Walk around Jackson long enough and you start to notice the buildings that have stayed.
Some are grand. Some are a little worse for wear. Some have been painted, renovated, renamed and put to work in entirely different ways than they were when they opened.
What is easier to miss is how many of them came surprisingly close to disappearing.
Jackson has lost plenty of buildings over the years, sometimes to redevelopment, sometimes to neglect and sometimes simply because no one knew quite what to do with an aging structure. But there are also buildings that seemed destined for the same fate and somehow managed to hang on.
Their stories are a reminder that historic preservation isn’t always a dramatic save at the last possible second. Sometimes it is years of waiting for the right person, the right idea or enough money to arrive.
And sometimes, the building really does disappear.
Here are a few Jackson buildings that show both sides of that story.
The King Edward Hotel: The One That Wouldn’t Go Away
It is hard to imagine downtown Jackson without the King Edward Hotel sitting at the western end of Capitol Street.
The twelve-story building was completed in 1923, designed by New Orleans architect William T. Nolan. At the time, it was an important part of a rapidly developing section of downtown. The building eventually became known as the King Edward Hotel and was closely associated with the city’s political and social life. (Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 2026)
But the King Edward’s future looked very different a few decades later.
The hotel closed in 1967 and then sat vacant for more than 40 years. During that time, the building deteriorated significantly. Plumbing and electrical systems were stripped out, interior spaces were damaged and the once-grand hotel became one of the most visible symbols of downtown’s decline. (Preservation in Mississippi, 2009)
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and became part of the West Capitol Street Historic District in 1980. It was also designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1990. Those designations helped create opportunities for preservation, but they did not magically solve the much larger question of what to actually do with a giant, deteriorating hotel.
By the late 1990s, the Mississippi Heritage Trust had placed the King Edward on its list of the state’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places. The building remained vacant, and demolition was still being discussed years later. In 2005, then-Mayor Frank Melton publicly threatened demolition if a renovation plan did not move forward. (Mississippi Heritage Trust, 2026; Mississippi Free Press, 2005)
Then, finally, something changed.
A partnership involving Historic Restoration Inc., Jackson developer David Watkins and former New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister moved forward with a renovation. The building reopened in 2009 as the Hilton Garden Inn, with residential apartments included in the project. (Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 2026)
The King Edward had gone from grand hotel to vacant eyesore to endangered landmark to working building again.
It is probably one of Jackson’s best examples of what can happen when a building survives long enough for someone to find a reason to bring it back.
Farish Street: A Whole Neighborhood on the Line
The story gets much bigger when the building isn’t just one building.
Farish Street was once the commercial and cultural center of Black Jackson. Businesses, restaurants, offices and entertainment venues filled the corridor, making it one of the city’s most important African American business districts.
The Farish Street Historic District was placed on the National Register in 1980, but recognition did not stop the neighborhood from struggling.
In 2007, the city requested permission to demolish 79 structures in the historic district, citing safety concerns and crime. The Jackson Historic Preservation Commission rejected the mass-demolition effort, arguing that the buildings represented an important part of Jackson’s history. (Mississippi Free Press, 2007)
That moment says a lot about the complicated reality of preservation.
An abandoned building can be historically important and still be dangerous. A neighborhood can be worth saving and still need substantial investment. And preserving a building doesn’t necessarily mean leaving it exactly as it is.
Today, the question surrounding Farish Street is still one of how to give historic buildings a useful future.
That is where preservation gets interesting. A building cannot live on history alone. At some point, somebody has to open the doors.
The Sun-n-Sand: A Building That Wasn’t Saved
Not every story ends with a renovation.
The Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel opened in 1960 and became a recognizable part of Jackson’s midcentury landscape. It closed in 2001 and spent years vacant. In 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. (National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2021)
Preservationists had hoped the hotel could find a new use. Instead, demolition began in 2021 to make way for a surface parking lot for state employees.
There was one small attempt at preserving part of the story. The hotel’s iconic sign and commercial portion were retained for potential meeting or retail space.
But the hotel itself was gone.
The Sun-n-Sand is an important part of this conversation because preservation stories can sometimes be told too neatly. Find an old building. Save it. Renovate it. Everyone wins.
Real life doesn’t work that way.
Sometimes a building has been vacant too long. Sometimes rehabilitation costs more than anyone can justify. Sometimes the people who own it and the people who want to save it aren’t the same people.
And sometimes the building is lost.
The First Christian Church: When Recognition Isn’t Enough
The former First Christian Church on North State Street is another reminder that even official recognition does not guarantee a building’s future.
The Gothic Revival church was built in 1949-50 and served the First Christian Church congregation for more than 50 years. After the congregation moved in 2002, the building was abandoned. The Mississippi Heritage Trust named it one of the state’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2003, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History designated it a Mississippi Landmark that same year. (Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 2026)
That designation gave the building a level of protection, but the church continued to deteriorate.
Eventually, it was demolished. MDAH’s property database now lists the building as destroyed by September 2024.
There is something particularly frustrating about that timeline. The building was recognized as historically significant while it was still standing, but recognition alone could not give it a new owner, a new purpose or the money needed to stabilize it.
That distinction matters.
Preservation isn’t just about recognizing what is important. It’s about figuring out how that thing can continue to exist.
So What Makes a Building Worth Saving?
Jackson actually has a formal system for this.
The city’s Historic Preservation Commission oversees local historic districts and landmarks, while the Mississippi Department of Archives and History maintains records on historic properties throughout the state. Jackson’s historic preservation ordinance requires review of proposed demolitions in designated historic areas and establishes circumstances under which demolition can be considered. (City of Jackson, 2026)
But the bigger question isn’t really about paperwork.
It is about value.
A building can have architectural value. It can be connected to an important person or event. It can tell the story of a neighborhood that otherwise has very little physical evidence left behind.
And sometimes, its greatest value is much simpler.
People remember it.
The restaurant where someone’s grandparents met. The theater they went to as a kid. The hotel where politicians gathered. The storefront that everybody in the neighborhood knew.
That kind of history doesn’t always show up neatly on a plaque.
The Best Preservation Stories Aren’t About Buildings
They are about second chances.
The King Edward is still standing because somebody eventually figured out how to make an old building useful again.
Farish Street continues to remind Jackson that a historic neighborhood is more than a collection of old facades. It is a community and a story that deserves a future.
The Sun-n-Sand and First Christian Church show the other side. Even buildings that are recognized, documented and fought for can still disappear.
That is probably the most interesting thing about looking at Jackson’s old buildings. They aren’t frozen pieces of the past. They are constantly being asked to justify their existence in the present.
A city has to decide what it wants to carry forward.
Sometimes that means restoring an old hotel and putting people back inside it. Sometimes it means finding a new use for a building that hasn’t had one in decades. Sometimes it means accepting that a building cannot be saved.
And sometimes, the most important thing is simply noticing the building while it is still there.
Because the next time you drive past one of Jackson’s older buildings, it is worth remembering that its continued existence might not have been as inevitable as it looks.
Some of them have already had their second chance.
Others are still waiting for theirs.
