- (December 2007) CHAMPION HILL, Miss. - The Coker House, the last remaining structure to witness the battle of Champion Hill, was expected to be "deconstructed" in November and placed in storage.

Taking the building down was not part of the original plan, acknowledged Jim Woodrick, review and compliance officer for the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. But severe deterioration in the last few years, combined with high bids for restoration, made the decision inevitable, he said.

Roger Walker, a private contractor who is overseeing the project, commented on the condition of the Coker House, "The birds can fly through it without slowing down."

The state hopes to rebuild the house, with largely modern fabric, by late next year, according to Woodrick. The Coker House was given to the department in 2000 by the Jackson Civil War Round Table.

"The plan was to fully restore the exterior and the interior of the house and use it as a museum," Woodrick said. But staffing cuts at Archives & History put the kibosh on the museum, and that in turn put the kibosh on the interior restoration.

Meanwhile, a bid for the exterior work proved too high and the department had to rebid the work, and time passed. And the building went downhill.

Eventually the department concluded that the structure was so unstable that restoration would be too costly, and the focus shifted to taking the house down and then rebuilding.

Still, problems persisted. In February 2006 only one bidder was interested, at $446,000 - more than twice what the department had estimated.

The department readvertised and also reduced its requirements. Instead of saving all the historic portions of the building, the bidder was asked to salvage only representative parts, such as samples of doors, windows, mantels and cornices. In October, of two bids, the department executed a contract for the lower, at $273,000.

"The architect says we'll save the best and trash the rest," Walker said.

"I regret it," said Woodrick of the decision to take the house down rather than restore it. Asked if the state couldn't have done more to stabilize the building over the years he replied, "I don't have a good answer for that."

But Woodrick pointed to the red tape that his department had to deal with in handling the grant, and the fact that the Coker House was only one element in an array of Civil War projects that were all demanding attention.

The transportation-enhancement grant was for $6.2 million and covered everything from the Coker House restoration to renovation of a train depot at Corinth, restoration of the historic Shaifer House at Port Gibson battlefield, expansion of a museum at Brice's Crossroads, and interpretive trails and signage at several battlefields.

The department contracted with the Miami-based engineering firm PBS&J to manage all the projects. Walker, senior planner for PBS&J, said the Coker House portion of the funding was originally estimated at just over $1 million. By 2003 the estimate had climbed to $1.8 million.

Rebuilding is estimated to cost $500,000, Walker said, with funding expected from the state. He noted that "very little" of the rebuilt Coker House will be original.

Woodrick suggested that once the house is back up, whether the fabric is original or not will fade in importance. "There are buildings in other Civil War parks that most of the public would never know were rebuilt," he said. "This has been an exasperating project but I think it's going to turn out to be a terrific project."

The state owns 800 acres at Champion Hill, although it is not open to the public. Woodrick said that eventually his department would like to see the land and house transferred to the National Park Service as a unit of Vicksburg National Military Park, 20 miles to the west. Champion Hill, May 16, 1863, was the decisive battle of the Vicksburg Campaign.

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