| Name: | Administration Building |
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| Address: | Mendenhall Consolidated School (White) complex |
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| City/County: | Mendenhall, Simpson County |
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| Architectural Styles(s): | Art Deco |
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| Destroyed: | demolished by Simpson Co. Sch. District, Oct 2013 |
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| This campus was a direct successor to the earlier Simpson Agricultural High School, in operation from 1912 to 1933. None of the buildings from the AHS campus remain. The administration building, built in 1938, is an excellent example of the Art Deco style and perhaps the only Art Deco style building in Simpson County. Like other Art Deco buildings in the state, including the War Memorial Building in Jackson, the school’s minimal decoration is composed in a symmetrical, classical manner, demonstrating the continued preference of Mississippians for classical forms in their public buildings. The auditorium space, also in a restrained Art Deco style, is perhaps the most highly refined public space in the county, excepting the Simpson County Courthouse, and has historically been used for community as well as school functions. |
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| Built in 1938, the administration building at Mendenhall Elementary School is a one-story, Art Deco-style school building, a classic U-plan in form. A larger 1950 rear classroom addition, designed by Jackson architects Jones & Haas, turns the U into a full square around a courtyard. At the same time this addition was made, the windows in the original section were replaced with the current steel windows to match the new addition. This is the last major change that has occurred to the building, other than the replacement of the exterior doors, probably in the 1980s. |
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