About $9,000 is left to raise to pay off the match on a grant that renovated the auditorium at Southern Cultural Heritage Center, its director said Wednesday.
Once it’s paid, plans are still in place to hang a plaque inside the facility that will display names of those who donated $50 or more toward the effort, director Stacey Massey told the Vicksburg Lions Club.
“It’s still something we’re working toward,” said Massey, who has headed the historic events venue since January. She replaced Annette Kirklin, who left in November after nearly six years at SCHC to accept the directorship of the Vicksburg Convention Center. Previously, Massey, a Vicksburg native, was a project specialist for the Girl Scouts of Greater Mississippi in Jackson.
In 2009, the center received $150,000 from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to repair the roof, downspouts and windows. Higher expected repair costs drove up the cost to $188,000, but were factored into the facility’s final matching amount, $38,050. The center has raised about $4,900 in the past 18 months toward paying off the match through various updates to its 650 or so members.
Next up on the list of repairs are roofs over the academy building and over the old Sisters of Mercy convent, which leaks here and there on a regular basis and is “most pressing” among the 129-year-old building’s maintenance items, Massey said.
“Having old buildings, there’s always something that needs to be fixed,” Massey said.
Massey said repairing the center’s sound system remains a long-term goal and is to be funded by fees generated by the Over the River Run, held in October each year.
The complex of buildings bounded by Cherry, Adams, Clay and Crawford streets was home to St. Francis Xavier Convent and Academy from construction to 1994, when it was purchased by the city. The deed was then turned over to the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation. It’s composed of the academy building, the former convent and Cobb House and is on the National Register of Historic Places.