Landmarks. As Fountainhead Curator, Baughn brings decades of expertise in historic preservation to the stewardship of one of Mississippi’s most significant works of Modern design.
MMA Laurie Hearin McRee Director Betsy Bradley said, “We are delighted to partner with Belinda Stewart and her team who have exceptional experience working with historic and culturally significant buildings in Mississippi and beyond. Preparing this architectural gem for visitors—the house, landscape, and distinctive Wright-designed furnishings and flourishes—is a vibrant expression of the Museum’s mission to connect and meaningfully engage with communities across Jackson.” Belinda Stewart, FAIA, and Belinda Stewart Architects Principal, said, “We are deeply honored to join MMA in this extraordinary effort to preserve and share this phenomenal work of art. While connected to the national and international significance surrounding Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, this is a distinctly Mississippi story, and we are grateful that the Museum chose a Mississippi firm to lead this effort. Frank Lloyd Wright defined success as “dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” We have brought together a dream team of Mississippi professionals with deep related experience, and national consulting experts in the preservation of Frank Lloyd Wright properties – and together with the Museum, we accept this challenge.”
Inspired by the success of institutions like Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and its acquisition of the Wright-designed Bachman-Wilson House, MMA leadership is expanding its mission by acquiring this significant architectural landmark and making it available to the public for tours with advanced reservations. The purchase is part of the Museum’s strategic goals to embed the Museum in neighborhoods across the city in ways that help accomplish their community building priorities. Stay up to date on the official opening and public tours at msmuseumart.org. Fountainhead Fountainhead is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Usonian” home, which he designed for middle-income families in the United States. In keeping with Wright’s Organic design philosophy, Usonian homes feature native materials and hug the ground with low-sloped or flat roofs and cantilevered overhangs. Wright also developed now-common ideas such as open floorplans, carports, and glass doors that allow a flow between indoors and outdoors. Designed by Wright when he was 81, Fountainhead contains four bedrooms and four bathrooms across 3,558 square feet. The .97-acre property exemplifies Wright’s signature principle of harmony with nature, with its Y-shaped footprint growing out of the contours of the rolling landscape. Its parallelogram or diamond-shaped module creates dramatic, angular geometries repeated throughout the house in both two and three dimensions.
Large windows allow ample natural light and views of the verdant wooded landscape. Additional elements include Wright-designed built-in furniture, concrete floors, wooden perforated shutters, skylights, a carport, terraces, three fireplaces, the original copper roof, and a water fountain flowing into a swimming pool that Wright called “a pool in a woodland glade.” The residence and its furnishings were designed by Wright in 1948 and completed in 1955 for J. Willis and Edith Hughes and their large family. In 1980, architect Robert Parker Adams bought the home from Hughes and spent years restoring it. After Adams’ death in July 2025, the Museum completed its purchase in November 2025.
Belinda Stewart Architects, PA
Established in Eupora, Mississippi, in 1990, Belinda Stewart Architects, PA (BSA) has grown into one of Mississippi’s leading firms specializing in historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and community-centered design.
For more than three decades, BSA has worked with communities, institutions, nonprofits, and private owners to rehabilitate and reinvest in significant places throughout Mississippi and the Southeast. Our portfolio includes courthouses, Rosenwald schools, churches, colleges and universities, museums, Civil Rights landmarks, historic depots, downtown commercial districts, and nationally significant properties. Through technical expertise, strategic planning, and long-term stewardship, we remain committed to ensuring these places remain relevant and valuable for generations to come.
5 comments:
We are looking forward to visiting when it is open.
Stewart does a very thorough set of construction documents. And since nothing could possibly be left for interpretation... ...and since it seems it's already too late to save the original plantings, things will be fine.
I wish there were a way, to convey, to those coming into possession of Jackson's Modernist masterpieces, that Upper Class, and Upper Middle Class, people of the Modernist Era, considered plantings to be as important as the buildings those plantings completed.
My designers drilled that into me, when we purchased a 'Brutalist' house, out from Portland. And they were right. Judicious pruning, and judicious underplanting, guys....
I've visited four FLW homes, looking forward to visiting this one.
BSA does outstanding work! This is a perfect match!
Frank, genius that he was, could never have contemplated someone being contracted to 'restore' his work.
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