informal social spaces

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Informal Social Spacesand Patterns of Density inthe SouthernPlantation Economy

sarah simonsonthesis researchfall 2011



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Third places are consistently frequented social spaces that are distinct from work

and the home. These informal places rely on accessibility and convenience and are

sensitive to fluctuations in density patterns. The development of automobile culture

and changes in attitude towards privacy contributed to a decline in dense, walkable

communities. This lower density led to a decrease in certain types of social

environments that sociologists point to as evidence of an overall decline in informalsocial spaces.

In the Mississippi Delta, a plantation economy led to clusters of small communities

that were never convenient or accessible to one another. As a result, the informal

social spaces simply adapted to the needs of the community and were located in or

near centralized places of utility such as commissaries and train depots. In recent

decades, fundamental shifts in social structures and economics have lead to the

abandonment of the centralized environments built in the early twentieth century.

Instead, the informal centers of the Delta have relocated to gas stations and other

spaces that are attached to the highway transportation network. In many cases, theformal centers and the centers of tourism have remained in place leading to the

creation of three separate public centers of town. A more clear connection between

these public centers while respecting the informal social traditions of daily life would

serve to strengthen small Delta communities with few resources.



p a p e

r

“My aunt Louella, aunt Mary Ella, aunt Nicklesh,

aunt Virginia, and aunt Prissy would get together

in the winter and go from house to house quilting,

helping each other with their quilts.

I could see the things they were doing, and it

influenced me to do it.”

mary lee bendolph gee’s bend alabama



Our experiences in and around the built environment can be grouped into

three categories: the domestic, the productive, and the social. Each experience type

plays a unique and integral role in human sustainability and fulfillment1. The domestic

involves the activities in and around the home while the productive is focused in the

work environment. The third category, the social space as an easy and accessible

function of daily life, is as distinct and important as the home or workplace for the

sustainability of healthy communities.

As societies evolved and changed over time, the level of cultural emphasis on

the third place has also evolved. In ancient Rome, the third place was highly designed

and realized in the form of large public baths; in eighteenth-century England, it

appeared as the more casual and intimate coffeehouse. The country store served not

only as a place of commerce for frontier America, but also as the primary hub for social

interaction. These places all have common threads that have little to do with their

outward appearance and function, and instead touch on an emotional response and

feeling of sameness that exists across regions and cultures.

In recent decades, informal social spaces have been documented and studied by

an array of sociologists and cultural geographers. In particular, Dr. Ray Oldenburg has

noted a decline in the types of spaces that he and others have identified as informal

social spaces, or in his terms, “third places.2” He argues that the development of

automobile culture and changes in attitude towards privacy have contributed to a

decline in walkable communities where visiting a social space was both convenient to

1 Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place , 15.

2 Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and

Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 1999, xxix.



the home and easily accessible on a daily basis.3 While this shift in density, economic

layout, and transportation systems has resulted in a decline of some of the specific

kinds of places of Oldenburg’s focus such as the neighborhood bar, informal social

spaces are not experiencing a complete decline. As opposed to disappearing, as

transportation systems and density cause a loss in accessibility, informal social spaces

experience an organic change in form and location in order to remain accessible to their

community.

A flaw of Oldenburg’s research is that he almost entirely focuses on urban

communities that have always enjoyed a relatively high density. In order to study how

density loss can affect informal social spaces, it is important to also study communities

that are low density yet have a vibrant network of informal social spaces. In the

Mississippi Delta, the easily accessible was never a fixture of the environment as the

plantation economy lent itself to small communities spread out over hundreds of miles4.

Due to its physical layout and the complex economic difficulties of the region, the social

spaces have often been the plantation commissaries, train depots, and cotton ginning

facilities whose primary function was not as a social space. In the current economy,

Delta communities are experiencing a near abandonment of the environment built as

the community center. Instead, the public center has often been relocated to modern

places of utility such as gas stations which operate along the current transportation

network and are therefore most accessible to the greatest number of people.

3 Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place, 3.

4 Aiken, Charles S. The Cotton Plantation South Since the Civil War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University

Press, 1998, 364.



Physically, successful third places need to be both accessible and available5.

The location has to be convenient and easy to get to from either an individuals home,

their work, or both. While Oldenburg equates the accessible with walkability, proximity

to a transportation network and a place of utility addresses accessibility in communities

with low density. Coupled with location, the hours have to be long in order to create the

greatest ease of accessibility and a sense of fluidity in the people and activities. A

patron should be able to go alone at almost any time of day with the assurance that

other people will be there. Third places also tend to keep a low profile, which is one of

the reasons that it can be difficult to asses and discuss the importance a particular third

place has within a community 6. They tend to be not constructed as social spaces but in

many instances were establishments designed to meet other needs and were

commandeered into an involuntary social space.

A final attribute of third places involves the patrons themselves. There is always

a collection of regulars that are the people that make the places come alive7. They feel

at home in the third place, and set the tone of social interaction. While regulars are an

integral component, there is an acceptance that newcomers are also essential to the

sustainability of a place, and navigation of the inroads is routinely performed.

Whether they are located in an urban or a rural environment, central to the

creation and sustainability of third places is the unplanned meetings between people8.

In urban communities, the adoption of modern zoning has altered the ways in which







individuals interact with the community by creating separate land use districts that

remove the commercial from the residential, and as an unintended consequence

permanently altered the informality of the third place9.

New communities that proliferated after World War II throughout the United

States were largely low in density and completely un-walkable 10. According to

Oldenburg’s argument, the physicality of suburbia with its large private spaces that have

to be reached by car are antithetical to regular informal meetings 11. As the suburbs

emerged, the categories of built environment experience were reduced from a three to a

two-step model of daily routine that excluded the informal meeting as well as the third

place12. While he has noted that this two-step routine has led to the disappearance of

the third place, it has in many instances simply shifted to a new type of environment.

Utilitarian places where the social aspect is secondary such as with barbershops, gas

stations, and laundromats are now primary third places in communities due to their

centrality and necessity - everyone in the community frequents them, regardless of their

proximity. Places where the social aspect is more apparently primary such as bars and

cafes have become spaces of formal interactions that are planned or invited as people

are now required to drive to find them.

In the Mississippi Delta, the development of the large scale plantation and

the labor force necessary to run the production inherently created collections of

9 Arendt, Randall. Rural By Design: Maintaining Small Town Character . Chicago:Planners Press, 1994, 3.






communities with a lack of urban density. Whether the plantation as an economic

system is extinct as in the Georgia Piedmont region or still a functioning entity within the

economy as it is in the Mississippi Delta, its legacy is present in its effects on economy,

social structures, and the political system13.

While variation in community layout typologies has coincided with changes in

agriculture, labor systems, and transportation, the Delta as a whole has always on some

level been made up of a collection of small towns and hamlets. The cultural and

economic entity that is the Delta is not actually the Mississippi delta in a technical sense

but an alluvial plane that contains the delta of a major tributary of the Mississippi River,

the Yazoo14. It is bounded in the west by the Mississippi River and in the east by vast

bluffs that run the length of the state from Memphis through Greenwood. It is a

collection of 17 counties of low population that contain communities that vary in size

from 37,000 in Greenville to the 800 residents of Tutwiler. Many communities hover

below the 500 mark15 . Due to a pattern of settlement and density patterns that do not

follow that of either the city or the small town, Oldenburg’s assessment of disappearing

third places does not apply.

The Delta’s history of settlement and community layout typologies becomes a

three phase story of shifts in labor force, social struggles, and transportation networks16.

13 Aiken, Charles S. The Cotton Plantation South , 364.

14 Cobb, James C. The Most Southern Place On Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of RegionalIdentity . New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

15 U.S. Census Bureau. Selected Economic Characteristics of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. Generated by Sarah Simonson using American Fact Finder. <http://factfinder.census.gov> (15 October

2011).


http://factfinder.census.gov/








The first phase of slave holding plantations is that which is most common in the

American consciousness of Mississippi cotton and planting history. The Delta was

originally settled by American’s in the 1830s. Settlement remained at a relatively low

ebb through the 1860s due to the difficulty of obtaining and clearing the Delta’s land17. It

was a costly production to clear and drain what amounted to swampland, which led to

settlement by a small number of wealthy, slave-owning planters who were already

established elsewhere, frequently from outside of the state18. Many of them ran their

productions remotely. Moving production to the Delta was considered a huge gamble

and was unpredictable, but it could produce huge returns on investment19

There are several characteristics that distinguish a plantation from other

agricultural production typologies. First, as shown in its early settlers economic profile,

plantation agriculture requires high capitalization due to the necessity of large

landholding and a large labor force. It also relies on a highly specialized, singular crop

such as cotton, and a skilled labor force to tend that crop. It requires careful

management year round which, along with the large labor force, requires an intricate

system of management20. All of these factors contribute to a geographic form that

spatially differentiates it not only from the variety of urban typologies, but from many

agricultural typologies as well.

In the Old South phase of slave-holding plantations, the Mississippi Delta was

made up of a small number of high-volume plantations inhabited by large numbers of

17 Cobb, James C. The Most Southern Place on Earth , 7.



20 Aiken, Charles S. The Cotton Plantation South , 5-7.



black slaves as a labor force. These settlements were almost exclusively located along

river fronts which acted as highways through the Delta wilderness21. According to the

1860 census, the majority of Delta residents owned more than 50 slaves22. Each

plantation was centralized in a “nucleated” pattern of housing with the overseers or

landowners as the center of community. The labor force was housed in rows that were

relatively close to one another. However, at the start of the Civil War, this phase of

development was really just beginning for the area. It was far more established in other

regions of Mississippi, such as the Natchez region that lay south of the Delta. There

was, however, very high optimism for the Delta at the start of the war. The early settlers

had proven the fertility of the land while the newly established local governments were

making moves towards centralized flooding control through a levee system23.

Due to the scattered population and the low infrastructure, social spaces tended

to be located in more temporary conditions. The brush arbor became an important

feature of the early Delta landscape, particularly in its use during church services. It was

a wallless structure that was built as a temporary pavilion, sometimes for traveling

preachers. They were also used by slaves to conduct illegal church services.

The period of Reconstruction from the close of the war until the 1870s marked a

major fundamental shift in the South and the beginning of the second phase of the Delta

economy. In the Delta, as in other areas heavily dependent on the plantation economy,

the emancipation of the slaves caused a struggle to develop to sort out the demands of

21 White, Paul. The History and Development of the Mississippi Delta Economy . Business Perspectives,Summer-Fall 2009 v20, 71.





transportation system to move goods in and out28 of the Delta29. Also as a part of this

scattering, furnish stores and plantation commissaries appeared in towns and in the

countryside at strategic locations such as crossroads. As the tenant farming economy

developed further, centralized shared ginning facilities also developed30. This created a

landscape where tenant farmers lived far apart from one another but had to travel to buy

supplies, gin their cotton crop, and socialize. Countryside juke joints were created in

the tenant farmer’s homes as a scattered population sought a centralized gathering

place. On certain nights of the week, the furniture in the house would be moved out of

the way and neighbors would gather to fry fish and dance to live music. Occasionally

these informal dance halls and barrooms would relocate to outside facilities, most of

which were also far out in the countryside and not located in town.

The outbreak of World War II marked the third shift in the Delta settlement

patterns. Several developments in the plantation economy led to a mass exodus of the

black population from the rural South into the urban North that came in several waves.

First, the arrival of the boll weevil as a crop destroyer caused mass panic, even as it did

not create the amount of damage in the Delta as had been feared. Then, the advent of

the first world war caused a need for industrial laborers as production increased and

many men were sent overseas. This sudden need for laborers was also caused by the

sudden loss of European immigrants to fill those slots. A third factor was the initiation of

the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933. As a result of that act, in 1934 only 1/4th of the

28 Berlin, Ira. The Making of African America, 114.

29 White, Paul. The History and Development of the Mississippi Delta Economy, 71.




crop produced in 1933 was planted. Feeling both a push and a pull to leave the

plantation region, tenant farmers left the South.

The Mississippi Delta adopted mechanization in agriculture quickly. The relative

speed with which the Delta planters were willing to adopt new technologies cemented

their future role as the foundation of the Delta economy while other plantation areas

were forced to diversify. Whether the labor force migrating caused a need for

mechanization or mechanization created a job vacuum, plantations remain the driving

force of the Delta economy while no longer providing significant numbers of jobs. With

the loss of tenant farming, the modern Delta physical landscape began to resemble that

of the Old South more closely than that of the New South. There was a reemergence of

the life in a centralized location - the town center - as plantation commissaries and

furnish merchant stores closed31. There also emerged a new transportation system in

the highway that affected the layout of businesses, homes, and social spaces. This new

density level and transportation system led to the creation of informal social spaces

along the highway network in places of high traffic such as the gas station.

Viewed on the surface, Oldenburg’s argument appears valid. As populations

grew more reliant on automobiles and lived in a more suburban typology walkable

neighborhoods vanished. With them, some kinds of social spaces that were dependent

on foot traffic disappeared. However, that does not mean that all informal social spaces

disappeared. Low density environments such as that of the Mississippi Delta have a

wide variety of informal social spaces even as their communities are almost entirely un-

31 Aiken, Charles S. The Cotton Plantation South , 110-111.



walkable. As the community layout and transportation networks changed over time the

social spaces changed with them in order to remain accessible and relevant.



Aiken, Charles S. The Cotton Plantation South Since the Civil War. Baltimore: JohnsHopkins University Press, 1998.

Aiken gives an economic history of southern plantations through the lens ofcultural geography. He discusses the settlement patterns of people in the primary

regions of United States plantation development: Georgia, Louisiana, Texas,Alabama, and Mississippi. He discusses the Yazoo River Basin in Mississippiextensively and compares it to the other regions in both its successes and itsfaults. The Yazoo Delta is unique from the other plantation regions in that theplantation owners were quick to adapt to larger changes in labor movements andtechnologies such as the in the shift from tenant farming to wide-spreadmechanization. This flexibility and vision for the future allowed the planter classof that region to be particularly successful while other plantation regions wereforced to abandon large-scale farming altogether.

Arendt, Randall. Rural By Design: Maintaining Small Town Character . Chicago:

Planners Press, 1994.

This book is an urban planning manual with a focus on small towns in the UnitedStates. In the first half of the book Arendt gives a detailed description of a varietyof planning issues that are relevant to both small towns and larger cities on theneighborhood scale. The second half of the book offers a list of precedents andexplains what was and was not successful about them. One failing of the book isthat it almost exclusively discusses small towns that have some amount of wealthand the economic support of a centralized tourist district with businesses. Thereis not a lot offered for the discussion of small communities that do not have thebenefits of such an economic system.

Berlin, Ira. The Making of African America. New York: Penguin, 2010.

Berlin gives an account of African American history through the lens of four greatmigrations: the forced migration from Africa during the slave trade, a forcedtransfer to the interior of the United States from its coasts, the great migration ofAfrican Americans from the rural South into the more urban North that occurredafter World War I, and the recent migration back into the Southern states. Thesections that discussed the Great Migration of the 1910s and 1920 was relevantto the discussion of labor systems and the shift from tenant farming tomechanization.

Cobb, James C. The Most Southern Place On Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity . New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

This is the most detailed history of western settlement of the Mississippi Deltaregion in existence. The discussion of Mississippi life prior to 1800 is not of anyrelevance here: it is exclusively a discussion of plantations and the people whoown them and work in them. Due to its specificity, it is becomes a dialogue about



the relationship between the black and white communities of Mississippi and howthe tension between black labor and white ownership drove much of its historyand culture.

Francaviglia, Richard V. Main Street Revisited: Time, Space, and Image Building in

Small-Town America . Iowa City: University Of Iowa Press, 1996.

Francaviglia studies the cultural idea of main street in the United States overtime, particular in smaller towns. He discusses its significance not only as a thecenter of commerce and a crossroads of transportation, but also as the focus ofcivic identity.

Mathur, Anuradha and Dilip da Cunha. Mississippi Floods: Desiging a ShiftingLandscape. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

This is a discussion as to how the lower Mississippi River flood protection

systems should be addressed. The author’s use detailed graphics in order todiscuss the inherent conflicts between human desires for flood control andenvironmental issues.

Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, HairSalons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community . Philadelphia: Da CapoPress, 1999.

Oldenburg coined the term “third place” in order to describe places that he saw tobe as integral to daily life as home or work but was often neglected in the greaterconsciousness of American culture. He believes that the rise of suburban life and

the decline of walkable communities has also led to a decline in third places.However, he neglects to consider the rural areas of the United States which havenever been walkable yet still have a vibrant and varied culture of informal socialspaces.

Vieyra, Daniel L. Fill ‘Er Up: An Architectural History of America’s Gas Stations . NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1979.

This is a history of the American Gas Station as told through its builtenvironment. It discusses the cultural value of stations in the United States andhow their design directly reflects specific branding considerations of a small

handful of gas companies. The multi-use function of the gas station and its tie toour modern transportation system lends itself well to spontaneous interactionamong neighbors and as an accidental third place.

White, Paul. The History and Development of the Mississippi Delta Economy . BusinessPerspectives, Summer-Fall 2009 v20 p70-76.



This article gives a brief but thorough timeline of the Mississippi Delta economyand its possibilities for the future. White believes that while the plantation is stillthe largest cultural force of the Delta, it is and no longer can be the primaryeconomic driver. There is a recent push by some organizations and smallcommunities to tap into a small but growing tourist market that is largely tied to

blues tourism and the casino industry.

Whyte, William H. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces . New York: Project for PublicSpaces Inc., 2009.

Whyte employed practical observation methods to attempt and identify why someurban public spaces are successful and why some seemingly are not. He firstsuggested a list of criteria to define the characteristics of a successful publicplace such as the ratio of women to men and the ratio of people to seating areas.He discussed Seagram’s Plaza in New York City at length and detailed why hebelieves it to be a successful plaza and what about it makes it successful. He

goes into both specific design considerations such as the edges of fountainsbeing comfortable for seating as well as more managerial considerations such asfriendly security policies that encourage loitering.



p r o p o s a l

“She’d get four frames and get a needle andthread, and she’d get her quilt top and spread itacross on top of it, and hook the quilt up to theframe. She’d have four nails up in the loft of the

house and then she had four strings on them.She’d get the four strings and roll it up to theframe to hold it up. Then when night came, we roll

the quilt up in the loft so you could walk up underit.”

mary lee bendolph gee’s bend alabama



source: u.s.

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2 6

y

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0 3

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, 9 6 2

g r e e n w o o d

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175 miles

The Mississippi Delta has always beloose, low-density network of relatsmall towns whose inhabitants completely reliant on large transportanetworks for work, living supplies, socializing. The communities are enough away from one another accessibility through walking was almnever an option.



1865 1930 2011

After several decades of reliance onvast river network, a rail system

implemented that complemented tenant farming system of the new soAs the Delta transitioned from tenfarming to mechanized labor systenew highways were built that rendethe rail system mostly obsolete. Mosthe rail depots were forced to cl

including the one in Tutwiler, Mississwhich closed in 1929.

sources: 1930 railroad commissioner’s m

ms department of transportation



In the 1930s, the federal aid highwsystem drastically changed the Deltransportation network. However, duethe low density, residents continuetravel long distances for work. Tchange in transportation network achanged the kinds of social spaces tare accessible and convenient.

127%

198%

188%

47%

0 - 10 minutes

20 - 30 minutes

10 - 20 minutes

30 - 60 minutes

commute time to work in tutwiler mississippisource: u.s. census & federal aid highway sy

progress map 1930

1930



1927

2011

demolished

As the rail depots disappeared, buildpatterns aligned with the new highwsystem.

source: sanborn fire insurance map 19

u.s. geological survey 2011



As the primary transportation systtransferred from rail to the highway, informal social spaces moved with it.that transition took place, a forcommunity center was constructed olot located between the built downtoand the gas station that acted as

public center as a hang-out.

source: personal observation & field inter

3 november 2011

tourism

formal

informal



0

6

12

18

6

12

18

0

6

12

18

0

There are two historic markers in original downtown area which are heamarketed and act as a steady but smtourist draw. This, combined with transportation shift, has resulted inspheres of activity in 3 separate locatiin and around Tutwiler’s downtown.

source: personal observation & field interv

3 november 2011

formal

tourism

informal



Overall , the Delta has experiencesignificant and steady decrease population following the great migraand job-loss due to mechanization.

source: u.s. ce

1 9 7 0

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1 9 4 0

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Due to movement after the transi

away from tenant farming, the populaof Tutwiler has been varied but steaincreasing. Therefore, the abandonmof the built downtown cannot attributed to population loss. Howeviewed alongside the larger trends of Delta, population stagnation adecrease is inevitable.

source: u.s. ce

r a

i l d e p o t c

on s t r u c t e

d

r ai l

d e p o t r em

ov e d

gr e a t mi gr a t i on

t r an si t i on t om

e ch ani z a t i on

9 3 9

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1 9 9 0

2 0 0 0

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1 4 2

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6

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1 9 4 0

1 9 5 0 1 9 6 0

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9 1 2

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1 , 3 9 1

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A more clear connection between thspheres of activity would be beneficiathe residents of small towns with resources as well as the tourists, b

economically and socially. This can achieved through thoughtful masplanning.

t h e h i s t o r i c s i t e

t h e h a n g o u t

t h e c o m m u n i t y c e n t e r



A quick master planning study shouldperformed of Tutwiler’s primary puzone which consists of all three activitformal, informal, and tourism.

0 500 1000 2000 1 mile



The resulting plan will include spacesmulti-use where all 3 spheres of act

can occur together rather tseparately.

Quilting has long been a social activitywomen, and in Tutwiler it has been usuccessfully to improve the econostanding of an existing group of quilt

who are interested in passing on tlocal quilting traditions.



As part of this recommendation a quil

center will be proposed. The center csists of two parts: one is a more privspace for the quilters themselves whwill use a historic building that is longer in use, and the other is a mpublic space that will act as a qmuseum and library with a specific foof Mississippi quilts. The second build

will be placed in a lot that is curreempty. In between is a greenspwhere the depot used to be located tnow houses the historic markers.

4 , 8

0 0 s f

10 30 60

m u s e u

m &

a r c h i v e

g r e e n s p a c e / c o n n e c t o r

q u i l t i n g c e n t e r

1 0

, 0 0 0 s f

2 5 , 0 0

0 s f



Quilting Museum & Library10,000 square feet

lobby/front desk area :: 500 square feet

classroom / film screening room :: 1,000 square feet storage :: 100 square feet

seating podium / stage area

library :: 1,400 square feet reading room :: 300 square feet

stacks :: 1,100 square feet

gallery / museum :: 3,500 square feet storage :: 500 square feet museum floor :: 3,000 square feet

archive :: 2,000 square feet

reading room :: 300 square feet

oral history recording booth :: 75 square feet documentary film recording booth :: 125 square feet equipment room :: 100 square feet employee work area :: 200 square feet

offices :: 990 square feet 3 offices @ 120 square feet :: 360 square feet kitchenette / breakroom :: 300 square feet

meeting room :: 300 square feet

building support :: 570 square feet janitor :: 20 square feet restrooms :: 400 square feet mechanical :: 150 square feet

Quilt Studio & Social Space4,800 square feet

main quilting space :: 3,050 square feet storage for supplies

storage for finished quilts coat closet display for finished quilts

teaching space 700 square feet

children’s playspace :: 500 square feet

kitchenette :: 300 square feet

building support :: 250 square feet restroom :: 100 square feet storage :: 50 square feet mechanical :: 100 square feet



Early study for the spaces required ofquilt frames and the quilters themselves.

twin 50” x 52”

6 people

double 83” x 106”

8 people

queen 90” x 106”

8 people

king 107” x 108”

10 people

sitting

standing

2 ’ 3 ”

9 ”

1 ’ 6 ”

quilt fr

supplseating

quilt f

supp

3 ’ 1 ”

8 ”



Early study of the different levelspersonal space and social space.

public space 25’

social space 12’

personal space 4’

intimate space 1.5’



Mississippi Main Street is a program of the National Trust which is acommunity-driven, holistic approach to downtown revitilization that

encourages economic development within the context of historic preservation.

They utilize what they term as a four-point approach to community design:organization of community members towards the same goal, promotion of the

commnunity’s unique assets, design which capitalizes on those assets, andeconomic restructuring which strengthens a communities existing economy.

Their methods regarding historic preservation, promotion, and design arethe most applicable to this project.

Master P

The first phase of the project deswill involve a quick evaluation

list of recommendationsdowntown Tutwiler. This proc

will follow the methods of previoestablished programs that addr

the needs of small-town and r

communit

The Small Town Design Initiative is a program of Auburn University’s Ur

Studio which seeks to address the modern issues of the rural town centethe South that are brought on by large-scale changes to the economy

population shifts. They recognize that small towns rarely have accesprofessional assistance or good inforation regarding design and planningis applicable to their particular community. They implement a six-step me

of community education, documentation of current assets, commuvisioning, design, documentation and presentation, and follow up. T

methods regarding documentation of current assets and design are mapplicable to this project.

The Mississippi State University Community Action Team was invited by

Clarksdale Revitilization, Inc. to provide first impressions and design sketchesfor downtown Clarksdale as it begins a transition from an agriculture-based

economy to a tourism-based economy. Their recommendations involved aseries of short-term and long-term goals including a rehabilitation of the

facades of downtown buildings. Similar in structure to the Small Town DesignInitiative, the Clarksdale recommendations are most significant in that theyaddress the same economic transition as Tutwiler and that they are

geographically similar.



Cultural Cont

Any intervention of the exisdowntown must respect lo

cultural consideratarchitecturally as we

sociologically. These projects tdifferent aspects of the lo

architecture and used element

those apects without simproviding exact cop

Supershed & Pods

Newburn, Alabama1997 - 2001

Rural Studio

International Civil Rights Muse

Greensboro, Alaba

20The Freelon Gro

Harris (Butterfly) HouseMason’s Bend, Alabama

1997Rural Studio

material use:corrugated metal

material use:

wood & screen

The shed the most basicform of shelter and is a

common feature of the

rural landscape. Here it isused to provide theprimary protection from the

elements and give greaterflexibility in the built form ofto a series of smaller

buildings.

This museum is housed

in an old Woolworth’sdepartment store. The

architects identifiedwhat was most

historically significantabout the building,retained it, and then

celebrated them whileadding new elements.



Cultural Conte

Some vernacular typologieMississippi are the I-House and

cotton gin. Effecient houses that designed to handle the extreheat and humidity of Mississ

have always been a feature of landscape. Communal ginn

facilities as well as individual gbelonging to large plantations ar

feature of every Delta to

Mississippi houses of early western

settlement were organized around acentral hallway which was sometimes

enclosed but was also often left open inorder to allow for cross-ventilation.

The planter’s cabins almost always included

an exterior portico that acted as a entrywayand provided sun protection.

Cotton gins have always been a fixture of thDelta landscape. Often clad in corrugated

metal, they include a large open structure thouse the ginning equipment and a covered

area for vehicles to make deliveries and picup the ginned cotton.

Single-File I-house Double-File I-house Dog-Trot Hou

Planter’s Cabin

Cotton Gin



Social Spac

Several different methodaddressing how to comb

practical daily use with sospaces exist, including using so

space as a pathway, adestination, and as its own en

Infowash

Delisle, Mississippi2006

SHoP Architects

The Commons

Gilbert, Arizona2007

Debartolo Architects

Mason’s Bend Community CenMason’s Bend, Alaba

20Rural Stu

he infowash combines a

aundrymat, an office for disasterelief, and an outdoor social space.

ll three of the program elementsre housed under one roof, but are

ept separate from one another.

This student union has a

centralized social spaceas a destination that isapprochable from all

directions and has otherprogram elements suchas a bookstore and a cafe

located along the variousentry sequences.

This community center is

designed to house a socialspace as well as a satellite

office for a traveling doctorand library. The more

formal program is housedseperately, but the socialspace also functions as the

primary circulation.

a

b c



Makers Spa

Spaces designed for craftsmen to be large, well-lit rooms that h

secondary spaces spinning othem. One exception is the ma

typology where customwandering through the spac

benef

Artist’s Colony Market

Budapest, HungaryCompetition EntryAtelier Architects

Burnie Makers’ Market

Burnie, Tasmania, Australia2009

TERROIR Architects

Weaving StuSan Juan Island, Washing

2Prentiss Archite

This studio space is centrialized and

serves as the main space in thebuilding and as the connecting

piece for all of the support spaces.

a

b

cd

e

This artists market integratesinto the regular street

circulation of the city andencourages browsing.

This is a combination of

craftsman spaces andspaces for selling finished

works. The different artforms and sales rooms are

separated into differentwings by program.

primary

a

b c



s i t e

“My life is different now. When people used to

come here in Gee’s Bend, sometimes they wouldbuy quilts from me. They didn’t ask me what Icharge for my quilts. They just give me what theywant to give me. I’d get five or ten dollars for a

quilt.Things have changed a whole lot for Gee’sBend in the last few years. I can give more than Iever gave in my whole life.

And now my quilts have more feelings than theyever had, because the world can see and I canshare them with the world.”

mary lee bendolphgee’s bend alabama



uni t e

d s t at e s

mi s s i s s i p pi

t al l ah at c h i e

c o unt y

white

black

hispanic

native americanasianother

racial demographics

1 3 ,2

0 1

2 , 9 5 1 , 9

9 6

3

0 7 , 0 0 6 , 5

5 0



uni t e d

s t at e s

mi s s

i s s i p pi

t al l ah at c h i e c

o unt y

professional

service

sales

agriculture

production

construction

employment type

$ 1 2 , 6

6 4

$ 1 9 , 5 3 4

$ 2 7 , 0

4 1

p er c a pi t a

p er c a pi t a

p er c a pi t a



s p

r i n g

f a l l

c o r n

c o t t

o n

s w e e t p o t a

t o

r i c

e

s o y b

e a n s

source: us department of agr cu tu



a r t s & e n t e

r t a i n m e n t

p u b l i

c a d m

i n i s t r

a t i o n

hea th care

e d u c a t i o n a l s e r v i c e s

a g r i c u l t u r e a

p p

a r e

l

f o o d s e r v i c e

t r u c k t r a n s p

o

r t a t i o

n

c o n s t r u c t i o n

f o o d

o t h

e r t r

a n

s

p o r t a

t i o n

m e t a l & m

e t a l p r o d u c t s

p e r s o n a l &

l a u n d r y s e r v i c e

f o o d

&

b e v e

r a g e s t o r e

m a n u f a c t u r i n g

r e p a i r

f u r n i t u r e

m o t o r v e h i c l e d

e a l e r

w a s t e

m a n a g e m

e n t

source: us cens



downtown tutwiler, mississippi



d o w n t o w n t u t w i l e r , m i s s i s s i p p i



The site is located in the centr

Mississippi Delta which is in thnorthwest side of the state. ThDelta is not actually a delreally an alluvial flood plane the Mississippi River.

alluvial valley of the mississippi ri



The regular flooding of th

alluvial valley made the regioboth attractive and unattractivthe regular flooding allowed land to be extremely fertile. Thresulted in a tension betweeflood control and ecology.

meander scars of the mississippi ri



Early western settlement wa

open only to those wealtenough to be able to clear thland and address the regulflooding. Once flood contrsystems were established, allowed greater numbers migrate to the area.

illustration of the 1874 flood of the mississippi riv



A major flood in 1927 cause

the federal government to tacontrol over a consolidateflood control system.

1927 flood of the mississippi riv



Regular flooding over a

extended period of time hacreated an almost completeflat landscape.

topography of tutwiler mississippi and surrounding are



Tutwiler is located 20 milesoutheast of Clarksdale which

considered a major town in thDelta and is the main destinatiofor blues tourism.

topography of tutwiler mississippi and surrounding are



The loss of the rail depot in Tutwilein 1929 caused the center of tow

to lose focus and become largelabandoned.

a high resolution digital copy is on order fromthe University of Alabama Department ofArchives & Special Collections

railroad commissioner’s map 191



a high resolution digital copy is on order fromthe University of Alabama Department ofArchives & Special Collections

The informal public center of towshifted from the environment bu

for that purpose into an arealongside the highway.

federal aid highway system progress map 193

informal social spaces

Documents