Ole Miss To Tear Down Vacant Power Plant

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) – Sometime soon, the University of Mississippi plans to demolish a now-vacant 1908 power plant where William Faulkner wrote one of his most significant novels.

Ole Miss is tearing down the Old Power Plant as part of a project to build a $135 million science building.

Faulkner wrote “As I Lay Dying” while working as a night supervisor there in late 1929. The author later said he wrote the book atop an overturned wheelbarrow during slack times of his 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift.

Officials with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History have cleared plans to demolish the building, saying it has been so heavily altered that it lacks historic integrity. The university plans to build a space commemorating Faulkner as part of the science building.