On January 12, 2017, the City of Clinton’s Olde Towne Historic District was offcially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Director of Community Development Roy Edwards, underscored the significance of the designation, stating “the listing in the National Register of Historic Places recognizes Olde Towne Clinton’s historic resources and assures protective review of Federal projects that might have an adverse effect on this district.”
The Olde Towne district embodies the development of the historic core of the village, later town, and now city, of Clinton, Mississippi, from the 1840s through the early 1960s, upon the street grid and lot arrangement of the original plat of the community that was surveyed and recorded in 1829.
1. Consideration in planning for Federal, federally licensed, and federally assisted projects. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation must be given an opportunity to comment on all federally related projects affecting listed properties. For further information see 36 CFR 800.
2. Eligibility for Federal tax provisions. The Federal Internal Revenue Code encourages the preservation of depreciable historic structures by allowing favorable tax treatments for rehabilitation and also provides for charitable contributions for conservation purposes of partial interests in historically important land areas or structures. For further information see 36 CFR 67.
3. Eligibility for State Historic Preservation tax credits. In March 2006, Governor Haley Barbour signed legislation creating a state historic preservation tax incentive program. For further information see Mississippi Code Section 27-7-22.31.
4. Consideration of historic values in the decision by the State or Federal government to issue a surface coal mining permit where coal is located. For further information see 30 CFR 700 et seq.
5. Eligibility for Federal grants-in-aid, whenever funds are appropriated by Congress. For further information contact Kenneth H. P'Pool, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, P. O. Box 571, Jackson, Mississippi 39205, 601-576-6940.
According to the application and correspondence with the Department of Archives and History, in the area of architecture, the Olde Town District comprises a locally significant concentration of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings dating from the 1840s to the mid-1960s that are representative of the building forms and stylistic expressions that could be found in small towns throughout Mississippi during that span of years.
The buildings of the district are particularly evocative of the architectural character of small towns in Mississippi from the 1920s through the 1940s. The period of significance extends from 1836, the date of construction of the earliest surviving building in the district, to 1966, fifty years before the date of the architectural survey upon which the nomination is based, and approximately the time that Clinton began a period of rapid growth as a part of the Jackson metropolitan area.
Edwards further explained that any restrictions on use and maintenance of property afforded by the designation are currently covered under the city’s Historic Preservation ordinance. Edwards explained “The Federal Government places no limitations on private properties that are listed on the Register. Projects proposed in the Olde Towne Clinton District still go through the same review process as they have since 1997. The Historic Preservation Ordinance, adopted in 1997 and revised 2014, was adopted to preserve the character of the Olde Towne District by preventing inappropriate structures and land use as well as preserving the existing resources.”