(Published in Landmarks magazine, August 2021)
A once thriving hotel and cultural hot spot in Clarksdale, Mississippi, now sits partially gutted and vacant, awaiting a day when it might be brought back to life. The New Alcazar Hotel in Clarksdale is among many buildings in the region that appear on the National Register of Historic Places but are now in disrepair. A former Mississippi State graduate student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences analyzed the cultural and economic benefits of restoring structures like the Alcazar.
Kaylee Wells said she hopes the research is a starting point for identifying and possibly prioritizing similar restoration projects in the region. “The goal is not to say whether the Alcazar was worthy of restoration or not, as a statement like that would require knowing the costs of restoring the hotel and also what alternative uses the plot might have if the hotel were razed or repurposed,” she said. “It’s just to provide information so people can make better decisions about how we are using our cultural resources. The Delta has a lot of these, but the question is which ones to restore. This is a first step in that direction.”
Full article ("Preserving the Past" page 6)
Kaylee is a master's student in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and a CEOS Collaborator.