Margarets Grocery
40 images Created 4 Jan 2010
The Mississippi Folk Art Foundation is dedicated to preserving, protecting and reinstalling folk art. Our first major project is to save Margaret's Grocery in Vicksburg Mississippi. Located north of downtown Vicksburg on old Highway 61, Margaret's Grocery is a unique vernacular art environment created by Reverend H.D. Dennis. Margaret Rogers Dennis ran the former country store for years. When she met and married Reverend Dennis in the early 1980s, he promised her that he would transform her simple store into a place that the world would come to see. Although the site is no longer open as a store, the Grocery has attracted visitors from around the world to experience Reverend Dennis' creation.
The site, described as a "theological park" by vernacular art scholar Stephen Young, is crowded with signs, gates, towers, and other items created by Dennis. The Reverend is constantly making changes and modifications to the site, adding new signs, repainting items with new designs, and adding more details to existing structures. In addition to the external work, the interior of the grocery is also ornately decorated. Dennis has used beads, Christmas lights, artificial flowers, and other inexpensive items to create a unique worship space inside the grocery.
Love and Promises
It’s all about the promise Reverend H.D. Dennis made Margaret and their love. Preacher asked Margaret to marry him and promised her if she did, he would build her a castle. He kept his promise. I met the Rev Dennis and Miss Margaret in 2001 and fell in love with them and their castle. Over the next decade I visited them regularly and they shared their wisdom with me. Their simple messages of God has no white church, he ain't got no black church-He got one church- And ALL are Welcome, and Treat Everyone Equally and with Love, are still relevant today and need to be shared with the world. I promised Miss Margaret on her death bed I would look after Preacher, and I promised Rev HD Dennis before he passed away I would look after his palace and church bus. I am keeping my promise today I am the executive Director of the Mississippi Folk Art Foundation and we are dedicated to preserving this outdoor folk art environment.
Picture the difference if we all donated just $10 dollars we could save this Mississippi Treasure and keep it where it is in the Kings Community.
Although the site is no longer open as a store and they have both since passed away, the Grocery still attracts visitors from around the world to experience Reverend Dennis' creation. The site, described as a "theological park" by vernacular art scholar Stephen Young, is crowded with signs, gates, towers, and other items created by Dennis. The Reverend was constantly making changes and modifications to the site, adding new signs, repainting items with new designs, and adding more details to existing structures. Since his passing the place is in decline and in dire need of restoration and preservation.
The site, described as a "theological park" by vernacular art scholar Stephen Young, is crowded with signs, gates, towers, and other items created by Dennis. The Reverend is constantly making changes and modifications to the site, adding new signs, repainting items with new designs, and adding more details to existing structures. In addition to the external work, the interior of the grocery is also ornately decorated. Dennis has used beads, Christmas lights, artificial flowers, and other inexpensive items to create a unique worship space inside the grocery.
Love and Promises
It’s all about the promise Reverend H.D. Dennis made Margaret and their love. Preacher asked Margaret to marry him and promised her if she did, he would build her a castle. He kept his promise. I met the Rev Dennis and Miss Margaret in 2001 and fell in love with them and their castle. Over the next decade I visited them regularly and they shared their wisdom with me. Their simple messages of God has no white church, he ain't got no black church-He got one church- And ALL are Welcome, and Treat Everyone Equally and with Love, are still relevant today and need to be shared with the world. I promised Miss Margaret on her death bed I would look after Preacher, and I promised Rev HD Dennis before he passed away I would look after his palace and church bus. I am keeping my promise today I am the executive Director of the Mississippi Folk Art Foundation and we are dedicated to preserving this outdoor folk art environment.
Picture the difference if we all donated just $10 dollars we could save this Mississippi Treasure and keep it where it is in the Kings Community.
Although the site is no longer open as a store and they have both since passed away, the Grocery still attracts visitors from around the world to experience Reverend Dennis' creation. The site, described as a "theological park" by vernacular art scholar Stephen Young, is crowded with signs, gates, towers, and other items created by Dennis. The Reverend was constantly making changes and modifications to the site, adding new signs, repainting items with new designs, and adding more details to existing structures. Since his passing the place is in decline and in dire need of restoration and preservation.
