A one-story ranch-style building sits at the end of Eighth Street South shrouded by overgrown trees and foliage, blocked off to trespassers.
Carrier Lodge, a 5,280-square-foot building on an eight-acre property overlooking the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, is home to many memories for Mississippi University for Women alumni. Now, the 61-year-old space is up for auction, and MUW is accepting bids for the property until 2 p.m. June 27 at the university’s Office of Resources Management.
Though the sale of the lodge and its property was approved by the Mississippi legislature in 2010, receiving bids stalled, MUW President Nora Miller said.
“We had difficulty in getting appraisals and the real estate market was not great at that time,” Miller said in an email. “We have heard that there is some interest in the property, and this seemed like a good time to put that property to better use and for the university to put the proceeds from a sale to meet campus needs.”
The 60-bed recreational lodge was completed in 1962 — a year after Lenore Woollard Carrier donated $50,000 to her alma mater.
Carrier’s funds were an unrestricted gift to the university, but she did express interest in using it to build such a facility.
She said the thing she desired most when she was a student was “to get away, but there was never anywhere to go,” according to MUW records kept in Fant Memorial Library.
MUW accepted the gift in two payments of stock Carrier held in Standard Oil. The building was constructed on land given to the school by the Wesson Oil and Snowdrift Company and Kraft Foods Company.
Columbus architect William Rosamond donated his services to design the lodge. Roughly a year after the gift was announced, MUW hosted an open house and naming ceremony at the lodge during its fall homecoming.
The entire project cost about $53,810, which would be about $545,951 today. The reserve amount set for the auction — the minimum bid MUW is willing to accept — is $120,000, Miller said.
Throughout the years, the lodge served as a spot for the school’s students, alumni and social clubs to host events such as sleepovers and wedding receptions. From October 1995 to April 2019, it served as a polling location for Lowndes County elections.
“When Plymouth Bluff (Environmental Center) was built, we had less and less use for Carrier Lodge, and it just became something else that we had to maintain and insure and that campus police had to patrol,” Miller said. “… We would like to see that piece of property return to the tax rolls and be put to better use.”
Though its time as a recreational building for MUW is over, many alumni still have fond memories of their time spent at Carrier Lodge.
Brenda Jean Phillips Carter said her wedding reception was held there on July 2, 1971, and she and her husband departed from the reception in his “lime green Fiat that Evil Knievel hand-striped.”
Kathleen Smith, a 1995 graduate of MUW’s bachelor of science in nursing program, said right before graduation her class’s instructors gathered their students there for a last get-together.
“We shared an awesome meal together, then one by one we shared … stories and where we each were on our journeys post graduation,” Smith said. “It was such a grand way to end four long years of hard work and dedication.”
Devan Torrence, a 2013 MUW graduate, remembers being part of one of the last student groups to use the lodge in 2009-10. She said she went to social club teambuilding events in a sleepover-like environment there.
Ultimately, she hopes the new owners will use it to the benefit of the community and MUW alumni.
“It could be used as a wonderful retreat site if someone was interested in developing that,” Torrence said. “… Something that has lodging and welcomes people, especially people that might be coming back to the W for homecoming or any of the fall events. It would be a wonderful opportunity, and I’m sure alum would love to spend their money at a bed and breakfast that’s in the old Carrier Lodge. I would do that — spend money to stay at Carrier Lodge just for the memories.”
Interested parties should contact Angie Atkins, director of resources management, at (662) 329-7126 or [email protected]. The Office of Resource Management is located on the MUW campus at 915 10th St. S.
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