Focuses on northeast end of Jackson State near Olin Park and Deer Park neighborhoods Includes about 50 acres that would provide a clear link to downtown Jackson Would provide additional student housing, mixed-income, single-family housing and rental townhouses Would include commercial and retail development including a community service-type center and health center Includes plans for 300 units of for-sale housing, 150 to 500 units of rental housing and approximately 25,000 square feet of new retail space Phase 1 slated to begin in spring 2007 Former Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., director of Jackson State University’s Lynch Street Corridor/Parkway Initiative, is pictured with UniDev LLC’s conceptual elevations of “The Village at Jackson State University.”
in new stuff on campus, and it’s no good if we don’t have surrounding areas that are secure and can be supportive of that investment.”
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CONNECTING TO DOWNTOWN JACKSON On the northeast end of the campus, near the Olin Park and Deer Park neighborhoods, former
STREETS IN WASHINGTON ADDITION In 1903, the first four streets immediately south of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad west of Dalton Street belonged to Jackson College. These streets were named for individuals who were connected with the college and the American Baptist Mission Society, the college’s main source of funding.
MOREHOUSE STREET Named in 1903 in honor of Henry L. Morehouse, the corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.
FLORENCE STREET Named for Florence E. Johnson, a teacher in the grammar school at Jackson College.
BARRETT STREET Named for Jackson College’s second president, Luther Barrett.
TOPP STREET Named for E.B. Topp, an 1883 Natchez Seminary College graduate and missionary. Research by Eddie L. Brown Jr. Source: History of Jackson State University: The First 100 Years, 1877–1977 by Dr. Lelia Gaston Rhodes
Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. is pushing the development of a 50-acre area that includes some of the 73 tax-abandoned and neglected parcels the university recently received from the state of Mississippi. Johnson, director of the Lynch Street Corridor/ Parkway Initiative, says plans for his project include additional student housing, singlefamily housing, rental town homes, commercial and retail development, as well as a community service-type center and perhaps a health center. The area that stretches from Dalton to Rose streets and from Rose to Minerva streets, tentatively dubbed “University Village,” would be a sole development of the university that could be under way within the next two years. “It’s not unlike what some other universities are doing across the country,” says Johnson, a visiting professor in JSU’s Departments of Public Policy and Administration and Urban and Regional Planning, School of Public Policy and Planning, College of Public Service. For example, in Philadelphia, Pa., the University of Pennsylvania made a push in the late 1990s to reinvigorate west Philadelphia’s disintegrating neighborhoods, resulting in safer neighborhoods surrounding the campus and the return of young families, professionals and businesses to the area. If successful, Jackson State would be the first historically black college or university to push a major development project outside the boundaries of its campus, says Johnson, who was the first African-American mayor in Mississippi’s capital city.
Sources: Urban Design Research Center Development Plan, Harvey Johnson Jr. and Troy Stovall
During the first phase, Johnson says plans call for student housing to be constructed as well as some retail spaces. “People are going to be surprised at the pace once we get started,” he says. During the building blitz, Johnson says the university also will have a relocation program that will focus on helping both renters and homeowners relocate to safe and sanitary housing. “We don’t want to move them out of one bad situation into another one,” he says. “Of course, it is going to cost more money than the traditional (methods), and there are no federal dollars involved.” Johnson says he also is considerate of neighborhood buy-in. “You don’t want to just go in and tear down everything so that people can’t recognize where they are. We’ll just have to incorporate some of these structures into our development,” Johnson says. “Some things we’ll need to assimilate and some of the styles of housing, such as porches with columns that were conventional foundations, will be replicated.” At the end of the overhaul, Johnson says the campus should have a clear connection to downtown Jackson. Eventually, that will translate into a clear connection to the city, Mason says. “I’m convinced this will happen the way I know it can happen,” he says. “Muhammad Ali used to say, ‘I’m a bad man.’ They called him conceited. I’m not conceited … I’m just convinced.”