Monday, August 11, 2008

Cotton Distric Charm

Midway between downtown Starkville, MS (population 21,869—one of my agurbs®) and the Mississippi State Campus on the east end of town is the Cotton District. I immediately fell in love with it as Ben Bounds of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership took me for a tour of the town and University.

Until the late 1950s, the Cotton District was a collection of row houses and shanties housing workers for the nearby cotton mill. Developer and now mayor Dan Camp of Starkville began rebuilding some of the old houses in the district, turning it into the New Urbanism long before it gained nationwide popularity.

The area has a feel of Savannah, Charleston or New Orleans as you stroll through it. Camp is now building new structures in the district, but building them to look as though they are over 100 years old rather than being brand new. All of the pictures on this blog are of new construction in the Cotton District.

If you haven’t seen the New Urbanism style, take a trip to Starkville and see what charm it can bring to a neighborhood.

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