State preservationists had a peculiar answer for Warren County last week about the old justice court building and an adjacent structure on Adams Street.

The bottom line? The same city-appointed board from which the county for years has asked approval to tear down both buildings gets to deal with it again.

The former court building at 1019 Adams St. is listed as a “non-contributing resource in the Grove Street-Jackson Street National Register Historic District,” according to a letter dated Aug. 25 from Katherine Anderson, a Mississippi Landmarks administrator with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. That in itself doesn’t remove the building from inside the city’s historic district, which keeps the matter before the Vicksburg Board of Architectural Review.

The county had asked MDAH to review each property’s cultural and historic status in light of a stated desire to demolish them for private development. Each has been eyed in the short term for additional parking for courthouse business. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Aug. 7 gave the county 60 days to formulate a plan for the property that passes muster with rules governing properties in the historic district. Supervisors want to find a way to demolish the structures, while Mayor George Flaggs Jr. has pledged legal action to force the county to follow the city’s historic properties ordinance as private citizens do.

Meanwhile, the state agency noted the former Verhine & Verhine law office next door, at 1015 Adams St., is listed as a contributing resource, despite its age and dilapidated state. In fact, the designation makes it eligible to be a Mississippi Landmark, according to the letter.

“It sounds like they’re sending it back to the board of architectural review,” county administrator John Smith said after reading it aloud to board members on Monday. The letter was stamped “received” Sept. 2, though the item didn’t come up during the board’s formal meeting that day.

“It was vacant when we bought it,” said Board President Bill Lauderdale, showing bewilderment on the letter and what it said.

Built in the 1870s as a house, the brick, yellow-trimmed former courthouse at 1019 Adams St. was once a law office of John Prewitt before he became a circuit judge. The county bought the building in 1984 to be home to its three justice court districts. The judges were moved to 921 Farmer St. in 2002, and the building essentially became a storage bin. The house at 1015 Adams was built in the 1890s and was home to Verhine & Verhine law firm from 1991 to 2012, according to city directories.

Vicksburg’s historic preservation district is bordered by the Yazoo Diversion Canal to the west, First North Street to the east, First East Street to the north and an irregular line on the south end that starts at Depot Street and ends at Grammar and First North streets.

The review board enforces ordinances governing construction, alteration and demolition. In April, the panel had denied the county’s request to demolish the buildings and took the county to task for not maintaining them. In 2004 and 2005, the panel had issued three 180-day stays of demolition as it waited for a plan of action by the county to renovate, sell, lease or raze the buildings.