Many of the commercial buildings in this block were originally established as financial institutions and now host local merchants and retailers. The three-story structure at 222 Howard was built as a restaurant and hotel. It later housed WGRM radio, where B.B. King’s voice was first heard on the airwaves. It is now the Station 222 restaurant.
The two-story building at 207 West Market was for many years the home of the Greenwood Commonwealth, founded in 1896. This entire block dates to the late 1890s, including the Whittington Building at 229 West Market, which served as the town’s first post office. Today this block is home to DuBard Realty and JD Lanham, which has been Greenwood’s downtown appliance store since 1904.
This block of commercial buildings originally featured retail space on the ground floor and offices for lawyers, dentist and doctors upstairs. Rich in masonry details, the six individual structures were completed during the years 1909 to 1920, as business development moved away from the Yazoo River and toward the C&G railroad. The old second floor offices have been converted to luxury lofts and space for the Alluvian Spa.
Both sides of this block present fairly intact examples of 1920s-era retail architecture. The 3-story building at 409 originally housed Belk-Hudson Department Store. The west side features several one-story structures with elaborate brickwork.
This block once housed Antoon’s Department Store and the Seale-Lily ice cream parlor. The retail buildings at the northeast corner of Main and Carrollton Avenue were lost in a 2009 fire which also threatened the Midway Hotel.
East Market Street
Jewish families were active in Greenwood as early as 1851 and met in private homes and the Masonic Hall until completion of this synagogue in 1923. The Sam Balkin Auditorium and Sunday School addition were added in 1952.
310 Howard Street
The current location of the Bank of Commerce was built to house First National Bank in 1904. That establishment, along with four other banks, crashed in December, 1930. Bank of Commerce moved to this location from its Market Street home a few years later.
201 Main Street
Klein & Blumenthal was one of several mercantile stores operated by Jewish families in early 20th century Greenwood. Long vacant, it was renovated for the offices of Beard+Riser Architects and three loft apartments in 2009.
414 Fulton Street
This Queen Anne home was a gift from Greenwood Utilities founder C.E. Wright to his wife, Daisie. The original home was heavily damaged by fire in 1924 but reconstructed with minor architectural alterations.
These parallel streets, once separated by the Columbus and Greenville Railroad, were bustling retail districts throughout most of the 20th century. Anchored on the west by Delta Feed and the east by the Crystal Grill, the district now hosts a variety of retail and office space
115 Howard Street
This distinctive Romanesque Revival building with its corner tower may be one of the only survivors of 1890s downtown fires. It originally housed the Bank of Greenwood, whose signage can still be seen in the tower panel.
102 West Washington
This Neoclassic Revival structure is one of the largest lodge buildings in Mississippi. It replaced the old Selliger House as a meeting place for the 100-member Elks Club in 1913. The grand ballroom on the top floor was featured prominently in the 2010 movie, “The Help.”
400 Howard Street
This congregation broke away from Greenwood’s Union Church in 1882. Its first church on Main Street was completed soon afterwards, and the original stained-glass windows were moved into this Gothic Revival sanctuary in 1902. The Rose Community Building was added in 1924. The 2009 south wing occupies the site of the old Rebel Theatre.
300 Main Street
The 1904 cornerstone was laid for the third edifice of First Presbyterian Church, organized in 1846. The Romanesque style brick structure was expanded in 1926 to feature a larger sanctuary that adjoined the 1904 structure.
310 West Washington
Greenwood’s oldest existing church building, this Romanesque Revival masterpiece boasts stained glass windows of leaded glass that were hand-painted and fired. The iron hitching posts around the church date back to its earliest years. In 1924, the adjacent educational building was constructed.
325 Main Street
Originally constructed as a Shell Oil station, this building also served as Greenwood’s Greyhound Bus stop and ticketing agency beginning in 1939. It was the scene of civil rights protests in the 1960s. It is now home to Tasty Sipz Daiquiri Bar.
501 Howard Street
Goldberg’s Shoes has anchored this corner for more than ninety years, beginning with a cobbler’s shop that grew into the Delta’s premier shoe store. The south side of the building was formerly a grocery store and auto repair center.
101 West Church Street
This Art Deco masterpiece was constructed during the Great Depression. It included space for municipal offices, the Chamber of Commerce, the police department, a jail and a wing that housed the city’s third fire station.
401 Howard Street
Greenwood’s original post office boasts a wealth of architectural details, elaborate brickwork and huge arched windows. It was enlarged in 1917 and replaced by the existing Federal Building on Washington Street in 1966.
101 Wright Place
The multi-story brick building on the south side of this block is one of the original structures of the C.E. Wright Ice and Coal Company, which provided electricity, water and ice to the citizens of Greenwood before acquisition by the city.
103 East Market
This two-story brick building (in the background of this photo) sits on the site of Leflore County’s “old calaboose” or jail. It served as the town’s administrative center from 1904 to 1930, when the mayor and city government moved to the current Church Street location.
511 West Market Street
This congregation dates to 1901 and their building was completed not long after that date. In 1924 a bell tower was added to the exterior and in 1951 the stained-glass windows were installed. Recent renovations include a “columbarium” facing an imposing courtyard and fountain.
Fulton Street
This landmark Howe Truss steel bridge, named for General S.R. Keesler, was the second span across the Yazoo River at this site. That first bridge’s central pier was incorporated in the 1925 design and allowed the entire superstructure and roadway to rotate 90 degrees when large boats approached. Listed as one of the state’s most endangered historic sites in 1999, it underwent a total restoration in 2002-2003.
306 West Market Street
The Leflore County Courthouse is an example of Neoclassical style. Constructed with white Alabama limestone blocks, it was expanded in 1927 and then again in 1952 by architect Robert Moor. The three-stage tower houses clock mechanisms and Westminster chimes, which sound on the quarter-hour. The Confederate Memorial, given by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is constructed from Italian marble and dedicated in 1913. During the 1971 Centennial time capsules were placed at the base to be opened in 2021 and 2071.
501 West Washington Avenue
This classical structure, with Beaux Arts aspirations was commissioned by Dr. Preston Kennedy in 1926, just a few years before he was reputedly poisoned in the building by his mistress, Dr. Ruth Dean. At the trial, his deathbed statement led to her conviction. However, she was pardoned by Governor Sennett Connor.
401 East Market
Formerly the grand residence of U.S. Representative W.M. Whittington, this home showcases both Prairie and Georgian architectural detailing. In 1981, the Whittington family deeded the house to the Mississippi Garden Club Federation for its state headquarters.
408 West Washington
The Confederate Memorial Building is one of only two such structures in America and was funded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Greenwood Woman’s Club. The adjacent Carnegie Library was expanded in 1954 and featured WPA murals by local artist Lalla Walker Lewis.
300 Block of Cotton Street
Noted architects R.H. Hunt designed the first castle-like Davis School building, on the west side of this campus, in 1900; it was destroyed by fire in 1980. An additional structure was added in 1914 and the existing 1925 building (architects F.B. Hull and Frank McGeoy), housed Greenwood High School until 1959. A granite water fountain was dedicated in 1915 to commemorate the location of the city’s first Artesian well.
Completed in 1889, this Southern Railway Depot was once served by 25 passenger trains daily, including Pullman service to Washington D.C. The current depot is the remaining portion of a much larger structure that spanned from Howard to Fulton Street along the railroad track.
211 Fulton Street
This building originally housed one of the Delta’s largest dry goods emporiums. It was an empty shell when it was renovated by Howard & Barbara Smith into a fashionable department store for family shopping.
South Main Street
The Greenwood Underpass is one of the finest examples of Art Deco structures and the only four-lane railway underpass operating in Mississippi. This WPA project still brings traffic under the railroad tracks into downtown Greenwood from Highways 82 and 49.
214 West Market Street
Mississippi’s largest mercantile store, Henderson-Baird Hardware, moved from Howard Street to this location in 1904. The top floor featured a skating rink that could accommodate hundreds of skaters. Staplcotn, which has operated as the first cotton cooperative in the state, moved to this location in 1931.
318 Howard Street
This four-story hotel was built as the Hotel Irving by Joe Stein and operated at this location until the 1960s when it lost most of its business to highway motels. Viking Range Corporation renovated the decaying shell into the luxurious, award winning Alluvian Hotel in 2003.
300-308 Howard Street
W.T. Fountain moved his mercantile store to the southwest corner of Howard and Washington in 1914. “Fountain’s Big Busy Store,” with 22,000 square feet of floor space, was the largest department store in the Delta until the 1950’s. Now Mississippi Gift Company, Turnrow Book Co. and The Fountain apartments occupy the original Fountain Building.
500 Howard Street
This was the location for Greenwood’s first fire station that was equipped with a horse-drawn fire wagon. The fire station later served as the Red Cross office. It is now home to The Winery at Williams Landing, specializing in the production of native Mississippi wines.
111 West Front Street
The first blocks of Main and Howard, bordered by Front Street and the Yazoo River to the North and the infamous Ramcat Alley to the South, are known as “Greenwood Cotton Row District,” which housed over 100 cotton factors in the mid-20th Century. Card games and bootleg whiskey at the Cotton Row Club fueled many business deals between cotton farmers and factors. Today, the district consists of authentically renovated buildings, which are home to Viking Range Corporate Headquarters.
101 Main Street
E.K. Myrick opened a very successful Ford dealership in this building in the early years of the 20th century. The Ford Building, now called the Durden Building, serves as the Viking Range Demonstration Kitchens and Training Center.
122 Howard Street
This unique façade is Beaux Arts with stained glass transom windows, columns capped with ornate plaster moldings, and a detailed tin cornice. It was erected to house Wilson Bank, but is now home to Guaranty Bank & Trust.