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FRIDAY, NOV. 21,1986
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Coast&State
BORN-AGAIN BUILDING
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Bay St. Louis architect Fred Wagner supervised the two-year, $1.5 million restoration that stipped the building down to its original tum-of-the-century facade.
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Two-year restoration preserves classic loot of Mississippi Power?s oldlnew office comphx
By TERRY R. CASSRONO
SUN HERALD WRlfER
The 83-year-old Gulf &
Sliip Island Railroad office building, a historic downtown Gulfport landinark, is open again after more than two years of restoration,
Except for a few minor changes ? including a new elevator in the middle of the building and a stairway on the east end ? almost everything else looks like it did when it first opened in 1903.
??There?s been a lot of interest in the restoration of this old building," Mississippi Power Co. spokesman John Hutchinson said Thursday. ?We think it will help the whole economic revitalization of downtown Gulfport. ? Hutcliinson and Bay St. Louis architect Fred Wagner led a tour of the newly restored building Thursday morning, four days after the first Mississippi Power employees moved there into their new offices.
Mississippi Power and Gulfport officials will meet today at 9
a. m. in front of the building for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. After that, the building will be open to the public.
Mississippi Power bought the Gulf & Ship Island building in 1984 for an undisclosed price. The building was restored in about two years, Hutchmsou said, for about $1.5 million ? including $1 million in federal, tax-exempt, urban-renewal bonds.
The project has been so successful that Gulfport officials have credited Mississippi Power with encouraging other downtown restoration projects, including renovation of M. SallounVs Department Store and the Dome Theater.
The original building, at 2605 13th St., was a three-story office complex tliat housed Gulf &
Ship Island Railroad offices. It also housed Mississippi Power's temporary office for four months in 1925.
But the building?s windows, windowsills anti roof overhang were replaced in the 1950s, and the original exterior was hidden beneath a layer of modem sid-
ing. It remained that way until workers began restoring it last year.
Wagner said he used old pictures of the building to restore thi facade to its 1903 look ?? the ; classic revival style that was very popular at the turn of the century.
The doors and windows, originally made of cypress, were rebuilt with mahogany because high-quality cypress was unavailable. Single-paned windows were replaced with double-paned glass, he said, for added insulation.
The original pine timber on the second floor, third floor and a1 tic remains in place. Sections of the floors surrounding the elevate shaft were removed to give employees a sense of working in one large place.
?We opened up the building a little like that, and we allowed some light by installing skylights, ? he said, pointing up to the
Please see REBORN, C-2
Building?s mostly wood interior shines anew under skvliahts