What will become of Broadway Drive and Pine Street?
Those streets once anchored what could have been called Hattiesburg's own version of "Motown." In fact, the south end of Pine Street at U.S. 49 features a sign proclaiming "Hattiesburg Automotive Row." Time was, if you were in the market for a new car from a Hattiesburg dealership, your new auto awaited you on one of those two thoroughfares. Not so much anymore.
All of our city's new car dealers were there. Toyota of Hattiesburg, McMullan Motors for Chrysler-Plymouth, Courtesy Ford, and Steadman Motors for, yes, a Volkswagen. A little farther south on Broadway Drive, who remembers Harry Dole Dodge?
That was in the 1970s. And now? Well, if you've driven that part of town lately, you can't help but notice that virtually all of Hattiesburg's new car dealerships have vacated the Broadway Drive-Pine Street corridors, leaving south Hattiesburg saddled with what is evolving into a case of urban blight. With barely a tree in sight, the area is becoming a collection of giant and empty asphalt-laden parking lots, once filled with shiny new cars waiting for buyers.
Back in the day, Hattiesburg's growth pattern began extending from downtown, moving more to the south, than west. South Hattiesburg was one of our city's most vibrant business communities, and not just for auto dealers. Cloverleaf Mall, Hattiesburg's first fully enclosed shopping center, anchored the intersection of U.S. 49 and Broadway Drive. The center remains a repurposed shopping and business center, minus the premier retail status it once enjoyed.
Retail in that part of town was not limited to the mall. Broadway Mart, one of Hattiesburg's earliest shopping centers was later joined by our original big-box stores, Kroger Family Center, Grant's and Gibson's. There was also a mix of supermarkets, including A & P, Jitney Jungle, Big Star and Sunflower.
The dimming gleam on South Hattiesburg revved up when Methodist Hospital (later to become Wesley Medical Center) left its historic location in eastern Hattiesburg. The hospital relocated to what would grow to become today's U.S. 98 business corridor, once a sleepy two-lane highway connecting Hattiesburg to Columbia. When I was a kid, Hattiesburg literally stopped where Hardy Street became U.S. 98 and crossed Interstate 59. At that point, you were literally driving into the woods. Not today.
After Wesley made its move, Hattiesburg's exodus across I-59 slipped into high gear. Retailers, services and churches followed the population and rooftops of new high-income suburbs ever deeper into Lamar Country. Later, new car dealers joined the bandwagon.
Petro Nissan got the ball rolling in the early 2000s, leaving South Hattiesburg for the greener pastures of U.S. 98. Petro was there all alone at first until, in the past few years, the avalanche began, with Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Chrysler dealerships jumping into the fray.
Which brings us back to that original question: What's to become of Broadway Drive and Pine Street? It's hard to imagine what will fill the void left by the auto dealers, including the traffic and wallets they brought to the area.
Thankfully, Hattiesburg did not experience the wholesale urban flight that befell larger cities in the South, like Memphis, Birmingham, and, in a worst-case scenario, our state's capital city, Jackson. But a drive down today's Broadway Drive reveals a street whose glory days have passed.
There is one ray of sunshine lighting up Broadway Drive. Fairview Pharmacy has taken possession of one of the older buildings on the street, now converting it into a pharmacy and sit-down cafe. Fairview Pharmacy, a staple on Katie Avenue for years, is a Black-owned pharmacy that we thought of as the crosstown version of the iconic Smith Drugs on Mobile Street, my side of town. Now we can look forward to Fairview bringing a spark of life to a part of town that desperately needs it.
Getting back to the car dealers, if only we'd seen this coming. Many of you will remember the 1990s political fight over the construction of what would become the Lake Terrace Convention Center. There was quite a heated battle over financing and where the center would be located, a debate I was publicly involved in.
Finally, a site was chosen and the Lake Terrace Convention Center, an architectural focal point for Hattiesburg, now stands at the intersection of I-59 and U.S. 49. Only thing is — and I've always had a problem with its location — the convention center exists on its own, an isolated civic asset, an island unto itself, reachable only by automobile. It has no natural attachment to the city. Talk about a missed opportunity.
With most of the car dealers gone, Broadway Drive, with its immediate access to downtown Hattiesburg, would have been a perfect fit for the convention center. But that’s water under the bridge thinking, for sure. Still, it's time to put some serious thought into the future of the Broadway-Pine Street corridors.
The two railroad overpasses now under construction at Hall Avenue, connecting off Pine, then on to Bay Street, will provide easier access to Petal, increasing automobile traffic in the area. South Hattiesburg could become a setting for the newest growth area for metropolitan Hattiesburg. In fact, the anchors are already in place.
Farther south on U.S. Highway 11, as Broadway becomes Veterans Memorial Drive, major development has bloomed. The area has become a hub for new medical, recreational, and financial institutions. Not only that, Hattiesburg's smaller, but growing, sister city, Purvis, is an easy connection, only a few miles to the south.
Maybe the car dealers haven't noticed, but growth in the Hattiesburg market is not just about Lamar County. The most exciting changes in our area are happening east of I-59.
Downtown Hattiesburg is buzzing lately, with the expanded and popular Lucky Rabbit. It has become a tourist attraction, with its unique collection of vendors drawing huge crowds every weekend. Front Street's restaurant district and the increasingly popular Hattiesburg Pocket Museum are also bringing more traffic downtown. The North Main Historic District, one of Hattiesburg's oldest neighborhoods, is undergoing a significant rebirth, too.
Midtown Hattiesburg, home to Forrest General Hospital medical center and The University of Southern Mississippi is becoming one of our city's most vibrant neighborhoods. And it's growing quickly, with plenty of planned and new construction underway.
But there's more. Hattiesburg Zoo, centrally located between downtown and Midtown, is becoming even more of a tourist destination, with its Serengeti Springs Water Park scheduled to open later this summer.
All of that said, to the naysayers of yesteryear who were prepared to give up on Hattiesburg east of I-59? Y'all look again. The most engaging part of Hattiesburg is on this side of the freeway, not the oversized parking lot, pedestrian-despising "Anytown, USA" that is the U.S. 98 business corridor.
So, with a reenergized eastern Hattiesburg, I say let's not turn off the lights on Broadway Drive and Pine Streets just yet.
Elijah Jones is a proud Hattiesburg native who enjoys writing. Email him at edjhubtown@aol.com.
