One Year Later: America's Most Endangered Historic Places
Good News for Art Deco Skyscraper, Status Quo for Black Mountain
By Magazine editors | Online Only | June 9, 2011
In anticipation of next week's unveiling of the 2011 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, we're checking in on last year's threatened sites. This is the first in a series.
Threefoot Building, Miss.
Things are looking up (16 stories up) for Meridian, Mississippi's Art Deco jewel known as the Threefoot Building. After suffering from significant deterioration in recent years, the 1929 skyscraper, named for the successful German-American family that originally owned it, closed about a decade ago. A subsequent redevelopment plan fell through and prospects looked bleak for the aging icon, known for its decorative polychrome terra-cotta-and-granite exterior and luxurious marble and bronze interior details.
Now, the city of Meridian, which owns the building, has retained developer David Watkins of Watkins Partners to begin assessing the restoration potential of the Threefoot structure, once the tallest building in the state. Seismic studies have been completed and show the building, which has endured its terra-cotta tiles falling off of it and water damage in recent years, to be stable.
Watkins and his team are focusing on restoring another building to be used by the Meridian Police Department currently, but the city has proposed the Threefoot be revitalized as residential and commercial space. The city plans to erect an architecturally compatible building that will serve as convention center and hotel space on the same block. No construction date has been set. —Gwendolyn Purdom
Black Mountain, Ky.
Tucked into the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky, rural Harlan County is home to the communities of Lynch (pop. 900) and Benham (pop. 600). In recent years, these historic coal-company towns, both located at the base of Black Mountain, have been trying to reinvent themselves as tourist destinations, opening a museum and offering peeks into a coal mine. At the same time, however, coal companies, undeterred by the state's purchase of timber and mineral rights at Black Mountain's upper elevations, are seeking permits to strip, auger, and deep-mine at elevations below 3,200 feet.
"The citizens of Black Mountain are not against progress," says Karen Nickless, field representative at the National Trust's Southern Office," but to have Black Mountain below the summit strip-mined would create a moonscape bare of trees and wildlife, with a small copse of trees on the top, like a tombstone for Black Mountain."
If the state allows coal companies to mine the mountain, erosion, water pollution, and flooding could soon plague the scenic area. Mining would also endanger the two towns' heritage tourism efforts, says Nickless, and could impede the growth of alternative energy projects—such as wind installations—something some residents want.
The National Trust's long-term goal is to have the entire area around Black Mountain—not just the mountain cap—declared unsuitable for mining. Unfortunately, the jobs companies claim would come to the area with additional mining can be a powerful incentive in an area with high unemployment.
"It's a constant battle against companies who want to strip mine and locals who do not," says Nickless, who grew up in a coal-mining area. "This battle started before the Trust was involved, and it could be a long road. An '11 Most' listing is not just a one-year listing. We'll be here for Black Mountain until it is preserved." —Elizabeth McNamara
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