Mayor Phillip West’s decision to tear down the pecan factory may ripple throughout the state for years to come.

Preservation experts said West’s bold move will not only affect Natchez’s chances at grant dollars in the short term but has set something of a precedent statewide.

David Preziosi, a former Natchez city planner who is now director of the Mississippi Heritage Trust in Jackson, said the pecan factory demolition could change the relationship between the city and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

“I think it will make a difference for Natchez in getting grants from Archives and History,” he said. “They will have to look at the city as not taking care of one of their landmark properties. They have to wonder if the city can’t care for the property and can’t follow the process, what can they expect from the city.”

Executive Director of the Historic Natchez Foundation Ron Miller said he, too, thought the unorthodox method of demolition might hurt the city, at least in the near future.

The city and Archives and History had an agreement that certain criteria would be met before it demolished the building.

“I think any time a city doesn’t do what it says it’s going to do, it will hurt their standing with any grant-giving institution,” Miller said.

“I think we will continue to get grants. It may hurt us with Archives and History.”

The unannounced razing of the building puts both the city and the state Department of Archives and History in a bind, Preziosi said.

“It puts Archives and History in a tough position in regard to other Mississippi Landmark issues,” he said. “In other cities where there are landmark issues, people will look at this and say, ‘I can just take it down; I don’t have to worry about following the rules.’”

Now Archives and History officials have a dilemma, Preziosi said.

“They have to come in and figure out what can be done.”

In the meantime, the pile of rubble sitting on the bluff since the Feb. 8 destruction is waiting on the next step.

A hearing in Adams County Chancery Court this week extended an attorney general’s restraining order to Feb. 23, stating that the rubble can’t be moved until Archives and History issues approval.

West said the city submitted the proper application Friday.

And though to many citizens the rubble is just that, preservationists said there may be more too it.

“There were some interesting portions of that building,” Preziosi said.

One was the Art Moderne lettering of the building name cast in concrete.

“You don’t see many buildings that have the name cast in concrete on the building,” he said. “You can see examples of that in downtown Natchez.”

Jim Barnett, an archaeologist and anthropologist, has his office in Natchez at Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, one of the Archives and History historical sites in the state.

He said some interesting materials may be found in the rubble that remains at the pecan factory site. Like Preziosi, he singled out the concrete sign.

“It’s in pieces, but I think it’s salvageable,” Barnett said.