Public meeting, open house used to gather public’s ideas

A walk-though Thursday disclosed different views on how a new asset of the Vicksburg National Military Park should be restored.

Park personnel invited the public into Pemberton Headquarters, 1018 Crawford St., to gather ideas.

The difference was over whether to keep changes to the home made since 1863 when it served as the office of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, who commanded the Confederate Army’s forces defending Vicksburg during the Civil War, and his staff.

The meeting was attended by about 15 people, including park staff and representatives of an National Park Service contractor on the project, Parsons Corporation of Pasadena, Calif.

The contractor’s representatives, Diane Rhodes of Denver and Steve Bach of Atlanta, presented five concepts representing varying ways to configure the home.

Vicksburg architect S.J. &#8221Skippy“ Tuminello said he thought additions should be removed and the home should be returned as closely as possible to match the day when Pemberton met with his staff on July 3, 1863, the eve of his surrender to Union forces.

&#8221It’s a lot simpler for the public to understand,“ Tuminello said. &#8221Let’s do a museum of that era and interpret that era completely.“

The director of the Community Alliance of Vicksburg and Warren County, Charlotte Koestler, advocated retaining the additions for potential future use.

&#8221We don’t know how it’s going to be used,“ Koestler said of the space, which has been mentioned as potential office space for park staff.

Tuminello responded that the home’s basement could be used for office space and added that NPS officials face &#8221a very difficult decision“ on how to restore the home.

Park Superintendent Monika Mayr said comments are welcomed in writing by Nov. 5. The postal address is Pemberton Headquarters Comments, 3201 Clay St., Vicksburg, MS 39180, and the Web site is parkplanning.nps.gov.

In addition to how the home will look after it is renovated, people may comment on &#8221the story and how to communicate the story“ as the home’s history is presented to visitors.

The federal government purchased the home for about $750,000 in 2003. Stabilization is expected to cost about $300,000 and restoration about $1 million or more.

The home was built in 1835-36 and was used by Pemberton in the spring and summer of 1863. Among its uses since then has been as classroom space by the Sisters of Mercy. Some of the alternative restoration concepts presented make clear that, if they are chosen, parts of the home used for that purpose would be removed.

Congress created the park here in 1899. Pemberton Headquarters is the second acquisition for it outside the boundaries created then. The other is land at Delta, La., that surrounds the last remnant of the canal Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant tried to dig to bypass Vicksburg.

&#8221During the establishment of the Vicksburg National Military Park the significance of Pemberton Headquarters was not lost on Union and Confederate veterans, who lobbied Congress from 1895-1899 for preservation of important sites of the campaign and siege,“ an NPS brochure on the site says.

&#8221They sought inclusion of the house in the park’s enabling legislation but the subsequent language specifically focused the park’s mission on the then rural battlefield.“

The legislation did provide for the placement of a memorial plaque at the headquarters site and the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, the brochure says.

Repair and stabilization work that will need to be done regardless of which concept is chosen is under way, Mayr said. The VNMP’s goal is to have the home open to park visitors on at least a limited basis by January 2007, she added.

Input received during the current comment period will be used to develop into more-formal alternatives the concepts presented Thursday and further public meetings on the plans will be held, Bach said.

During the 1990s the park averaged nearly 900,000 visitors a year, VNMP information shows.