Mississippi Piney Woods: A Photographic Study of Folk Architecture

by Patti Carr Black
an exhibition at the Mississippi State Historical Museum
Cover photograph: Grist mill at Lake Bounds, Clarke County
by Patti Carr Black
Mississippi Department of Archives and History Jackson, Mississippi 1976 Reprinted 1980
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.
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.