More Things in Jackson MS

Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District

The Farish Street Historic District was a bustling black business neighborhood years ago. Local business leaders would like to start to redevelop it by restoring a few buildings into bars and restaurants. The Alamo Theater on historic Farish Street has been renovated and is community owned. Back in the 1930s and 40s, Robert Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton lived in the Farish Street district. Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington performed on Farish Street.

Hawkins Field Airport

The Hawkins Field Airport is owned and operated by the City of Jackson and is utilized by the military and private citizens. It was opened in 1928, and paved runways were added in 1936. The U.S. Army used it for flight training in World War II and greatly expanded it. In 1963, jet airplanes began service to Hawkins Field Airport. Hawkins Field Airport sits on 602 acres and has two runways in operation. Two World War Two runways have been abandoned for years.

Jackson State University

A public, predominantly African-America university, Jackson State was established in 1877. The current campus was initially constructed in 1902 and now features 51 buildings on 245-acre campus. The athletic program is a member of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision and the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Walter Payton is its most famous alumnus. 75% of Jackson State's students are from Jackson and the state of Mississippi.

Poindexter Park Historic District

West of downtown Jackson, The Poindexter Park Historic District is experiencing a renaissance. Habitat for Humanity and Operation Weed and Seed work hard to restore district. Poindexter Park has numerous restored homes on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the old mansions was owned by Mississippi's second governor, George Poindexter. He was a delegate, representative, and senator who was born in 1779.

Buddy Butts Park

The Mississippi River Basin Model Waterways Experiment Station at Buddy Butts park was used to model potential floods in the Mississippi River basin from 1949 until 1973 and sits on 200 acres. It was constructed from 1943 to 1966 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Its purpose was to give the Army Crops needed information to mitigate flooding along the Mississippi River. The area around the Missouri River was finished by 1952 and modeled the April floods of that year. It was operational to Memphis by 1959 and was completed in 1966. However, operational costs and computer modeling made the model obsolete by 1973. As of 2013, the model is overgrown and abandoned, but open to the public.

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