This large Art Deco monument consists of a three-sided U-shaped building with an open entry of a double row of columns leading to a central open courtyard with a tomb-like pedestal monument and a flagpole inside.
The pedestal monument reads as follows:
[N & S sides]
May the symbol stand guard over the ideals and purposes for which gallant Mississippians suffered an inmate serve as inspiration to us to shield forever the fragile quality of liberty
[E & W sides]
[wreath]
[Around the courtyard]
"How sweet must be the peace the heroes find when crusade ended. Death has borne them home to God who made their soldier's hearts beat with selfless zeal to right Satanic wrong."
The building was designed by local architect E. L. Mulvaney. It opened in 1940, shortly before the United States was embroiled in World War II.
Two large reliefs by sculptor Albert Reiker on either side of the entry show soldiers in combat during World War I.
Interior doors are decorated with metal panels highlighting implements of war or scenes from battles from ancient Greece to modern times.
From the Mississippi Preservation website: (
visit link) Charles
"Going Inside: War Memorial Building
BY ELMALVANEY on SEPTEMBER 9, 2011
I’m ending this week though with pictures from inside another Art Deco public building in downtown Jackson, the sometimes overlooked but still quite publicly accessible War Memorial Building (1939-40). Designed by E.L. Malvaney (the real one)–who was also a partner in the firm that designed the federal building–the War Memorial exudes austere serenity on the outside, but the inside is more warm and intimate. In fact, it features so many sweet details that I had to focus on just one aspect for this post, the intricate aluminum decoration in the lobby. If you’ve ever stopped to admire the sculptural reliefs on the three pairs of aluminum doors in the front courtyard you should take a few extra steps to come inside and see all the other wonders there.
We know that Albert Reiker was the sculptor of the concrete figures outside the courtyard, but I don’t know anything about the aluminum, where it was cast or who designed the details.
To set the stage, here’s the blurb from the War Memorial brochure:
Interior aluminum plaques represent the agriculture and industry of Mississippi. Two of Mississippi’s historic shrines, Beauvoir, the home of Jefferson Davis, and the old capitol building in Jackson, are portrayed on plaques in the foyer. The motif of decoration within the building is the magnolia, Mississippi’s state flower.
The attractive elevator doors are of aluminum and depict the Normandy invasion of 1945 in Europe, and the raising of the Flag of this nation on Iwo Jima, in the Pacific in 1945, and bear the inscription: “THEY Brought VICTORY to Europe in 1945, and to the Pacific in 1945.”"