Across Jackson from the church stood the other pillar, old City Hall. Almost eight decades after that first Episcopal Church service, James T. Canizaro designed and the Walter L. Perry Construction Company completed Oxford‘s new modernism style administration building. It was part of President Roosevelt‘s Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration. With its thick entrance columns, contiguous ribbon windows rounding the corner, and the chic clock, the building was definitely a step in a new architectural direction for a small Mississippi town. The building served the city for 38 years, until 1976 when it was demolished to clear the way for the new U.S. Federal Courthouse that still stands today in 2022.
Photograph by Michael Ford.
