Grant presidential library...

[AttalaDawg72]

Sticks and stones

I’m not going to make out with you. Leave me alone.

 

[Ranchdawg]

What other University has a bust of a Confederate General on campus and a Union General's Presidential Library???

 

[L4Dawg]

I’m not going to make out with you. Leave me alone.

Sticks and stones

 

[HotMop]

Who cares about a Union Army General? Why do thoughts of Ole Miss occupy over half of your brain?

Here we go.

 

[TheBannerM]

Uh, you can do a lot with 6 acres adjacent to a major college campus that invites and hosts visitors every weekend, and satisfies daily needs for residents of the community. I can spitball and come up with a nice mixed use center with retail on the first floor, a hotel or condos or apartments above, with restaurants out front around a central plaza with a stage for live music for example. Like I said, the school could have made a lot of money off this land and still have the Grant library somewhere else. So we would have both good things.

Then you take the government/state/university sponsored museum that is a unique destination in its own right and doesn't need to be on one of the highest traffic intersections at the front door of the school, and put it on less valuable land the school already owns.

And at first glance I see:
- 10 acres in front of the vet school
- 7 acres at the corner of Stone and Hail State
- 9 acres off Blackjack, between where the FMB practices and Keenum's house. There's a street you could tie in that's actually already named President's Drive.
- There is a ton of land on George Perry Street

These are just examples of where else it could have gone. Some of these may already have future plans, I'm not getting paid to do due diligence, but point is, there are (were) plenty of options. I assume it's too late now, but since you asked.

And Gulfport could’ve built a huge retail/office complex at HWY 49 and HWY 90, but they built a first class Aquarium instead. Hiding the museum on the south side of campus does nothing to change perceptions of State and Starkville by casual visitors.

 

[Darryl Steight]

And Gulfport could’ve built a huge retail/office complex at HWY 49 and HWY 90, but they built a first class Aquarium instead. Hiding the museum on the south side of campus does nothing to change perceptions of State and Starkville by casual visitors.

I'm going to stop posting on this topic, which I'm sure most people don't care about, BUT one more time:

You may notice Gulfport did not put that fine aquarium (which it is) at the corner of HWY 49 and I-10. They put it downtown.

Gulfport didn't build their publicly-owned -- lower-traffic, lower income- and tax-generating -- tourist destination, as cool as it may be, at the main retail corner of town, so it seems they agree that strategy would be unwise. Even the outlet mall at that corner draws about 7x as many visitors per year as the aquarium. They put the money maker out front with visibility and easy daily access, and put the lower-traffic, specialized attraction somewhere else on land they already owned.

People who care about the Grant library would still visit it whether it was at that entrance to campus, where Dorman is, or over by the vet school. Museums don't depend on drive-by traffic. The university could have sold that land for $3M and then let someone else spend $20M+ in private money to build something cool that the campus would benefit from for decades.

Again, I'm not saying the library won't be a nice attraction, it's just too bad because we could have had both. That would have been a really nice spot for a full service, upscale (non-school owned) hotel, for example, when there are very few locations where you can attract one to Starkville.