Years ago, my dad worked at the Mississippi Employment Security Commission. While it was called “The Commission” by the employees who worked there, it was often seen as “the unemployment office” by those on the outside.

Anyway, times change. In 2004, “The Commission” became the Mississippi Department of Employment Security and received a new building along with the new name. After being housed at 1520 W. Capitol Street for 45 years, MDES moved into a sparkling new, 112,000 square foot building in the Echelon development off of Interstate 220. What it left behind was lonely brick office building.

In 2006, the Jackson Public School District took ownership of the facility, and today…the building is a goner! JPS plans to build a school in its place that is bound to look much better than the tan box that once stood there. The new school will merge the student populations at Barr Elementary (which is across the street) and Poindexter Elementary (which is around the corner).

There were no start and completion dates for construction available at the time of this post.

Recent photos of building (or at least, what WAS a building):