Arts and Culture Weekend

Spend a weekend in Meridian, immerse yourself in arts and culture, and give your car a rest. You won’t need it till it’s time to head home.

Start at the top — the Boxcar rooftop bar of the Threefoot Hotel in the heart of downtown. As you soak in the amazing views, you can also see all the places you’ll visit. As the hotel’s name suggests, performance spaces, restaurants, bars, shops, and museums in the historic heart of the city are all easily reachable on foot. Just drop your car keys with the valet and start strolling.

The Threefoot, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel by Marriott, occupies Meridian’s tallest structure, a 1929-vintage Art Deco skyscraper. The hotel conversion extensively renovated the interior while retaining Jazz Age decorative elements inside and out. (The family that built the building Americanized their last name from Dreyfus to Threefoot after immigrating from Germany in the mid-1800s.)

Time your visit so you can catch a show. The beautifully restored MSU Riley Center, just steps from the Threefoot, boasts amazing acoustics. It draws national touring artists from all genres, from Lyle Lovett and Wynton Marsalis to CeCe Winans and Bruce Hornsby. A couple of blocks away, an ornate 1920s movie palace called the Temple Theatre for the Performing Arts presents concerts, plays, and even silent movies with live theater organ accompaniment.

Enjoy dinner before the performance. Choices within an easy walk (even in heels) range from creative pub grub (Threefoot Brewing, Brickhaus Brewtique) to fine dining (Harvest Grill, Weidmann’s). Extend the evening with a post-show nightcap and maybe even some live music (The Balcony Bar at Weidmann’s, Brickhaus, Boxcar rooftop bar at Threefoot Hotel). Weidmann’s also offers Sunday brunch.

The Threefoot Brewing brewpub, Meridian’s first, and the Threefoot Hotel are a block apart and have no direct connection, although both opened in 2021. The brewpub, which offers indoor and outdoor seating, is in the old Merchants & Farmers Bank building — hence the “safety, strength, service” slogan above the front door.

Two blocks from the MSU Riley Center lies one of Meridian’s major attractions, the interactive Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, known as The MAX. It shares downtown with four other worthy museums:

• The Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum at historic Soulé Steam Feed Works preserves a 20th century steam engine factory.
• The Meridian Museum of Art displays works by local and regional artists.
• If you’ve brought the kids along, you can’t miss the utterly delightful Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian. You’ll probably want to retrieve the car for this one, but it’s worth the short drive.
• Also a short drive away is the Jimmie Rodgers Museum, which celebrates the too-short life of the Meridian native who became country music’s first superstar.

As you wander among the downtown buildings, themselves a fascinating collection of 19th- and 20th-century architectural styles, you’re never more than a few blocks from the Threefoot. It’s easy to find. Just look up.

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Specially for Musicians
Take music into your own hands at two downtown shops. DC Guitar Studio gives serious musicians an abundance of guitars to try out — acoustic and electric. Meridian Underground Music sells instruments plus new and used CDs and vinyl records and, to quote its Facebook page, lots of other
“cool stuff.”

Refresh Your Wardrobe
Get stylish at the many clothiers downtown. Check out, among others, Belle G Boutique, Blue Girl Apparel, and The Liberty Shop for women, Sam’s Fashion for men, Over The Moon Children’s Boutique for children, and Loeb’s for everyone. Faulkenbery’s and Joyce’s Etc supply elegant looks for formal occasions. Accessorize at LaBiche Jewelers.