Laurel

[nascarbud45]

I have not been to Laurel in some time and don't really ever hear anything about it, so here is a thread to discuss Laurel. I will post the information I find, and anyone else with information please feel free to post it. Thanks.

[tombarnes]

I haven't been to Laurel in ages. From what I have heard, it is a nice town. The Lauren Rogers Art Museum is said to have a good collection. Too bad the old Pinehurst Hotel is gone. That would have made a great centerpiece for downtown renewal. I'd be interested to see what's going on there.

[richyb83]

I know I-59 is being reconfigured thru Laurel with all those crazy curves and turns. It will be interesting to see what they finally come up with.

Downtown Laurel and I-59 sure are close to each other. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for downtown? Where as downtown Hattiesburg is further awy from I-59.

[nascarbud45]

Thank goodness they finally started redoing it! For an interstate it was awfully curvy! Well I would think having an interstate cut straight through downtown like it does in Laurel would help but it doesn't seem to be doing much of anything for it.

Downtown Hattiesburg is a pretty good ways from I-59. U.S. 49 cuts pretty close and U.S. 11, though it really isn't used because it's the parrallel highway to I-59, cuts straight through downtown. Downtown Hattiesburg and Downtown Laurel are hard to compare to each other because Downtown Hattiesburg has been going through its rehabilitation stage for quite a while and is a well established downtown, while Laurel is really just starting its revival. I just say give it some time, maybe after the S-curve is taken out of I-59 it will help it some.