History played a role in John Hennessey’s decision to live at 1631 Vicklan St.

Hennessey’s father helped develop the neighborhood in the 1930s and ’40s.  He grew up at 2 Glenwood Circle, several houses away from his current residence and next door to the home of his future wife.

“We’ve never really thought about living anywhere else,” the Vicksburg insurance executive said Monday.  “We’ve always been in love with this neighborhood. It’s convenient to the center of town. It’s got a lot of fantastic people, and it’s turned over really well.”

Now, a local preservation group is citing the area’s appeal to individual residents such as Hennessey, as well as its collective reflection of early 20th Century architectural tastes, to urge its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places as the Glenwood-Vicklan Historic District.

Both the state Department of Archives and History and the National Park Service must approve the district’s inclusion on the Register, which is open to properties tied to historically important people and events, properties that are deemed likely to yield historically significant information and properties that embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction.

According to Executive Director Nancy Bell of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation, the Glenwood-Vicklan district satisfies the last of the four criteria.

In a preliminary version of an application scheduled to be considered Sept. 17 by the Archives and History Department’s Mississippi Historic Preservation Professional Review Board, Bell dubs the area “one of the best intact examples of middle-class residential neighborhoods exhibiting the popular styles of the first half of the 20th century in Vicksburg. … The neighborhood reflects a feeling of time and place, a time when children played in their front yards, streets and sidewalks.”

While acknowledging that there are “other neighborhoods in Vicksburg that contain residential buildings of the styles represented in” Glenwood-Vicklan, the application states that “not one of these areas conveys a sense of place, contains as many intact examples of the styles represented in the Glenwood-Vicklan district, has retained all of its originally constructed buildings, or is void of intrusive structures.  The Glenwood-Vicklan Historic District is singular in this respect.”

The Glenwood-Vicklan area abuts the South Cherry Street Historic District — which was added to the National Register in 2003 — and property owners began building homes in the area after Chambers Street was extended eastward over a bayou in 1911.

“The neighborhood continues to be a desired area for families,” the application notes, citing Glenwood Circle’s “small park with modern playground equipment and an open grassy area for ball games.  Sidewalks provide safe access around the neighborhood, and rights of way beside the sidewalk are heavily landscaped.” 

The proposed district contains 163 buildings — 131 houses and 32 garages — and encompasses the entire lengths of Vicklan Street, Wilson Street, Glenwood Circle and Edna Drive, as well as the stretch of Chambers Street extending from the bayou bridge to Glenwood Circle.

Properties do not become subject to modification or painting restrictions by virtue of being listed on the National Register.  However, owners of Mississippi residences on the roster can qualify for a 25 percent state income tax credit on rehabilitation work that costs more than $5,000.

“There’s no reason to object” to including a neighborhood on the National Register “because there are no disadvantages,” Bell said.

Still, owners of property slated for inclusion on the Register may voice objections before the Sept. 17 review via a notarized statement sent to Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Kenneth H. P’Pool, P.O. Box 571, Jackson, Mississippi, 39205.  The statement must certify the writer’s ownership of property subject to inclusion on the National Register, along with his objection. 

If a majority of the private property owners within a proposed district dissent, it cannot be included on the National Register. Absent a negative vote by the property owners, the archives department’s professional review board can forward the nomination to the National Park Service for a final decision on inclusion in the National Register.

*

Contact Ben Bryant at bbryant@vicksburgpost.com