Most traffic in Downtown McComb travels along Broadway, a main artery that parallels the railroad tracks two blocks to the east.
Broadway is part of U.S. Highway 51, which goes by various names in McComb: Northwest Street, Jackson Avenue, Georgia Avenue and then Broadway. It winds through upscale homes in North McComb and depressed properties the closer it comes to Downtown, which once was McComb City’s hub of business, retail and professional activity.
Past Downtown, on South Broadway heading toward Presley Boulevard, there are numerous commercial and residential properties, some in better repair than others.
Broadway changes from north to south at Main Street, which runs east to west across the historic Five Points intersection.
At this corner lies a key element into Downtown’s future: the five-year collapsed JCPenney building, which now belongs to a New Orleans developer who is under court pressure to determine with clarity whether the large, anchor property can be restored to business viability or must be razed.
“I had plans to create apartments upstairs,” said architect Steve Cox, whose 110-112 North Broadway office shares a common wall with the Penney building. “I think that building can be salvaged — the building didn’t collapse. The roof fell in and then neglect for the upper floor caused it to deteriorate.”
Cox, incidentally, went right to work — no surprise for an architect — to mock up preliminary ideas for what the building could be restored to look like if serious preservation efforts were undertaken.
Some years ago, Downtown McComb was declared part of an official historic district, which has its own rules about property preservation and design. That commission may have much to say about the old JCPenney building’s future, should it be deemed salvageable.
Current owner Tyrone Taylor, who bought the property for taxes in March 2022, was expected to present more details from a structural engineer on the building’s future when he appears in city court Nov. 4.
The two Downtown blocks of Broadway — north and south — are different from Main Street.
Broadway activity is generally the scene of smaller enterprises: retail clothing, beauty suppliers, and plans for a casual sports lounge compared with Main Street’s larger former retail spaces.
Both venues have promise for restaurants and residential life, if the rest of the district shows improvement, property owners say.
Jim and Libba Alford, who have long advocated for city education and business improvements, renovated the old Goodyear Service Center directly across from the old Enterprise-Journal building into an office and sumptuous home, with an attractive rear balcony.
What they see from there is a wide-open vacant lot behind their home and a large, weathered city parking garage, along with traces of change for Railroad Boulevard and the renovation of the McComb Railroad Depot and Museum, which suffered extensive damage after a fire in June 2021.
“I just want a chance to make something of this property,” says Hiram Smith, who owned the former Enterprise-Journal building before he threw in the towel under time-related pressures from McComb City Court. The property, now bearing “For Sale” signs, is one of the most unsightly in Downtown and Smith attempted to make exterior improvements.
South of Five Points, Mayur Patel wants more improvements to Downtown’s environment around his Economy Inn motel.
He also says he’d like to see his immediate neighbors clean up their properties with pressure-washing and landscape maintenance.
“They need to do something,” he said as he looks across Broadway to McComb City Hall.
