Ken P’Pool, the retired longtime head of historic Preservation at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and someone I consider the foremost authority on Mississippi and Columbus historic architecture, has called the Puckett House on the Mississippi University for Women campus one of the finest examples of a brick Queen Anne style house to survive in Mississippi.
He has also referred to it as one of the five most interesting houses in Columbus. The house faces 11th Street South and serves as a guest house and bed and breakfast for MUW. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Mississippi Landmark.
The house was constructed on College Street in 1902 by W.N. Puckett as his family residence. Puckett and W.S. Lindamood founded the Columbus Brick Company in 1890. The firm was both a brick making and contracting firm. Lindamood operated the brick plant and Puckett supervised building contracts. The firm is still in business as the Columbus Brick Company. According to the April 22, 1903, edition of the Columbus Commercial, both Lindamood and Puckett were living “in their own handsome houses.”
The house is a brick two-and-a-half story Queen Anne style home. It is a transitional style from the Traditional Queen Anne to the Free Classical Queen Anne. The Traditional Queen Anne style appears in the two-tiered porch with ornamental spindlework located on the north side of the house while the Free Classical Queen Anne shows up in the round columns of the entrance and front porch. The home is highlighted by a three-story finial topped octagonal turret.
According to P’Pool, when Puckett built his house, the bricks he used are among the best examples of the beautiful and unique salmon-colored brick produced by Lindamood and Puckett during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The bricks were laid with a variation Flemish bond using rough quarry faced header bricks.
When the house was built in 1902, it faced College Street, where Whitfield Hall now sits. It was situated between two frame houses also facing College. Twelfth Street ran through the middle of what is now the MUW campus and there was a story and a half frame structure facing 12th Street. All of these structures were either moved or torn down when the construction of Whitfield Hall began in 1927.
That part of 12th Street, which runs through campus, is now named Serenade Drive. The Puckett House was moved a half a block south and a little to the west. It was also turned to face west and 11th Street. The nearby Stovall House was moved at the same time.
In 1920, Columbus was seeking the enlargement of the college campus and for the state to construct additional buildings. To promote this with the state, the city began acquiring the land and homes that were adjacent to the campus. The city would donate the land to the state for the “extension and improvement of the college.”
The Nov. 17, 1920, Columbus Dispatch reported that Columbus was giving five city blocks containing 40 houses of which 20 were “splendid dwelling houses” and 20 were “cheap cabins” to the state for the college. The college would first develop the blocks where there were cabins.
The houses remained the property of the city and would be rented until the land was needed by the college. When the college needed that property, the houses would be torn down, moved or sold to the college. The Puckett house ended up being given to the college by the city and was moved in 1927.
As usual, while researching the Puckett House I came across some interesting sidelights. I found a notation that by 1900 buildings at the college had electric lights and had steam heat. I noticed on the 1905 and 1910 Sanborn Insurance maps that the fountain on front campus was located west of 12th Street (Serenade Street). It also may have been relocated during the construction of Whitfield.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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