LOCAL * From Staff reports

If you goA mural honoring Planters Hall will be unveiled at 3 p.m. Thursday at the City Front floodwall on Levee Street. In case of rain, the reception will be at Crawford Street United Methodist Church, 1408 Cherry St.The 26th riverfront mural will be unveiled Thursday at the City Front floodwall honoring Planters Hall – a historic building at 822 Main St. that originally housed the city’s first bank and later became home of the Vicksburg Council of Garden Clubs.

The ceremony will be at 3 p.m. at the floodwall on Levee Street or at Crawford Street United Methodist, 1408 Cherry St., in case of rain.

Built in 1834 as Planters Bank, the Greek Revival building housed the bank and living quarters for the bank president until 1842, when the bank closed. The outbuildings adjoining the bank building are a two-story kitchen, carriage house and stables. Following the bank’s failure, the building was single-family residences and apartments until it was purchased by the city in 1956. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It currently is owned by an individual who uses it as a residence.

Sponsoring the mural are five Warren County garden clubs, Openwood, Hester Flowers, Town and Country, Green Hills and The Morning Gardeners. Each mural requires a $16,500 sponsorship. The first floodwall mural was completed in 2002, and 32 are planned.

Architecture board delays decision on LD’s cooler

The owner of a downtown Vicksburg restaurant will have to wait before he can install a walk-in cooler and other amenities on a portion of land he recently purchased from the city.

Larry “LD” Prentiss, owner of LD’s Kitchen, 1111 Mulberry St., missed a meeting of the Board of Architectural Review Tuesday, delaying a decision allowing the cooler on a 12-foot strip north of his building the city agreed to sell him for $4.96 a square foot Friday. He also said he would like to install a fence to separate his property from the adjacent Playground at Catfish Row, constructed through a community effort in April.

The LD’s location was purchased by Prentiss from the city for $1 with his promise to invest at least $160,000 in improvements. The investment amount is what the city paid for the building as part of its City Front redevelopment, part of a $17.5 million bond issue that paid for construction of the adjacent Art Park at Catfish Row and purchase of the Levee Street Depot, a former train depot that is being converted into a transportation museum. The area is also home to historic murals along the Mississippi River floodwall and will house the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market, planned to begin offering fresh produce June 14.

The review board meets again June 10.