Nancy Bell discussed historic preservation, the Southern Cultural Heritage Center, the accomplishments of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historical Preservation, and criticized the county’s Board of Supervisors for wanting to raze two buildings on Adams Street behind the Warren County Courthouse deemed important to the city’s historic district.

Talking to the Vicksburg Kiwanis Club Tuesday, Bell, the foundation’s executive director, discussed the supervisors’ application before the Board of Architectural Review to demolish the old Verhine building at 1015 Adams St., and the county’s former justice court building at 1019 Adams St.

The review board on three separate occasions has put demolition stays on the buildings.

Bell, often called upon by the board to speak to the worthiness of properties up for either preservation or demolition, did not appear at the board’s meeting later in the day.

The Verhine building was built in the 1890s and the justice court building was completed in 1870. The Verhine building is considered a contributing resource to the historic district and eligible for designation as a Mississippi Landmark by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Both have fallen in disrepair, and the justice court building is being used for storage. Bell said the courthouse building “is an important building to that streetscape.”

“We’ve talked with the Board of Supervisors trying to get them to sell them,” Bell said. “They need to be back on the tax rolls and they need someone to rehab them.

“They don’t have any use for the property right now, they thing they might have a use for it in the future for something, but they have not been able to give us anything except maybe a couple of parking spots,” she said, adding, “If you look at the property, you can tell there won’t be that many parking spots.”

Bell said the condition of the Verhine building might be too severe for rehabilitation. The justice court building, she said, may be a different matter.

“If you go into it, yes, it’s got a couple of roof leaks, but not really anything major,” she said. “The floors don’t even squeak. It’s beautiful. The staircase is all there; everything is there. It’s really a beautiful building. It can certainly be rehabbed. It can’t be in that bad a shape. They’re using it for storage.”

Moving away from the issues with the county, Bell discussed the history of the foundation, which was formed in 1958 by Eva Davis, whom she said was responsible for saving the Old Court House, which is now a museum.

She said Davis started the foundation to save other historic buildings that were being demolished in the city.

“She thought there needed to be an organization specifically designed to save historic buildings, because that’s why tourists come here,” she said, “that’s our No. 1 industry. It was even in those days.”

The purpose of the foundation, Bell said, is to identify, preserve and protect the city’s historic buildings. In the past 56 years, she said, the foundation has identified, cataloged bout 3,800 buildings and photographed them. The foundation members also prepare National Register of Historic Places nominations, and have registered six in the city.

The two newest individual building additions, she said, are the Monte Carlo Building on Washington Street and the Jewish Cemetery off Clay Street adjacent to the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The foundation also helps preserve old buildings by working with property owners to help them rehabilitate the structures and helping them file for state and federal tax credits.

The organization was involved in establishing the city’s historic district, which is the second oldest the state next to Natchez, and getting a historic preservation ordinance to preserve the integrity of the buildings in the district.

She said the foundation also buys buildings and sells them to save them from demolition and make them available for sale for rehabilitation.

Bell singled out the Southern Cultural Heritage Center complex, which occupies the block between Crawford and Clay streets along Cherry Street. The complex was the home of the Sisters of Mercy and St. Francis Xavier Academy.

She said the foundation worked with the city and the sisters to acquire and rehabilitate the complex. The rehabilitation, Bell said, is ongoing.

“That’s now been 20 years, and it’s absolutely unbelievable to me that that time has gone,” she said. “And I have to look at some people today who said, ‘It’ll never happen. … It will never work.’”

The complex, she said, has been the site of classes, programs and workshops. Its auditorium, she said, was used in the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” adding the movie will be shown at the auditorium Nov. 22.