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Remembering the old Trace Theater in Port Gibson, Mississippi, Which Burned in 2020
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Remembering the old Trace Theater in Port Gibson, Mississippi, Which Burned in 2020

Keith Dotson
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Black and White Photographs of the Trace Theater which Burned Five Years Ago in 2020

One of the odd things about making photographs of abandoned places is that they often disappear at some point after you photograph them.

The Trace Theater wasn’t actually abandoned when I first made photographs of it, but sadly it’s a hollow shell now, having burned in 2020.

Black and white photograph of the Trace Theater in Port Gibson, shot by Keith Dotson in 2019, less than a year before it burned.
Black and white photograph of the Trace Theater in Port Gibson, shot by Keith Dotson in 2019, less than a year before it burned.
Black and white photograph of the old Trace Theater marquee, now removed.
Black and white photograph of the old Trace Theater marquee, now removed.
Black and white photograph of what's left of the old Trace Theater after the 2020 fire that left it a hollowed-out shell.
Black and white photograph of what’s left of the old Trace Theater after the 2020 fire that left it a hollowed-out shell.

Built in the 1870s, the theater was renovated in 1940 and in its final years served as an entertainment venue. The theater’s name comes from the nearby Natchez Trace, a historic early American road that ran from Nashville to Natchez, and was based on an even earlier Native American and animal path.

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