Mississippi Piney Woods:
a photographic study of folk architecture
by
Patti Carr Black
an exhibition
at the
Mississippi State Historical Museum
[Illustration: Cover photograph: Grist mill at Lake Bounds, Clarke
County]
MISSISSIPPI PINEY WOODS
a photographic study of folk architecture
by
Patti Carr Black
Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Jackson, Mississippi
1976
Reprinted 1980
[Illustration: Map]
Tennessee Hills
Black Prairie
Pontotoc Ridge
Flat Woods
North Central Hills
Jackson Prairie
Brown Loam and Loess Hills
Delta
PINEY WOODS
My appreciation and thanks to the many residents of the Piney Woods who
gave me directions, information, and access to their homes, especially
Miss Gertie Ainsworth, Hulan Purvis, Bob and Patricia Harris, Clarence
Smith, Charles A. McGee, S. D. Sullivan, and Mrs. L. E. Turner.
Introduction
[Illustration: Opposite: Sam Hosey house near Moss, Jasper County]
“Then a house appeared on its ridge ... as if something came sliding
out of the sky, the whole tin roof of the house ran with new blue. The
posts along the porch softly bloomed downward, as if chalk marks were
being drawn, one more time, down a still misty slate. The house was
revealed as if standing there from pure memory against a now moonless
sky. For the length of a breath, everything stayed shadowless, as
under a lifting hand, and then a passage showed, running through the
house, right through the middle of it....”
—Eudora Welty
The dogtrot house described by Eudora Welty in _Losing Battles_ is in
every Mississippian’s memory. Dogtrots, a part of the Mississippi
landscape since the early 19th century, were one of the most popular
forms of folk structures in the state, particularly in the southeastern
section.
The study of folk architecture has been largely ignored in Mississippi,
with the major attention going to large mansion houses. Even the term
“antebellum” has been used to refer only to affluent homes. Many
dogtrots, log houses, and other rural homes in Mississippi are
antebellum (built before the Civil War) and are far more widespread and
characteristic of 19th century Mississippi architecture.
The houses built by the pioneers themselves represent an important and
basic element of Mississippi culture. They reveal the ingenuity and
courage and affirmation of men and women who built their homes with
little money, limited materials, and no formal training as architects
and builders. Few of these structures are left standing in their
original form and every day brings the destruction of more. This study
is intended to be a sampling, not an exhaustive survey of Piney Woods
folk architecture. It was undertaken with the support and encouragement
of Dr. Byrle Kynerd, director of the Mississippi State Historical Museum
and Dr. William Ferris of Yale University and was made possible by a
grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.