Citizens Bank: Where was it, and what did they do with the post office?

 The former Citizens Bank, now serving as the Chamber of Commerce, was the building that started my interest in Byhalia all those years ago.  It sits on the corner of Church Street and Hwy. 309 as you pass through town.  According to Helms & Kaye, 1995 National Register nomination form, the building is a Classical Greek Revival constructed in 1910, and altered in 1919 and again in 1929.  The one-story brick veneered building has three bays delineated by concrete pilasters.  The round arched bays have voussoirs and concrete keystones and sills.

 The entablature is marked with Citizens Bank, and an insert in the pediment reveals the dates of the remodeling.  The building was originally a wood frame building, and the brick veneer was added in 1929.

I like the detail on the concrete pilasters, as well as the interesting concrete raking cornice.

Here's where the detail on the building gets a little fuzzy: comparing the nomination form with the MDAH database.  Per the nomination form, the post office was located there 1910 to 1929 according to the South Reporter.  As we discovered in yesterday's post, the post office was located in 1919 in the former Boswell's Service Station building.  Did that indicated the post office was temporarily located in the other building during the 1919 remodel of Citizens Bank?  However, the 1915 Sanborn map lists the post office as being in the Citizens Bank building location also (Helms & Kaye, 1995).  And even more confusing, Helms & Kaye note that the post office was located in the McCutchen/Chalmers House on Church Street prior to 1916, and Ms. McCutchen was the post mistress until she married Mr. Chalmers and sold the house to Dr. Fite, who constructed his office next to it in the mystery identified in the following paragraph .  That post office sure got around.  Did they never have a building solely for a post office? And how could it be in two places at one time?

It gets more complicated.  The current Citizens Bank of Byhalia is headquarters for this "locally owned and operated since 1919" bank.  Although in a new location, and with branches in Victoria and Barton, they only indicate their establishment in 1919, which means this building pre-dates the bank being established.

Now, it gets even more complex.  When you refer to the MDAH database, it identifies the former Citizens Bank building as a circa 1916 Craftsman, located several blocks away from the building pictured above and labeled Citizens Bank, and is the same building as described by Helms & Kaye as Dr. Fite's office, which you note above, he built following moving into the former post office/McCutchen/Chalmers/boarding house home. 

This is enough to make me tired today, what with traipsing all over Byhalia, even if it was a virtual traipse.  I have pulled up Byhalia on Google maps so many times today, I am probably going to trigger a secret database, most likely operating in the basement of the former Citizens Bank building, if we knew where that might be.  I hope during interrogation, they don't ask me where the post office is.

Boswell's Service Station, aka 'bank', old post office, and Ruth B. French Library...could a coffee house be next?

For over 10 years now, every time I have driven through Byhalia on the way to Memphis, I have said I was stopping some time to take photographs.  (Yes, I have been known to procrastinate--I am always 'fixin' to do' something...or as they say in Mississippi, 'finny do it.') Yesterday, I took the camera intending to stop on my way to Memphis, but a number of things conspired to prevent my having that much time in advance...I was 15 minutes late for my appointment instead.  However, as luck would have it, I finished the appointment earlier than anticipated, and was able to make it back to Byhalia a wee bit prior to sunset and although not optimal, had enough light to take some photographs of one block.  Over the next few days, I will showcase a few of them, but if you have never been to Byhalia, take note that you need to spend a few hours there touring the Byhalia Historic District, and look up the National Register Nomination form--you will learn a lot about this little community.

The Italianate building on the corner of Church and Brunswick has seen multiple uses since its 1900 construction date.  According to Candace Z. Helms and Samuel H. Kaye, 1995 National Historic Register nomination form, the building's history includes life as a bank originally, then in the 1910s, served as Boswell's Service Station.  It was used as the Post Office in 1919, and later, as the Ruth B. French Library.  The building appears to be vacant now.

The public library in Byhalia was established in 1940, and renamed the Ruth B. French library in 1990 in honor of a teacher and library board member.  The library was relocated in 2003.

The features include the double arch brick headers over the windows, and the pilasters between windows.  The parapet features "denticulation" (Helms & Kaye, 1995).  The doorway has been replaced.

In one of my alternate lifestyle fantasies, I would open a little coffee house/bookstore/Internet station in this charming little building, and while I was busy blogging about preservation in Mississippi and New Deal research, I would chat with my one or two patrons of the day, and the high school student I hired to serve coffee (and lattes) would become my mentee as I passed on a love for history and the importance of community and relationship.  My friend Gigi would drop in for working vacations from time to time (she has always wanted to own a bookstore) and give guest lectures on recent books she had read, and her husband, the executive chef, would surprise patrons with his wonderful culinary creations.  During their visits, patronage would double or maybe even triple to 8 or 10 folks--just the perfect size for a group!

Sunday pleasures

 Cinnamon chai tea, with milk and turbinado sugar...fragrant, sweet, delicious.  I believe I will have another.

Lunch at Newk's with my sweetie, and then he helped me transfer files to my new computer and set up my new iPad for the classroom.  It's good to be married to a computer geek. 

The week in review and teachers' houses built by the National Youth Administration

I arrived "home" in Mississippi from "home" in Texas last Monday night, considerably worse for wear and tear.  I always book an aisle seat, with my left leg to the aisle because of the difficulty sitting with the knee bent at angles required when flying while ensconced in a tiny little shoebox of seat.  I had signed up for pre-boarding, and was standing there looking stupidly at the seat and my boarding pass when the flight attendant came up to ask if I needed assistance.  Yes; they have reassigned my seat and I am now in a middle seat and I cannot do that.  Turns out, yes I can--in pain and very uncomfortably sitting on the front edge of my seat so I could lean back and stretch my leg as far as possible, but I did it.  I will just leave it at that, and pay more attention next time when the desk agent says "I am moving you closer to the front" to also ensure she has kept my aisle seat, which is the issue more than having to walk 3 more rows to the back of the plane.

The rest of the week was insanely busy, and I spent every day and night "just doing the next thing due" which is a philosophy I adopted some while ago.  Priority: what is due next, which is more important, what can be postponed, and how well does it have to be done to pass?  I ended my week with a Friday trip to Tupelo to present at the Families and Communities Together Conference.  I had been asked to speak about poverty issues.  We all know about poverty in Mississippi, and the numbers and impact on our children and families.  I had recently located some new research that looked at the effect of poverty on children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health, very solidly based in empirical evidence, so I decided to tackle it from that direction.  One of the major issues is that we address poverty by trying to mediate the effects of it, child by child, family by family, as opposed to a strategy to reduce poverty, and thus, its effects.  At some point, one would hope we could get the idea that all of us are better off if we do not have folks living in high poverty and that we could generate the political will to determine to change that.

I did not think many people would attend (after all, who wants to talk about poverty--it does not make splashy headlines like violence, abuse, and drugs, which by the way, are often co-factors of poverty), so I made 8 copies of handouts...and the room was filled.  Two of my graduate students were there, and three former undergraduate students as well, and the sister of a former student who came up to introduce herself to me and thank me for what I had done for her sister.  That made it extra rewarding to talk about something near to my heart: reframing the concept of child welfare to include community welfare, that is, nurturing and safe communities where people can get their needs met, and implement broad strategies that reduce poverty and blighted communities.  Critical studies have shown that reducing poverty and increasing income leads to better outcomes for children and families, regardless of any other factors.

On the way home, I stopped off at Pontotoc and two other nearby rural communities to get some photographs of New Deal buildings.  Now truly, that was a fitting end to a day spent talking about poverty and the effects on children, which means, the effects on communities.  Mississippi is dead last out of 50 states (and District of Columbia, so in reality, last out of 51) in terms of poverty rates (35%), persistent poverty (no change over the last 40 years), and no access to health care.  Only 3 states have as bad a record: our neighbors Arkansas and Louisiana, which share all the same demographics and legacy as Mississippi.

Among the many public buildings constructed under New Deal administration were schools, rural schools, and teachers' houses.  I thought I had located two teacher's houses in Pontotoc a few weeks ago.  Reviewing the National Youth Administration Work Projects Photograph Album, 1937-1939, I discovered I was right.  The digital archive from Mississippi Department of Archives and History includes several photographs of nearby projects, and a picture of one of the houses post-completion was included.

 The stone for this stone veneer house was quarried from Tishomingo County, at the National Youth Administration quarry.  The NYA was a program implemented to accomplish two goals: keep youth in school, including school beyond high school by providing a stipend that would enable them to do so rather than drop out, and provide useful vocational training skills that would enable them to be able to work.  NYA completed numerous projects in Mississippi, including construction and furniture making among others.

 The stone veneer house was constructed by NYA.  The second house was constructed by WPA and used the same floor plan, according to documentation in the Series 2018-NYA archive.  Both projects were started on the same day, but the WPA house took a month longer to complete.

I will hazard a guess that the stone house went to a teacher with more seniority.  The stone house has a covered porch/patio area that was part of the original construction; the carport to the right was added later.  Part of the house with the wood siding is visible in the original photograph of the stone veneer house, but it is only the rear of the house, so impossible to tell if alterations have been made to it.

Countries that have made serious strides in reducing or eliminating poverty include those that recognize education and health as the best macro level prevention.  Eliminating the high gaps between the richest 20% and the poorest 20%--which produces better outcomes for all of us, demands both quality education that is accessible and affordable, and quality health care that is accessible and affordable.  The US is in the bracket with 4 other countries who have the highest gaps between those two.  In a country in which the standard of living has continued to increase in the last 50 years, but the poverty level has remained the same, surely we can do better than this.

Early morning chores

 Morning got here at 5 AM today, but it was dark until 7.  I was up at 5 with Dad, helping out with some morning needs, and then we had coffee and visited until shift change at 7--the caregivers, not mine.  It was a chilly 37 here this morning, but boding a beautiful day I thought.

 I went out to check the hay first as Rio and Jenny were grazing in the pasture and did not come when I called.  Once he spotted me, though, he headed over, so back out to get the feed while Jenny sauntered in.

The neighbor's chickens were over, ready to scavenge any oats that might get dropped from the bin or out of Jenny's mouth.  Rio rarely loses an oat as he pays more attention to his food than he does me, once I dump it.

Dad was napping when I got back in the house, so I worked for 3 hours on a manuscript until time to take Mom on her Friday beauty shop run and go get the mail and to the grocery store while she was getting her hair done.  While I was out, it turned cold and cloudy, and the wind was blowing fairly hard.  Back home, a late lunch and then some more work on the manuscript, and the next thing you know, it was time to put out hay, water, and evening feed.  The beautiful day had dropped in temperature and I had to get Dad's flannel barn coat out again, and go find his leather gloves to go fork hay.  The caregivers love it when I am here, because I always like to feed and they don't have to.  We have wonderful help, and they cheerfully do the few things needed beyond take care of Mom and Dad's needs--take Tinka out and feed and water her, and feed and water Rio and Jenny twice a day.  I had not met the newest addition to our caregiving family until yesterday, but I told her I always fed when I was here, and she said my sister had already told her.  I am predictable.

I made pineapple fried pies and then prepared tomato bisque tortellini soup for dinner.  It has started to rain, but is calm and quiet this evening, and hopefully, all will continue to go smoothly the rest of the evening and night.  Sis had a great time going to see her grandson's concert solo for both programs today, and is enjoying a few days of relaxation.  With the 24/7 in-home caregivers, it is more about being here than having to do much, except on those occasions like this morning when something needs two of us.  It has given me a lot of time to work on assessment, research, and writing without the interruptions that occur at work, so in that way, it is a good trade off.

How not to clean house until 2014

 With all that has been going on back at home, my sister and I text most nights, and she sends pictures of Dad and I send pictures of whatever is in front of me at the moment.  Sometimes, my brother gets in on the conversation, depending on where he is and if he is stopped for the night or still driving.  It's a fun way to recap our days and keep that sense of family going that we all need right now.  Bro and I are dog lovers, so a photo of one of the dogs is generally included.

 On the evening I had my first chimenea fire of the season, we were comparing our evening meals and I said I won hands down.  I had intended to grill the steaks outside, but what with Mississippi being so far east and the season change, it got dark too quickly. 

 

I enjoined them not to tell Bobby Flay that I was grilling indoors.  My nieces were at Mom and Dad's and making his favorite--sugar cookies from my mom's recipe.  There are no sugar cookies in the entire world that can beat her recipe.  One year when they first married as he was leaving for the fields, he asked her to make sugar cookies..."a whole dishpan full of them."  When he got home that night, she had a dishpan full of sugar cookies sitting on the table.

 I discovered a beautiful gem from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration this past week, and have noted it as "a festival of fall colours."  I follow an Irish blog, and the writer is featuring that this month as we head into winter and darker days and shorter days.  I loved how the light plays across the texture of the stone on this building, and the way the shadows cause the flora to pop in surprising ways.

 It's hard to say right now whether my house is worse inside or outside.  The yard needs mowing, the leaves need raking, the windows need washing.  Inside, the floor needs raking, the shower needs mowing, and the windows need washing.  I have enough dust on the top of the bookcase to plant potatoes.  I told my sister I thought I would be able to make it to 2014 without having to clean house, though.

 I leave early in the a.m. for another trip to Texas--sort of a last minute, unplanned, in order to give her some time off to go see her grandson's solo concert.  What with being gone for 5 days, I couldn't see much reason to clean house, since it would look about the same by the time I returned.  Then it will be Thanksgiving and I will be gone for 9 days, so no reason to do it.  Then in another week, it will be semester break and I will be in Texas for anywhere from 3-6 weeks, so I am fairly certain I can avoid cleaning house until mid-January.  At that point, I hopefully will have at least 2 months here before returning for spring break, so I might be willing to clean house in exchange for a pleasant place to stay a few weeks...but I am not ruling out the possibility that I can put it off until summer.

The story of the teapot from Amsterdam will have to wait for another time.  I need to go to work.  As Rand said on his way out the door this morning, "Another day, another beating."  Our usual good humor and cheerfulness has taken a beating these last few weeks...or maybe that was the good humor, because it made me smile and think about no matter how tough it gets, we are still here, making it work.

55 Living New Deal Submissions

I made my first submission to the Living New Deal project, University of California-Berkeley almost a year ago in January.  Since then, I have logged 55 submissions, several every month, primarily Mississippi locations, but 10 in Texas, 1 in Arkansas, 2 in Louisiana, and 3 in Tennessee.

Somewhere along the route, I was asked to be a regional research associate for the project, which just means I volunteer regularly in research and submission of projects.  A few weeks ago, we got business cards identifying our relationship with the project in the event we might find it helpful in the research and documentation of sites.

While I am fortunate to enjoy my "day job" and it actually relates to this project in many ways due to the significance of the New Deal Administration social service policies and programs, I find I want to spend more and more time in the pursuit of this adventure.  There is just something about being part of a national effort to document every project that was part of the New Deal Administration's efforts to help folks climb out of the great hole that was the Great Depression that is very healing and humbling to me at this difficult point in my personal life.

It is kind of like something one of my supervisors used to say to me: "When things are going in a hard way, find something bigger than yourself to get involved in."  The importance of this project is definitely bigger than me and my current issues--which although important and a priority, are no different than the personal issues which have befallen many of my fellow humans on this journey.  Even more so, I know how very fortunate I am to have such tremendous support and resources in traveling this uncharted terrain.

Still, there is something about being part of such a major project, something so ambitious in seeking to demonstrate the power of those programs to create better lives for people and communities that is rewarding beyond measure at the moment.  I was asked by the Franklin D. Roosevelt library project for permission to use one of my photographs in an electronic display of projects.  And no, no one will know anything other than my name on the "photograph used with permission" but it is still a nice little personal piece of feel-good.

I am not naive as to the criticisms of the New Deal, and the political maneuverings--for example, Mississippi and Tennessee efforts to avoid the requirements for equal participation in the interests of not expending funds for projects that benefited black communities, but still, many important things were accomplished and are still part of the landscape of our cities.  Each discovery of one of those projects which still stands and is still in use all these years later excites me, no matter where I find it.