History by candlelight

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 18th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Going downtown. Many downtown areas in capital cities across the country face empty streets. That means fewer people enjoy historical spaces like state capitols and museums.

REICHARD: One Southern city has come up with a creative way to get people to visit its historical landmarks. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson brings us this report.

BUS HOST: Two Mississippi museums, we have the Possum Ridge exhibit and some food and drink.

KIM HENDERSON: It’s a big night in downtown Jackson, Mississippi—the annual Christmas by Candlelight Tour.

Visitors hop on chartered buses that run between different spots on the tour, like the building that houses Mississippi’s history museums.

MUSIC: [Sound of choir singing]

Inside, a high school choir is performing.

Drew Gardner is part of the Department of Archives and History team that’s responsible for the Christmas by Candlelight Tour. He says tonight, it’s all hands on deck.

GARDNER: We've got staff that are archivists, that are volunteering to pour hot chocolate. We've got folks that work in historic preservation that are hopping on these charter buses to help people get from one stop to the other.

The tour is a holiday response to a year-round problem.

GARDNER: It can be challenging to get somebody to come and connect with a building, a structure, a story that feels old, that feels that was in the past. But I think the beauty is that so many of these places, they have such rich stories.

Stories of constitutional conventions, the birth of the blues, even the law that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The buildings on the tour aren’t just historical gems—they’re educational opportunities.

One houses a huge model train layout.

SOUND: [Sound of trains, children]

The Possum Ridge model train exhibit depicts a typical Mississippi railroad town during the 1940s. Children climb stools to look through the plexiglass barrier as tiny locomotives pass by.

Engineer Lucky Osborne has been hand making buildings and scenes for the exhibit since 1976.

LUCKY: I think because the trains are moving, the kids love it. The buildings, the adults love it. “I remember that. I've seen that” so, you know, it's kind of a nostalgic thing for an adult, and it's a whimsical thing for a child.

A couple of blocks away, visitors at the Old Capitol are greeted by surprise snow flurries coming from a machine on a second-story balcony.

Inside, oil paintings of historic figures hang above very modern children making crafts.

The main attraction, however, is a one-of-a-kind gingerbread house. An edible replica of another historic spot in the Jackson area— author Eudora Welty’s house.

STAFF: It is a Tudor style revival home built in 1925 so, yeah, it's very true to form.

SOUND: [Sound of typewriter]

Typewriters like Welty used are also on display. Kids can type letters to Santa.

STAFF: So the one she would have used when she traveled would have been similar to this one, and this is a more updated model of the one that she would have used regularly. (Visitors respond.)

Down the street, it’s open house at the governor’s mansion—the second oldest continuously occupied governor's residence in the United States.

MAN: The governor and First Lady are right there to your right. You can walk upstairs, downstairs. Outside, we have hot chocolate and Santa under the gazebo.

Docents are on hand to give tours.

DOCENT: The theme this year is a season of success, celebrating our teachers, students, and education gains in Mississippi.

Tour guides also know other tidbits of information . . .

DOCENT: John F. Kennedy stayed in the cream bedroom. B.B. King has been here numerous times.

Out in the gardens, visitors enjoy hot chocolate. A ride-on train is making the rounds.

SOUND: [Train horn toots]

It’s a delightful scene. Dimitri Crain has been bringing her son to the candlelight tour for years. She says visiting historical sites like the ones on the tour has given him an educational edge.

CRAIN: When he was small, he could engage in conversation as to, I know that place, I know where it is, and I visited that with my mom.

Crain’s son is now in college. She says too many of his friends don’t understand the downtown buildings and the role they play in government.

CRAIN: They don't even know they exist. Some people have been there all their lives and still haven't seen the Capitol, the mansion . . .

Jamie Rasberry agrees. She thinks the event is important because it brings people inside buildings they’re used to only seeing from a car window.

RASBERRY: My daughter's been in the Capitol before, but her friend has never been there before, and to see it decorated and just the grandeur of the building. She was really just kind of overwhelmed in a good way to see that here.

She’s referring to the new Capitol, a popular stop on the tour. It’s where state lawmakers conduct all their business.

AUDIO: [Kids singing Jingle Bells]

Tonight, though, a jazz ensemble is keeping the mood festive. And the kids love it. Maybe even enough to return some day.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Jackson, Mississippi.

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