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When traveling through Mississippi to visit family or help on the family farm I take time out during my trip to visit Rodney and the surrounding area. Over the years I’ve slowly seen the old buildings and house disappear. One of the more heart breaking removals was the day the old two story brick building. It was demolished back in 2017. Today’s article is about that old building. The building was the Old Boarding in Rodney, Mississippi.
The Old Boarding House in Rodney, Mississippi
Their really isn’t much history about the brick building. But from what I have gathered from people living the area and other historians, this building was at one time an Old Boarding house, residence, and maybe a store of some sort, maybe a mercantile store, maybe an hardware store. No one really knows. Records were well kept back then and much of it was lost over the years. Sam Lenaeus mentioned that one of his family members, Harriet Conklin, is listed as running the Boarding House in Rodney on the 1850 or 60 census.
The boarding house was also used as the town hall since Rodney did not have an official town hall. The old timers would sit around the fireplace in the public room and talk business according to post I found on the Rodney History and Preservation Group Page.
I’ve seen pictures from different time periods. Some of the picture are from when the building was still active and others of it abandoned. Many of these pictures are from private collections and will have to get permission to add them. Image Source: Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer – Library of Congress
Other than the above information, I do not have any more information about the building. I am looking for information on when it was built but looks to be built around the 1850s, when it was last used or the name of the boarding house. Then the old boarding house in Rodney, Mississippi was sold and demolished for salvage. Most of the bricks still sit untouched in a salvage yard in Natchez, Mississippi.
History of Rodney, Mississippi
Believe it or not, Rodney, Mississippi was an important port city. But over time it lost most of its residents and most of its commercial buildings. All that’s left of this historical little town are few residents, the Old Presbyterian, Church, Mt. Zion, Baptist Church, the Free Mason, Lodge, the General Store, and the Rodney Cemetery to name a few.
Today the town is still loved. It has a large fan base, and many of the people of who had family living in the town over the years still want to save it and preserve what’s left. Recently the Rodney History & Preservation Society won ownership of the Presbyterian Church and currently raising money to correct foundation issues and other restoration projects. If you love the town, take a look at their website and make a small donation. If you haven’t visited the town, next time you pass through the Port Gibson area stop by and take a look.
About the Images
Back in November 2015 on one of my trips to Rodney I was able to photograph the old Boarding House. On previous visits the building was completely covered with vegetation. Being in November I had hoped the old building would be visible because the vegetation had died back. But that year, we had a warmer winter and none of the vegetation had died back. Its hard to see the building through the trees. But you can just make out the old building. The interior was almost completely dark and the floors were muddy. Either the floors were removed or they were covered with mud due to all the flooding over the years.
These pictures were taken by hand using my old Nikon D5000 DSLR Camera with a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G kit lens. I then edited the images in Adobe Lightroom CC. I used Topaz Labs A.I. Clear and DXO NIK Collection to clean up the image, remove noise, and recover the lost details.
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