Early stages of planning for renovations on the Bell Islands and Old Main District have commenced. Plans to remove the metered and staff parking on Lee Boulevard in order to create a memorial dedicated to the Old Main dormitory that burned down in 1959 are in the early stages of design. The new renovations, besides memorializing the Old Main Dormitory, are directly related to the campus master plan created in 2003.
The plan provides guidelines for the growth and development of Mississippi State University during the next 20 years. The plan is intended to transform the campus to be more “pedestrian-friendly.”
An interior loop roadway that will circle the campus has been planned as well, according to the master plan. The road will improve access to staff, faculty and student parking but limit cross-campus vehicle access.
The road in front of the MSU bakery, a section of Lee Boulevard, will be removed, enabling Tracy Drive, the road that runs behind the cafeteria, and Walker Road, the road in front of Hull Hall, to meet smoothly, making a half circle around the Bell Island Commons. Walker Road will meet George Perry Street.
The area between Montgomery and McCool Hall and the Union and Perry cafeteria will become a pedestrian walkway that will be approximately 24 feet wide and similar in design to the sidewalks in the Junction.
“I think [the renovations] will do for the central purpose of campus what the Junction did for the other side of campus,” said Bill Broyles, assistant vice president of student affairs. “I believe it will certainly enhance the beauty of the central part of campus and make it a more pedestrian-friendly university where alumni and students can gather and enjoy.”
Commemorative arches are to be placed in the exact locations of where they once stood in Old Main Dormitory.
“We’re hoping that between those arches, we can create a walkway of famous alumni names,” university architect Tim Muzzi said.
The new open space that the removal of the road in front of the bakery will create will be transformed into a courtyard with a fountain in the center of Bell Islands.
“[These renovations] will create a more pedestrian-friendly space,” Muzzi said.
Tailgating will be ideal for the courtyard, and traffic will flow smoother, he said.
However, parking may prove to be an issue in the future designs.
“We’re trying to remove parking off our main streets for safety reasons,” Muzzi said.
Parking garages may need to be built in the future somewhere down the road, he said.
Walker Road will have a bus route but no off-street parking, similar to Creelman Street in front of Dorman Hall.
The new renovation plans have sparked some conflict among Hull Hall residents. Students are concerned that the extraction of Lee Boulevard will create a parking crisis for Hull Hall residents.
A petition and a student-led meeting are currently being organized among worried students as well as a plan to send student representatives to voice overall concerns at future Student Association meetings and facilities management meetings. “Everybody we’ve talked to [in Hull] so far is coming [to the meeting],” Eubank said. “We haven’t run across anybody that is against our cause. Everybody wants Hull Hall’s rights to be recognized.”
Old Main Dormitory, the main theme behind the renovations, was the first residence hall established at Mississippi State University, with the first section built in 1880.
The dormitory housed 1,100 residents and was the largest in the world during that time. On January 22, 1959, the giant hall succumbed to flames, claiming the life of one student, when a decorative candelabrum was overturned.
The Student Union and McCool Hall are built on part of the property where Old Main once stood, and the Chapel of Memories contains some of the bricks recovered from the building.
Retired history professors, Charles Lowery and Roy V. Scott wrote a book titled “Old Main: Images of a Legend” published in 1995 and dedicated to the historic preservation of Old Main Dormitory. The book details memories from past residents and provides some background history of the building.
“Essentially the book consists of reminiscences of people that lived in the place by decades, the last decade being the 50s when it burned down,” Scott said.
Scott believes that the Old Main District renovations are a “fine idea.”
“Every school has something that stands as kind of symbol. In a way that old dorm was that symbol for this place,” Scott said.
Aside from Scott and Lowery’s book, Old Main’s dismal end has inspired other works including a fictional novel by Joe Woods, a retiree from Vicksburg District, called “Old Main Burning: A Tale of Love and Murder in Mississippi.