Thursday, September 21, 2023

City Wants to Demolish Eudora Welty Library

 The city of Jackson wants to tear down the Eudora Welty library.  WLBT reported: 

In April, the city council authorized the city’s Department of Planning and Development to apply for a $5 million federal grant on behalf of Jackson/Hinds to help purchase and renovate a new building for Welty. 

Officials say Jackson could be on tap to receive as much as $3.7 million of the amount requested, but it still must be approved by Congress. 

As for the building itself, plans are to tear it down to make way for a green space in front of the Two Mississippi Museums.

“Ultimately, that is the plan. That’s what the Department of Archives and History would really like. And in reality, when you think about it, that space, which is located right there, just in front of the two museums, it would be a really beautiful green space,” Payne said. “When people come out of the museum, they will have a space to lounge, to relax, and just to enjoy downtown Jackson.” 

Payne said no date has been set for when a demolition would occur, and no funding has been set aside by the city to approve it. It’s also unclear whether the city would tear down the building itself or turn Welty over to MDAH to demolish. Article

It's about time.  The building is old and worn out.  The 2013 hailstorm severely damaged the roof and the contractors hired to repair the building botched the job.   The second floor has not been open for years and the building has gone for long periods of time without the HVAC's operational.  

Converting the property into "green space" for the Two Museums is probably the right way to go although one must worry about the residentially challenged taking it over as they have Smith Park. 

There is also the matter of the other libraries in Jackson. 

Other libraries across the system are also experiencing issues. The Richard Wright Library has been closed since 2020. At the time, library officials said it was because of plumbing issues. The Medgar Evers Library is partially closed also due to a lack of air conditioning. Patrons can still come to the branch’s community room, but any books must be retrieved from the shelves by library staffers. The Willie Morris Library, meanwhile, was closed earlier this year due to plumbing-related flooding. It has been reopened for months but with limited bathroom services. 

The Willie Morris library opened waaaaaay back in 2006 yet it has already been forced to close more than once.   

Jackson can't afford to operate its libraries yet the Lumumba administration and certain City Council members would rather dump $1.8 million into a zoo.  However, tearing down Eudora Welty is the right way to go.  It is an ugly building and looks little like other "flagship" libraries around the country.  


43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Attention Socrates Library Construction LLC.

Anonymous said...

Everything is a money grab for the Mair and his cronies. They do not care about you, me, or this city. They definitely do not care about providing the most basic of city services. When I travel outside of MS, people ask if it is really a third world country like they hear on the news (water, roads, crime). Often hard to refute that reality.

Anonymous said...

Just don't use the guy contracted to burn down the "O" Hotel.

Anonymous said...

Clinton public library had several watercolor paintings donated to the Clinton library by Wyatt waters, who lives in Clinton. The director of the library system confiscated or maybe the better word is stole them for office. I have no idea where they are now. I do know they are not in the Clinton library.

Anonymous said...

Good idea, but build an iron fence around it.

People in Clinton should check on those missing paintings. May be in someone’s home.

Anonymous said...

So the library was worth renovating and maintaining, but only if they get the federal government to give them the money to do it. But when the guvmint said no, they turn on a dime and say okay let's just tear it down. Is that how Jackson is governed now? Whatever the guvmint pays for they will do, if not tear down and move on to the next grant application?

Anonymous said...

I’m all for demolishing both commercial and residential buildings in Jackson. Bulldoze and destroy every derelict structure. Eventually there will be nothing left for the derelicts, so they will have to fight the barriers of either the Pearl or Mississippi Rivers.

Anonymous said...

What makes them think they can maintain a “so called” green space? They couldn’t maintain the building and make necessary repairs before they got out of control and then they had no option but level it. They would save this historical building it if it were in the Farish Street district but tear it down because this former Sears store represents 1940’s “white” Jackson. Another green space but we can’t maintain parks, swimming pools and streets.

Anonymous said...

You can tell a lot about a community that decides to destroy its libraries-

Anonymous said...

Green space that will be used as a homeless encampment.

Anonymous said...

They bulldozed 90% of the Sun and Sand, and now they want to demolish another major downtown building...for a greenspace?! Give me a break Archives and History might as well be called the Department of Parking and Plantings.

Anonymous said...

hahahahhahahahahahha green space!! I remember when they spent what 2 million?? "renovating" smith park

they had these large shrouds up where you couldn't see what was going on for months......

at the end of the day they planted some flowers on both sides in these little strips.

The whole job should have cost 500 bucks and that's provided you had to run to Wal-mart and buy the 250 dollar poulan tiller, and no-one EVER ASKED A SINGLE QUESTION.

Anonymous said...

I think green spaces are great if they are maintained. I don’t see much of anything in Jackson that is well maintained by the city.

Anonymous said...

While they are at it, go a block down and tear down the falling
down and in, First Christian Church on State and High Street.
It is not historical despite what anybody says. First Baptist bought
it and then allowed them to take the stain glass which they tore up removing
FBC had it put on some historical register but no body wants to put any money in it. But FBC SOLD IT TO SOMEONE FOR SOME PURPOSE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE. TEAR IT DOWN!!!!

Green spaces look a lot better than falling down buildings in Jackson.

Let's green space the hell out of downtown Jackson.

Anonymous said...

"it would be a really beautiful green space" to set up a homeless camp.

Anonymous said...

the one problem Jackson does not have , people lining up to check out books and expand their horizons ....

Anonymous said...

Consider the need and functional use of libraries today. What percentage of content is now available online? Just because you needed them in the past, doesn't mean you need to preserve them now.

Unless the buildings can be used for other purposes or are of historical significance, bulldoze them. Saves on maintenance/upkeep and eliminates them from being eyesores or homeless havens and crack houses.

But, if the objective is a greenspace for people to enjoy downtown Jackson, you better make sure the CPD is onboard.

Anonymous said...

@11:30 AM

eBooks have already started getting the revisions to problematic themes. They can do this to reprints too. But it’s harder to hide their political correctness when you can still find earlier, uncensored editions of literature.

Anonymous said...

I have fond childhood memories of riding my bike and spending hours of the hottest summer days in the old Pearl Library in the early 90s. I didn’t go every day. But it was part of the things to do at the time. Just hours spent browsing the books, magazines, and $1 VHS tapes, and waiting for my turn to get on the internet on one of the 2 computers with internet access. Now libraries are a favorite air conditioned gathering place for smelly indigents. I wouldn’t ever let a child roam a public library unsupervised. Most people probably feel the same way so libraries remain gathering places for the homeless.

The new Pearl Library is still nice. Just not the same without the nostalgia.

Anonymous said...

Surely the City of Jackson owns a building that can be renovated for the library instead of buying another building that must be maintained.

Anonymous said...

Three or four years ago Ashby Foote warned Council and Mayor that maintenance of all City properties were severely under funded and practically ignored.

Current administration could not maintain a house plant. Better to sell the rotted library as is for double cheap just to get it on the tax rolls. Surround with 6' rented hurricane fence and let the buyer demolish. Make demolition a condition of sale so a Gypsy won't buy it for a flop house.

Anonymous said...

What is happening to the books?

Anonymous said...

@12:58

The mold and fecal matter has taken residence. The books are worthless now.

Anonymous said...

I could organize a book burning of pornography and be called ignorant and backward while COJ can let its libraries go to pot and it's called progressive and enlightened.

Anonymous said...

Libraries are still a necessity to modern civilization. My mom on a small social security income visits Clinton library daily to use the internet since her rural neighborhood does not offer braodband and it's a safe social connection to other residents since she lives alone. She's also an avid reader. I visit my Ridgeland branch weekly to check out expensive books I could normally not afford at Barnes and Nobles for my children. It is a completely different experience to read a physical book to your child versus looking at it online. The library is one of the safest and most quiet places for a child to learn, get tutored and READ!! Many children don't have that ideal environment at home, especially children who are poor. How can Jackson leaders prioritize adding more hotels/restaurants/entertainment when a library/READING/learning is the foundation of a person's success.

Anonymous said...

Kind of wish I had been around when the building was a great Sears store and downtown Jackson was beautiful. 30 years from now, I suspect all the shopping centers at the corner of Lakeland Drive and Old Fannin Road will be filled with cash for title and blood plasma places but I'll be dead then.

Anonymous said...

September 21, 2023 at 9:42 AM
Right on the money. Just look at Smith Park in Downtown.

Anonymous said...

This makes me ill. We need good libraries now more than ever. Libraries still very much matter. Baton Rouge in the past ten years build a fabulous and well used main branch. Downtown Jackson had a green space called Smith Park until the Mayor took Bloomberg’s money for some now abandoned “art” installation that has rendered Smith Park useless. It is all a shame. What a huge disappointment this mayor has been.

Blueslover said...

They tearin' down SEARS?

Anonymous said...

Green Spaces always attract bums, tramps and drug addicts. So, when busloads of kids go to visit the civil rights museum, they will get an eyeful of bums, tramps and drug addicts taking a leak & poop on the green space. Across the street First Baptist Church will also get an eyeful. FBC will then be forced to move out of Jackson to keep the attendance up. Expect a domino effect. How sad.

Unknown said...

Liberrys aint importunt. Book larning never did nuthin for nobody.

Anonymous said...

Instead of a green space, the money would be better spent building a 500 cell lockup tower for the Capitol Police to use. Make it a nice a addition to the skyline with some mirror panels and RGB LED lights.

Socrates Library Construction LLC said...

Tear down city buildings and apply for federal grants to replace them. Then give the overpriced contracts to your friends.

Got it.

Anonymous said...

Turn it into the Jackson Shooting Range and Self Defense Center.

Anonymous said...

Via GoogleMap, I just "went to" Smith Park. What a WASTELAND! Tree removal people pay big cash kickbacks, by the way. At our final Jackson office, the property management guy who had the contract for our office condo, made enough from tree removal kickbacks, to install a schmantzy boxwood parterre behind his Eastover residence. Well... that and the frequent resurfacing of our parking lot. Blacktop guys give great kickbacks, too, apparently.

One nice thing, though, that I noticed on my virtual tour of Smith Park, was a really fine stone Doric temple/arbor, with matching benches, and a font or sun dial or something at the center. It looks straight from a Maxfield Parrish painting, so I presume it's from the very early Twentieth Century. WAS THAT ALWAYS THERE?

If anybody left in Jackson - or in state government - had any taste or class or sense (which they don't, so this is pure fantasy on my part), they'd expand upon the precedent set by the Regency/Federal-style Governor's Mansion, and redesign the park as it should have been, from the beginning. The old parks of Savannah are period precedents, and there are plenty of historic plans/elevations/drawings of details just sitting around in archives, waiting to be followed. Tall cast iron fences, of course, were considered integral parts of parks, back then. They're still a good idea.

But this will NEVER happen.

Anonymous said...

Welty library would be a perfect spot for a jail for Capitol police. Court could be held in the run down church nearby. Now that’s bold AND radical!

Anonymous said...

@9:02 AM and 9:13 AM: Are we talking about the paintings missing from the main library and in the office of the JHLS Director? Would they still be there? Is it possible that they are in someone's home?

Anonymous said...

Have you all checked with the Library Staff to see if the art has been stored at other locations for safe keeping? You can call the library at 601-968-5825.

Anonymous said...

"Savannah...parks"

Jackson: Midnight in the Garden of Evil

Libraries might help some understand the reference.

Anonymous said...

Eudora Welty would likely say "Nevermind my name. Nevermind the building. Mind those books." Why not have a Saturday and Sunday open door with all prices set at $1.50 and $3.00. Paperback / Hard cover. It would clear out the building, raise about $6-$8k, and most importantly not see allll of these great books simply rot away and become a hazard waste removal service charge on the ledger of Jackson.

Anonymous said...

The library staff probably has not been told where the art is. Ask to speak to the "Executive Director".

Anonymous said...

Anyone interested in this shameful situation should attend the Board meeting Tuesday at 4 at the Quisenberry Library in Clinton. There is a time for public comment.

Anonymous said...

This just makes me sad. That was a good library years ago.

"You can tell a lot about a community that decides to destroy its libraries-"
well said.


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