Lauderdale County supervisors should be applauded for considering donation of the historic Ulmer Building on Fifth Street in downtown Meridian to the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation. The move would hopefully result, after extensive restoration work, in a stunning and permanent home for the artifact-rich museum that celebrates the “father of country music.” But there is also more for the supervisors to consider.

 

The Ulmer Building, a Mission Revival-style brick structure built about 1920, is located directly across the street from the Lauderdale County Detention Center, a barbed wire-rimmed sprawling jailhouse without architectural distinction that was built in 1998. Many believe the jail never should have been built in the heart of old downtown, and that sentiment has grown with the proliferation of museums and other tourist-sensitive businesses in surrounding blocks.

 

With court facilities and other county offices now relocated from the old Lauderdale County Courthouse and County Annex Building (formerly the Lamar Hotel) at the intersection of 5th and Constitution streets to new quarters out near the interstate, it makes no sense for the county jail to remain where it is. In fact, the presence of the jail in this historic setting will undermine efforts to bring new life to the courthouse, the Ulmer Building and the towering Lamar, which, with a beautiful high-ceiling lobby, is an excellent prospect for redevelopment – for hotel, apartment or other uses.

 

Picture music enthusiasts or history buffs, spending generously during a visit to Meridian, finding their way to the Jimmie Rodgers museum a few years from now, and pausing to look over their shoulders at a walled compound where inmates might be heard screaming out in the jail yard, or pounding on windows to grab the attention of passers-by. It could turn a pleasing visit into a jarring one, and bring the sort of negative reviews that we are trying to dispel in the Queen City.

 

Several years ago, outbursts from inmates at the detention center resulted in a decision by Anne McKee, director of a storytelling history tour, to drop the nearby Soule’ industrial museum from the popular educational program.

 

“They were frightening our attendees,” said McKee, who has long hoped that the county would relocate the jail. “We want children to come out downtown with their parents and grandparents.”

 

Advocates for cultural attractions and downtown businesses dream of a day when the jail block will be cleared of the present sterile structure and replaced with something inviting, perhaps a mini park with public art or paths for dog-walking.

 

“We just need a big piece of grass,” one downtown professional said.

 

There may have been good reasoning – such as proximity to the courthouse, which was phasing out a rooftop jailhouse – for building the detention center where it is. And of course, moving this necessary complex for law-breakers will require lots of money and planning. But this jail location never would have passed a test of sound strategic planning for downtown.

 

The Rodgers museum, a redeveloped Lamar Hotel and the old courthouse – designated as future home for a county historical archive and veterans’ office — shouldn’t be next to an unsettling jail compound. It’s time for the “move it” question to reach the front burner.