March 19, 2004
Cochran hails preservation efforts in Oxford visit
Government funds fuel restorations
By Lucy Schultze
The Oxford Eagle
L.Q.C. Lamar's is one of four faces Sen. Thad Cochran sees in
his Washington office every day, and the restoration of Lamar's
Oxford home has been his delight to support.
"I have a picture of him hanging in my office," Cochran said
Thursday at a thank-you luncheon held for him by local
preservationists.
Lamar's image hangs alongside senators Jefferson Davis, Pat
Harrison and John Sharp Williams, all of whom have inspired his own
career, Cochran said.
"They were the most impressive senators who've ever
represented our state," he said. "They were national leaders - not
just senators from Mississippi."
His interest fueled by that admiration, Cochran was able to
secure $296,000 in federal funds toward the restoration of Lamar's
home on North 14th Street in 2003. His office here has also recently
helped in the ongoing development of a web site to further
fund-raising efforts for the project.
The Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation's board of
directors thanked him during a luncheon at the foundation-owned
College Hill Store, northwest of Oxford.
Amidst sagging shelves cluttered with jelly jars, antique
books and stoneware jugs, Cochran said the place reminded him of a
country store in Hinds County where he worked after school as a boy.
The foundation rescued the store as its first project, and
managing sisters Connie Durham Alford and Nita Durham Thomas open it
up to groups for a step back in history.
"This is something worth saving and worth working for,"
Cochran said. "And I'll continue to do my part."
Preservationists are currently pursuing a pair of ambitious
projects - both of them long-held dreams that suddenly burst into
reality within three months of each other last year.
State and federal grants, along with $20,000 in privately
raised funds, are now approaching the half-way mark for the $600,000
first phase of the Burns "Belfry" Church restoration.
The Jackson Avenue building was donated to the heritage
foundation in September 2002 by author John Grisham, who once used it
as his office. It is slated to become property of the Oxford
Development Association, an African-American community organization,
once the restoration is complete.
On the other side of the Square, the Lamar house restoration
is scheduled to begin soon, after the heritage foundation finalized
the purchase earlier this year.
A state grant announced over the summer put the project close
to the $500,000 needed to buy and stabilize the one-story
colonial-style cottage where Lamar lived between 1868 and 1888.
Federal grants which followed in the fall, secured by Cochran with
Sen. Trent Lott and Rep. Roger Wicker, sent the project over the $1
million mark by the end of 2003.
At least another $1 million will be needed, though, to fund a
full restoration of the home. A third phase after that will prepare
the 2.74-acre property for visitors and tourists.
A strategic plan for opening and operating the property is
now being prepared by consultant Stella Gray Bryant Sykes, former
head of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, and is due by the end of this
month.