On the corner of Lafayette and Shannon there is a three story building known
as the I H Anderson Building. I had become interested in the building while doing research on another article. Jack Wood, a historian at the JMCL, had mentioned that he believed the front of the building had the original iron work on it from Southern Engine and Boiler Works. This piqued my curiosity so I decided to drive by the building to see for myself. I couldn’t tell much about it, so some friends and I decided to do a little walking and wandering. We learned that you do not notice the ironwork because it has been painted over. Walking up to the front you can see the iron work and in the center of each column, there is an Egyptian figure stamped in the steel. On the Shannon Street side there is a plaque stating the iron work was made at the Southern Engine and Boiler Works in 1897.

In 1897 the Southern Engine and Boiler Works (which was located on the corner of Lexington and the M and O Railroad Yard at the time) was owned by two mechanics. They sold the business around 1900. This iron work may be some of the only left in Jackson made at that plant. I can only imagine what it was like in 1897, moving the steel several city blocks, hoisting it up and welding it in place.

According to Jack Wood, the building was named for Mr. Isaac Harold Anderson (1834-1906) a prominent black businessman, Vice President of Lane College, manager of the CME publishing house and many other business ventures.

Wood also found an article dated 1899 that appeared in The Christian Sun which discussed Reverend Anderson’s building at 202 and 204 Lafayette. The first building he built on this site was destroyed by fire.

Clearing the site, Reverend Anderson started over. This time he had a three story double building constructed. On one side, the side nearest to Shannon Street, there was a basement that was used as a dry cellar for produce storage. The ground floor was Anderson Grocery and on the second floor were offices and apartments. The third floor was one large room for gatherings and lodge meetings. The other side had a dry goods store on the ground level with offices on the second floor and on the third was another large room. . I attempted to find out if there was one big room covering the entire building, but no one knew for sure. At one time there was an entrance on both Lafayette and Shannon Streets that allowed one entrance to the second and third floor. On the Shannon Street side there were stairs leading down to the cellar. The article went on to say, "the building had all the modern improvements such as gas, water and all conveniences"

Reverend Anderson died in 1906. At that time Mr. Robert Key operated the grocery store. The dry good store became a second hand clothing store. In 1923 the third floor was home to a Masonic Lodge.

When I moved to Jackson in the late seventies the building was in disrepair. If my memory serves me correctly, there was a pool hall on the building’s ground floor and apartments upstairs. When I would go to Marvin Jones for tomato plants, I would ask different people about the building and get a different answer every time. (For the ones that do not know, Marvin Jones was a hardware, feed and seed store where the Shannon Street Café is now.)

I did finally find an individual that remembered shopping in the store at the Anderson Building when it was the Jackson Grocery, around 1925. He remembered as a child, his auntie telling him stories about the building, coming into town and watching the construction and then later(as an adult)coming back and shopping in both the grocery and dry goods store. He looked at me and laughed, "that was a different time girl and this was a different Jackson".  He was right, that was a different time, but the building is still standing .