FileThe city is asking for a grant to repair the Railway Express Agency building. There are plans to turn the building into the Jimmie Rodgers Music and Railroad Museum.

The city of Meridian is pursuing a $432,000 grant to be used on the historic Railway Express Agency building on Front Street near Union Station.

Meridian Community Development Director Laura Carmichael said the Community Heritage Grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History would be used for repairs to items such as the roof and air conditioning on the building.

There are plans to turn the building into the Jimmie Rodgers Music and Railroad Museum, she said.

The Jimmy Rodgers Museum is located in a temporary space downtown on Front Street across from the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, after moving from Highland Park. The benefits of moving the musuem to the REA building would include making it easier to host concerts and other events, Carmichael said. 

Rodgers, who called Meridian home during most of his career, is known as the “Father of Country Music.”

“The Jimmie Rodgers Museum is one of the most asked for museums when visitors come to the city,” Carmichael said.

Because it is a matching grant, The Jimmy Rodgers Foundation is committed to match about 20 percent of it, Carmichael said. The city plans to apply for the grant in late September and expects a response by early December.

The REA building has been closed for about a year and work on the building is expected to be completed in early January or February, Carmichael said.

There is no timeline when the building will be opened, Carmicahel said.

Jimmie Rodgers Foundation President Lee Thornton told the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors in July that the city could be in danger of losing its memorabilia to other interested cities without support to help sustain the museum.

At a work session for the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors, Thornton said the museum needed a permanent location and an executive director who can help procure available grants, manage the museum and coordinate the Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival.

In September 2019, Meridian applied for a more than $430,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for the same purpose. The city did not recieve that grant, according to MDAH. 

In September 2017, the city said it would lease the building for four years at $10 per year to the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation with an option to renew. The projected opening was September 2018.