Hattiesburg, Mississippi

If you visit Hattiesburg before December 19, you’ll find housed in its century-old, stunningly restored train depot an exhibition of some of the finest examples of southern craft and traditional art. If you missed the exhibition Tradition/Innovation when it was at Baton Rouge’s Louisiana Art and Science Museum this summer, here’s one last opportunity, as this is the last stop in the tour. And I can’t think of a better metaphor for the charming southern city that is this exhibition’s current host.

Just as the exhibit blends old traditions with new innovation—like pine needle baskets woven in asymmetrical shapes and adorned in metallic glazes—Hattiesburg is a bustling contemporary university and medical center, with a deep appreciation of its history.  And all it takes to appreciate that is a short stroll from the train station.

“This is where Hattiesburg began,” explains Betsy Rowell, Executive Director or the Historic Hattiesburg Downtown Association.

In 1868, Captain William Hardy conceived the idea of building a railroad from Meridian to New Orleans. The story goes that in 1880 during a survey trip, he stopped to rest, spread a map of Mississippi on the ground, and decided it would be a good spot to locate a train station. That resting spot was where downtown Hattiesburg now stands. The line was completed in 1883 and the settlement, which was about to experience a boom from this new transportation link, was incorporated as a town in 1884 and named in honor of Hardy’s wife, Hattie.

“We’re not the antebellum Mississippi people think about,” Rowell continues. “Most of our historic homes are Victorian by design.”

And what better time to visit Hattiesburg than when those homes will be front and center on the weekend of December 11 and 12 as the monthly downtown art walk takes on an extra glow from the ten thousand luminaries that line the streets of downtown and the adjacent historic neighborhood.

Downtown Hattiesburg is undergoing a major revitalization. Once empty storefronts now house the numerous art galleries that are the focus of the weekend’s art walk, the newest of which will make it debut this weekend in the beautifully renovated historic Oddfellow’s Lodge.

Madrigal singers will stroll the streets adding another layer to the holiday ambience, and horse drawn carriages will shuttle folks about as they did when these historic buildings were new.

Downtown Hattiesburg also boasts one of the seven Saenger Theatres built and operated throughout the South by the Saenger brothers, Abe and Julian. Stunningly renovated in 2000 the theatre blends the Neo-Classical Revival Style and Art Deco Style, including Mayan-inspired elements. The Saenger was built as a venue to show silent movies. When it opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1929, the theatre charged six cents for children. And kids will be flocking back to the theatre this weekend because that’s where Santa will be waiting to hear their Christmas lists.

A dozen downtown dining spots offer everything from casual fare, like the wood-fired pizzas at Bianchi’s Pizzeria, to the fine fare served amidst the art-filled interior of Restaurant 206 Front. Relatively new is the recently opened second location for Ocean Spring’s wildly popular BBQ joint, The Shed. This one is housed in an old Coca Cola bottling plant, with a vibe that’s as playful as the original but all its own.

Throw in a cozy independent bookstore, an organic food store, several terrific gift shops, and to top it all off the groovy Southern Fried Comic Book Store (check out the vibrant comic laden lamp shades) and you have the ingredients for much merriment making.

And just down the road...

A few exits north of Hattiesburg, off Interstate 59, you’ll find one more delight beckoning you to this part of Mississippi for the holidays.

At first glance, Landrum’s Homestead and Village appears much like many such collections of rustic structures you’ll run across on a trip to the Ozarks or the Smoky Mountains. Until you meet Tom Landrum.

I was standing in one of the cabins, filled with what seems an almost random collection of vintage objects, when he walks in and points to an old oil lamp.  One day, Landrum tells me, an elderly man came to him with that lamp and said that he’d heard Landrum never threw anything away. Landrum acknowledged that to be largely true, corroborated by the fact that there is now an entire village created to house the many historic artifacts that the Landrum family has gathered themselves and been given by others. The man related the story of how he and his wife had bought the lamp on their honeymoon, and how the lamp had nearly been thrown away by his children. He wanted Landrum to have it because he knew it would be cared for and not end up in the trash.

Years later Landrum continues, a young man approached him while touring the homestead and said that he’d heard the story of his grandfather bringing his lamp there. “Do you still have it?” he asked.

And indeed he did he replied, pointing to it, just as he’d done moments ago for me.

For every item in every building in the village, there’s a story. And Tom Landry can point to each one and tell that story.

This entire village sprang from a day twenty years ago when Landrum was watching his grandkids play video games.  “Come-on,” he said, and he took the kids into the woods, cut down two trees, and drug them back to begin constructing the first cabin. He thought it would be the best history lesson he could give them about the family’s hard working roots. He refers to it as “burning images” into the minds of his grandkids in a way that merely telling them about the past couldn’t.

That first building led to another, and another. “I’ve always wanted a gristmill,” the senior Landrum said. And so they built one. Another family member wanted a windmill. And so they built one. On a family trip they toured one of those “mystery houses” built on odd angles that seems to defy gravity and thought “we could do this,” and so they did. And then, building by building, there emerged a village—or homestead as the family calls it.

Christmas is a particularly popular time to visit the homestead, festooned as it is in thousands of lights and candlelit pathways at night, often with the sweet sounds of dulcimers emanating from the village stage.

Details. Details. Details.

www.downtownhattiesburg.com 
www.landrumscountry.com