05/28/2026
Did you know that the Office of the President of the Mississippi River Commission used to be in New York City?
The Commission Comes to Vicksburg
Next month, the Mississippi River Commission will leave its home of 82 years to set up a new temporary headquarters at the Engineer Research and Development Center. The move will be the first since the Commission moved into its current historic building in 1944. Prior to that, the Commission’s headquarters was located at the Vicksburg Military Park, and prior to that, the Commission called St. Louis, Missouri, home.
In the fall of 1929, the Commission loaded its furnishings onto barges and prepared to set forth on an 800-mile journey down the Mississippi River to its new home in Vicksburg. The Commission’s home had been St. Louis, Missouri, since its creation in 1879. However, the location of the Commission president’s office had moved several times.
The Commission’s first meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in 1879, but the Commission promptly established a permanent office in St. Louis that same year. Although its famed inspection trips were held aboard the Steamer MISSISSPPI, the day-to-day operations of the Commission were carried out in its District Offices in Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans, decades before the establishment of the current Corps of Engineer Districts on the lower Mississippi River in 1929.
While the Commission’s Headquarters was in St. Louis, the Office of the President of the Commission was in the Army Building at 39 Whitehall St. in New York City until 1901. This was because the president of the Commission also served as an Army Officer and had dual duties. The Army decided that the cost of transporting the president between New York and St. Louis was too high, so they decided to keep his main office in the Army Building. In fact, Secretary of War Elihu Root strongly opposed moving the president’s office out of New York City all the way up until 1901, when Congress passed a law requiring the Commission’s offices to “be located at some city or town on the Mississippi River.” Shortly after Congress passed this law, the president’s office was moved to St. Louis.
During its long tenure in St. Louis, the Commission’s primary residence was the Old Post Office building at 815 Olive St. One can still visit this restored historic building today. For two months before the Commission’s final move, it occupied the Victoria Building in St. Louis, another historic building, yet one that no longer stands, as it was demolished in 1973.
On November 30, 1929, the last items were placed on barges, and the steamer began its journey to the Commission’s new home. The move to Vicksburg would allow the Commission to be centrally located in the lower Mississippi valley so that it could focus its attention on the recently authorized Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. The move also included the establishment of the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg (now the Engineer Research and Development Center) under the supervision of the Commission. When the Commission first arrived in Vicksburg, its offices were located in a small building in the Vicksburg Military Park.
The Commission occupied this building until 1944, when it moved into its current home at 1400 Walnut St. in old downtown Vicksburg, an historic landmark that still draws the admiration of visitors to this very day. The Commission looks forward to returning to its historic home in downtown Vicksburg once the renovations are complete.
