01Public ownership is the trigger.
The Antiquities Law of Mississippi, passed in 1970 and amended in 1983, gives the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History authority to designate Mississippi Landmarks. Publicly owned properties can be designated with or without the owner's request; private properties only at the owner's request. Designation is the highest form of recognition the state gives a property, and unlike the honorary state registers found elsewhere in the South it carries legal protection: restoration, renovation, significant repairs and other alterations to a Landmark require a Mississippi Landmark permit. Routine and minor work can be approved by MDAH staff under delegated procedures; more consequential proposals go to the Board's review committee.
The rule reaches further than designated buildings. Any publicly owned property that MDAH determines to be of historic, architectural or archaeological significance is a potential Mississippi Landmark, and state agencies, counties, cities and their subdivisions are required to submit a Notice of Intent, with supporting documentation, for projects on publicly owned property, including property that has never been designated, covering alteration, renovation, demolition, ground disturbance and transfer to private ownership. MDAH then determines whether an undesignated property qualifies as a potential Landmark and whether further review is needed. The Notice of Intent serves as the permit application. Submittals received by the last Thursday of the month go on the next agenda of the Mississippi Landmark Review Committee, which recommends action to the Board. MDAH asks for submission in the early planning stages and always before bids, so that monthly agenda is a public record of what public owners intend to do with historic buildings, often before bidding or construction procurement begins.
02The Mississippi reference desk
| System | What it can tell you |
|---|---|
| MDAH Historic Preservation Division | Mississippi Landmark designations, the permit process, the Notice of Intent form and the review schedule; National Register nominations for the state's more than 1,300 listings; Section 106 consultation. MDAH also holds more than 40,000 paper files on individual buildings, districts and artisans, some of which are searchable online through its Historic Resources Inventory database. |
| State and federal tax credits | Mississippi's state credit, created in 2006, equals 25% of qualified rehabilitation expenses for historic structures used for residential or business purposes; owner-occupied houses qualify. Income-producing buildings can pair it with the 20% federal credit, for a combined 45%. Rehabilitations qualifying for the federal credit also qualify for the state credit, and the same application (plus a Statement of Intent) serves both. The program runs through December 31, 2030, within an aggregate cap of $180 million. Since the 2021 amendments it has operated with two annual statewide pools of $12 million each, one for projects of $1.75 million or more and one for smaller projects, with unfunded projects eligible for the following year. Applications have been electronic since August 15, 2023. |
| Community Heritage Preservation Grant Program | Authorized and funded by the Legislature, CHPG helps preserve and restore historic courthouses and schools in Certified Local Government communities (there are more than fifty CLGs in Mississippi) and other historic properties. Since 2001 it has provided more than $61 million to 355 projects in 71 counties. The 2026 round accepts applications from July 1 through October 2, 2026, with awards at the Board of Trustees' January 2027 meeting. |
| Mississippi Historic Site Preservation Grant | Authorized in 2021 to fund acquisition of sites related to Civil War battles, Native American archaeology and civil rights history. Requires a one-to-one match that cannot come from other state sources and covers no more than half the property's appraised value. An acquisition grant signals site control, the step before any rehabilitation. |
| Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management | The Department of Finance and Administration bureau that acts as the state's building authority. It is a service arm rather than a regulator: it administers construction funds appropriated by the Legislature for state agencies and institutions, works with design professionals, approves plans for buildings and renovations, and manages state leases. Its site publishes current projects, construction solicitations, bid tabulations and requests for proposals and qualifications. |
| MAGIC and the state procurement portal | Sealed bids for Bureau of Building projects are received electronically through MAGIC, the state's accounting and procurement system, or delivered to the Bureau's office. The DFA bid search lists open solicitations statewide, including universities. Registration is required to bid electronically and to receive system-generated notices. |
| Mississippi Main Street Association | A nonprofit coordinating program, renamed from the Mississippi Downtown Development Association in 1997, with 48 Designated communities plus Network and Associate members. Designated communities employ a local director and are eligible for MMSA training and revitalization grants. Points to organized downtowns; project facts still come from municipal records. |
03Four checks before you call it a project
Ownership. Public or private decides the path: a Notice of Intent and Landmark permit for public owners; tax credit certification and local review for private ones.
Status. National Register listing, Mississippi Landmark designation and local historic district designation are three different things with three different consequences.
Money. Distinguish a CHPG award, a legislative appropriation, a tax credit reservation and a federal grant. Each says something different about scope and timing.
Next decision. A permit committee agenda date, a grant deadline, a Board of Trustees meeting, a Bureau of Building advertisement or a city bid opening gives the project a step you can follow.
04Five Mississippis
Jackson and the Capitol complex
State office buildings, the Old Capitol and Capitol Green, Jackson State University and a downtown with the state's largest concentration of tax credit activity. Bureau of Building solicitations, Landmark permits and downtown incentive programs overlap here more than anywhere else in the state.
The Gulf Coast
Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, Bay St. Louis and Ocean Springs carry the legacy of post-Katrina rebuilding alongside port, casino and tourism investment. Several are Designated Main Street communities. Municipal capital plans, FEMA-related funding and Landmark permits for public buildings drive the record.
The Delta
Clarksdale, Greenwood, Greenville, Cleveland and the courthouse towns in between depend heavily on CHPG grants, Main Street programs and heritage tourism tied to blues history. Population loss makes public ownership of vacant schools and courthouses common, which in turn makes the Landmark permit process the most reliable signal.
Natchez, Vicksburg and the river towns
Antebellum houses, National Park Service presence and long-established tourism economies produce private rehabilitations financed by stacked credits and public projects tied to interpretation. Federal ownership adds Section 106 to the trail.
Northeast Mississippi and the Golden Triangle
Tupelo, Columbus, Starkville and Oxford combine university campuses, Main Street districts and manufacturing growth. University and community college capital projects run through the Bureau of Building; downtown work runs through Main Street programs and local incentives.
05The permit is the tell.
In most states the first public record of a public building project is a budget line or a board vote. In Mississippi it is often a Notice of Intent to MDAH, filed because the law requires it before a public owner touches a significant building. From there the trail runs through legislative funding, Board of Trustees action, Bureau of Building design and bidding, or a city's own advertisement. Each step is public. The work is connecting them to the same building.