2015
The former Leonard’s department store building on the south side of courthouse square was donated to the city in 2015 for a proposed museum honoring the Native American history of the area.
August 2016
A board of directors and steering committee were named for the proposed museum. Plans call for representing the history of the 21 known Indian tribes that lived in Mississippi and highlighting the Kosciusko connection with the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Named to the board of directors are Gerry Taylor, Jimmy Cockroft, Al Chadick, Robbie Robertson, Kim Williams, C.L. Manderson, Kenny Dungan, Dr. Edward Bryant, Doug King, Donna Holdiness, Jewette Battles and Hollis Cheek. Williams, Battles, Bryant, Cockroft and Cheek were appointed to the steering committee.
October 2016
A resolution to receive the first round of state funds to help build the Mississippi Native American Museum was approved by Kosciusko aldermen.
Approximately $1 million was earmarked by the state legislature for the project, according to Kosciusko Mayor Jimmy Cockroft. The total project, which included road repairs and bike lanes on Huntington Street from the visitor’s center to the Leonard’s building, was expected to cost around $8 million.
“We will be looking to repair the building and make it structurally sound with this round of money,” Cockroft said at the time.
In the master plan, the museum is described as a facility that would have a “dual identity” as a Native American interpretive site and a Natchez Trace interpretive site. The museum would include exhibits, hands-on activities, demonstration areas and retail opportunities.
February 2017
Two groups of funding was expected to go towards the building of the proposed museum.
The Kosciusko Board of Aldermen provided a memorandum of understanding for $500K in funds from the state and approved a certificate of acceptance from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for an additional $500K.
The museum will be used to pay homage to the Native American heritage in Mississippi along the historic Natchez Trace. The project was expected to cost over $6 million.
March 2017
The Kosciusko Board of Alderman approved the architecture firm and contract for the museum that will feature the history of local Indian tribes and the Natchez Trace. The unanimous vote hired the architecture firm Canizaro, Cawthon and Davis (CCD) out of Jackson who have completed jobs including the BB King Museum, Mississippi Children’s Museum and the Mississippi Delta Museum. Local architect Art Cook is also working in the project.
“They’ve done a lot of museum work in the past and feel they would do the best job,” Kosciusko Mayor Jimmy Cockroft said of CCD.
The next step in the process was to begin work on the roof and clear out any asbestos.
February 2018
A wall of the former Leonard’s department store building — slated to become the museum — collapsed and a portion of the roof caved in.
May 2018
The city had just canceled renovation of the former Leonard’s department store for the new museum following a February roof collapse when the roof of an adjacent building, which housed SBS Home Center, collapsed one morning.
Manager Shan Quillan and employees Sheila Threadgill and Brittany Nowell were the only people inside the store when the incident occurred and no one was hurt.
Threadgill told The Star-Herald that she had only seconds earlier climbed down from a 12-foot ladder she was using to hang light fixtures, with her two fellow employees holding the ladder as she climbed down.
"We heard a noise toward the back and things were just falling and flying. By the time we headed out the door, the (picture) window glass had blown out from the pressure," said Threadgill.
The sidewalk and street in front of the 117 West Jefferson St. building was covered with thick shards of glass from the picture window, but there were no customers parked or walking in front of the building at the time of the incident.
Asked if he believed the roofing situation of the future Mississippi Native American Museum site might have led to this collapse, Cockroft said he could not be sure, but that it was a possibility.
"It's possible, but until I can get an expert here, all I can tell you is it is possible," he said.
Cockroft said the city had just recently sent a letter to McKnight & Sons, the firm working on the museum renovation, canceling that project. He said he was in the process of preparing information for the next Board of Aldermen meeting, during which he intended to ask the board to consider the architect's latest recommendation.
"Even before today, the recommendation was to complete an asbestos assessment and to plan for demolition of the old Leonard’s building," he said, noting that the earlier roof collapse had weakened the walls of the building to the point that renovation was no longer a viable option. If that were approved and completed, he said, plans could be drawn up for construction of a new building on the site to house the future museum.
August 2018
Clay bricks bearing the thumbprints of workers who pulled them partially wet from molds more than a hundred years ago tumbled across South Madison Street early one morning as demolition of the former Leonard’s department store on Kosciusko’s court square began.
The crew from Cain, Inc. had started to take down the front of the building, but when they approached the building’s corner at South Madison and West Jefferson, the outer wall that ran along South Madison gave way.
“It actually came down a little faster than we planned,” said Luke Eaton, general manager of Cain, Inc.
As demolition continued, Eaton said Cain would collect all the unbroken clay bricks, which will be cleaned and repurposed in the project.
For related story on current project efforts, see: https://www.starherald.net/news-kosciusko-attala-county-state-front-page...
