Driving tour details grow by BUTCH WEIR Editor, The Poplarville Democrat POPLARVILLE – The third meeting of the Poplarville Preservation Society brought plans for a driving tour of the city into greater focus and served as a walk down memory lane for some older residents. Joan Bassett, society board member, said the eventual goal for the driving tour is to include not only the historical homes but also buildings, churches, schools, the courthouse and other sites and structures. The group has also discussed starting a small museum. The driving tour is focusing on pre-1930 homes. Society board member Joan Bassett said the group had divided a portion of the city into three initial districts where many older homes were located. Once the homes are identified and a brief historical summary is written a brochure can be made. Attractive metal signs to identify homes on the tour are planned. The attractive metal yard signs proposed for homes in the project are about $80 to $100 each, that she said would be paid for by the homeowner because the society at present has no operating funds. The sign Bassett has placed in front of her house, Bassett-Hyde, lists the current owner and the original owner of the home. Bassett said the earlier groups had identified three sections of downtown district: The old Hwy. 26 area west of Main Street from the Poplarville Area Chamber of Commerce office to West Beers Street; Beers Street to Church Street at the First Methodist Church; and Church Street to West Michigan Avenue Specific topics that sub-committees could research are: Downtown buildings and stores, civic organizations and clubs, heroes (hometown military), schools and churches, industries, newspapers, communities, agriculture, cemeteries, and historical homes. “For those of you who do have homes (for the tour) and haven’t given us the information we would like to get the information right away because we already have about eight homes ready to start making markers for, so we would like to have about 10 or 12 before we start preparing the brochure.” She asked for that information to be brought to the October meeting. Bassett said a possible way to keep interest going in the project is to feature one home or building each month in the newspaper with a photograph and some information about the house or building Regarding the proposed museum, Maggie Smith, current Chamber of Commerce president, explained about plans the Society has to convert the rest of the building where the Chamber office is located as a museum. That portion had been used by the Poplarville Fire Dept. and was once the county emergency management office. It has not been used in recent years and is not in good shape Smith said, needing cleaning and some renovations. She also spoke about plans for the composition of the Chamber of Commerce board of directors to include a representative from local clubs who have expressed interest in improving the local area. “We’re hoping that we can all work together to make Poplarville better,” Smith said. Bassett said she, Shirley Wiltshire and Byron Wells recently went to Wiggins and saw its new museum. She thinks Poplarville could use some of its features for its own museum such as highlighting local military personnel from the city’s past. It was noted that during World War II an extensive booklet had been published denoting all the military personnel in the area that had served in that conflict. Another person said a similar record had been made of the Pearl River Jr. College students who served in that war. There are also many past residents of note that can be featured at the museum, one group member said. Another aspect that can be investigated is the many surrounding communities that have played a part in the city’s past, Bassett said, and asked the group think of other topics that could be featured. “We want to ask people, if they will, to donate to us photographs, old newspapers … and any information like that you might think that is significant it would really be nice for us, too.” Photos from the 1940s and 1950s of telephone operators that manned the local switchboard, were shown to the group. Ione Stewart, who was present at the meeting, was identified as the first telephone operator. Another one identified was Bertie Lou Morris Tims. The exchange was located where the current meeting was being held at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Bassett remembers as a young girl looking in the Exchange door and watching the operators at work. One who was present at the meeting said the telephone number a t the bank was three. That brought a chorus of other names and numbers from the audience. “You didn’t really have to know the number if you just tell Mrs. Sharp, “I want Dr. Cowart and ring his office number and he’s not there…” Bassett said if a person did not want to donate the photographs or other items to the museum they could possibly be loaned. She said the museum could periodically have presentations to feature a certain part of the city, a building, a prominent resident or other item of interest. “These are some of the things that we want to accomplish.” Bassett passed around sign-up sheets and asked that people identify committees or areas they are interested. Current officer of the Society are Brenda Wells, Secretary, and Myra Sharp, treasurer. Board members are Bassett, Johnny Hall, Maggie Smith, Martin Travis Smith and Brenda Wells.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 16:35:02 +0000
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