Threefoot Building

Threefoot Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Mississippi Landmark
Threefoot Building in 2009
Location of Threefoot Building in Mississippi
Location:	Meridian, Mississippi
Coordinates:	32°21′52″N 88°42′2″W
Built:	1929
Architect:	Claude H. Lindsley, principal architect; Frank Fort, associate architect; Threefoot Realty Co.
Architectural style:	Art Deco
Governing body:	Private
MPS:	Meridian MRA
NRHP Reference#:	79003408
USMS #:	075-MER-0146.2-NR-ML
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	December 18, 1979
Designated USMS:	July 10, 2008

The Threefoot Building is a historic building located in downtown Meridian, Mississippi. The building is the tallest building in the city, standing 16 stories tall. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1979, under the Meridian Multiple Property Submission, and it was listed as a Mississippi Landmark in 2008. It was built in 1929 as Meridian's Art Deco Center but is now abandoned. The site was added to the America's Most Endangered Places in 2010.

History

The 16-story brick structure is named after the Threefoot family, Jewish-German immigrants who changed their name from Dreyfuss ("three foot" in German) to better reflect their new American home. Abraham Threefoot began to make a name for the family in the late 1860s, and his sons, H. Marshall, Kutcher, and Lewis, continued the business after his death. By 1910, sales at Threefoot and Sons exceeded $100,000 per year. Just before the beginning of the Great Depression, the company built the Threefoot Building in downtown Meridian on 22nd Avenue adjacent to the Marks-Rothenberg Department Store and the Grand Opera House. The building was finished in 1929, shortly before the stock market crash. A combination of shaky finances and the onset of the Great Depression caused the family's business to cease operation, but the building continued under different ownership as an office building for several decades. After Meridian's first mall was built in the 1970s, the city began to focus less on economic development downtown, so the building's tenants began to evacuate. By the 1990s, the building had been mostly abandoned.

Threefoot Festival

Threefoot Festival 2009

As a testament to the building's influence on the city, the city began in 2002 to hold an annual showcase of art by local artists. The city named the showcase the "Threefoot Arts Festival" in honor of the historic building. The festival was held each year in October at Dumont Plaza, located two blocks down from the building, and on 4th and 5th Streets between 22nd and 23rd avenues. The festival began at 9 A.M. and lasted until 6 P.M. each year. Along with art exhibitions from state and regional artists, the festival also featured a variety of live music and entertainment throughout the day as well as food and beverages sold by local companies and organizations. Retail stores and businesses throughout the city helped to promote the festival by offering special deals and discounts to members of the festival. Admission was free, so an accurate count of attendees is difficult to achieve, but annual turnout is estimated to have been 3,000 to 5,000.

In 2009 the festival was combined with the Arts in the Park Festival previously held in early April at Bonita Lakes (and earlier at Highland Park) to form the Threefoot Festival.

In 2011 and continuing years the festival will be held on the first weekend of April.

Renovation

In August 2006, the city purchased the building from Alabama developer Howard Robbins for $1.2 million with the expectation that it would be renovated by a developer from Jackson. No developer from Jackson ever seriously looked into renovating the building, but Historic Restoration Inc. (HRI), a New Orleans developer known for restoring the King Edward Hotel in Jackson, took up the project in 2009.

HRI planned to transform the building into a 125-room Courtyard by Marriott. The project was green lighted because of the construction of a new parking garage in downtown Meridian, which had gone up in 2005 to provide parking for events at the Riley Center. For years the lack of parking availability had halted progress on the Threefoot Building's renovation, but the parking garage would provide an adequate amount. There was also a growing need for support operations for the Riley Center, and a ballroom, conference facilities, and hotel rooms in the Threefoot Building would have fulfilled that need. The renovation would have cost $55 million, and the city would have backed $14 million of it. After much debate, HRI reached an agreement with then mayor John Robert Smith and the city council in January 2009.

Current mayor Cheri Barry took office in July 2009, and worked to undo the agreement. Stating that she saw problems in the plan, she asked Mississippi Heritage Trust Director David Preziosi if it was possible to remove the building from the National Register of Historic Places in order to make it easier to demolish. Preziosi advised Barry not to have the property delisted and gave her the names of people she could talk to about funding opportunities for the building. The Meridian Star reported that the people suggested to Barry had not been contacted as of June 2010. At the same time, HRI was asking the city to help complete funding of the project by acquiring grants from the state. Barry, however, refused to ask the state, claiming that the economy was too stressed to ask for money that wasn't essential to the city's function.

After a long controversy, HRI's agreement with the city was terminated in late 2009 due to lack of support from Barry and the need for various drainage repairs. Because of the termination the city was forced to reimburse HRI for the $1 million already put into the project. In a prepared statement, Barry claimed that the city and HRI would "look down the road for future projects and possibly even resume the Threefoot Project under different circumstances and different finances."

In June 2010, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) announced that the building was to be placed on its list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places. In October of the same year, the city accepted a $150,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) for a study of the building. The study will focus on the foundation of the building and determine what would have to be done to rehabilitate it. The city also hired Watkins Development at a cost of $10,000 per month to focus on developing not only the Threefoot Building but the rest of downtown and all of Meridian. Watkins Development – like HRI – was involved in the renovation of Jackson's King Edward Hotel.