This Old House

As we drove through Mississippi, I had to make a detour to visit this grand old home.



The house was built in 1892, in the late Victorian Queen Anne style. The house was occupied until the 1990s, but sadly it has been left empty and abandoned. But even in its advanced state of decay, you can see so many architectural charms. There are the numerous stained glass windows. There are the wooden gingerbread embellishments. There are the remains of the delicate decorations around the front porch. Compare this to the cookie-cutter McMansions you see in the sprawling suburbs of today. They definitely don't make them like this anymore.



This old house seems to truly encompass the tragic nature of abandoned places. There was such care and talent put into building this home. Generations of people lived here. But for whatever reason, it was left abandoned. It was forgotten, and left to detoriate and rot and collapse.

Perhaps it can still be saved. Every place has a history, and has a story. It feels like this place still has room for another chapter in its history.

Into Mississippi

From Gould we headed southeast, and eventually crossed over the Big River on the fancy new bridge at Lake Village. The bridge deposits you into Mississippi, rather unceremoniously, by a casino. This was still the Delta, with its miles of flat fields and wetlands. We drove by an occasional old plantation home, and through numerous small (but seemingly struggling) towns.

The route the GPS picked out for us took us near this beautiful old church, the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. It was built in 1918, but has been left empty and abandoned now for several decades. Although it felt lonely and forlorn there, you could almost feel a sense of stubborn pride still lingering in the old building. It's still here. Weathered and faded, it still remains.

Gould

Last week we made a trip to the Gulf Coast with the kids for Spring Break. We took Hwy. 65 south, which cuts through the flat lands of the Arkansas Delta. One of the small towns along the road is Gould, in Lincoln County. I made a quick stop there to get a few pictures of an old store, which has been abandoned now for many years.



The faded sign on the building says this was once the "Gould Auto Parts" store. By summer, this building will be totally covered in vines.

Return Of The King

Way back in the olden days when I was just a wee young lad in college, I took a few pictures of an old abandoned store near Clarksville. Fast forward to present times, and I was surprised to see a few pictures of that same old building posted on Flickr. After two decades, the old store was still standing!

I was in Clarksville last weekend to pick up the pictures that had been on display at the University art gallery. So after loading up the car, I headed out to find the old store again.



It still seemed to be in decent shape, except for a few holes in the roof. In fact, it didn't seem like much had changed in the last 20 years or so.





I tried to do some research on the building but had no luck. When was it built? Who was F.F. King? How long has it been abandoned? But alas, I had no luck.



Before I headed home, I made one last stop at this old home near Clarksville (which looks abandoned, but I couldn't tell for sure?). The splash of color from the daffodils and other flowers in front of the old house was a nice little addition to the scene.

Downtown

I wanted to try out a new telephoto lens, so I headed to downtown Little Rock to try to find something interesting to point it at and take a few pictures. It was at night after the kids were in bed, so it probably wasn't the most ideal conditions for testing out equipment. But I went by the State Capitol, and got a picture zoomed in from a hill behind the complex.



 I drove around downtown a bit, and eventually ended up at a parking deck by the River Market. This is the zoomed in view of some cars driving down River Market Avenue.