Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas

2001 Most Endangered Historic Places

King-Whatley Building-Still In Danger

The King-Whatley Building was designed to be primarily used as a bank, and when it was opened, was the only bank in the county seat. The First National Bank of Lewisville, chartered by the U.S. Department of Treasury, became the owners and occupants in 1909. The building was sold only once more. In 1919, David Lattimore King first paid taxes as owner, and maintained his law offices there until his death in 1929. Then his son-in-law and partner, George T. Whatley, retained his offices there, and the abstract company they had formed together until about 1960. For at least 3 decades, a shoe repair shop was located in the far end. In the 30's, S.K. Henderson ran a small rental library in one office, and a third office housed a beauty shop. The building was fully occupied until the 50's.

The original terrazzo floor, wooden wainscoting, plastered walls, and embossed metal ceiling are all still intact. Style and size reflect the optimism and prosperity (although short-lived) that cotton-growing and the railroad brought to this Southwest Arkansas region.

Nutt-Trussell Building-Saved

The second story of this building has a separate history all its own. On December 18, 1885, E.M. Lodge No.363 officially occupied their new hall on the second floor of the Nutt Building. Lodge No.363 met here almost continually until the organization built a new building in 1960. The meeting hall still has many of its original furnishings, such as the platforms located around the room, the stage, remnants of the checkerboard floor, and a few remaining panes of the snowflake glass windows. In 1916, the building was bought by L.L. Trussell to house his new business, "The People's Store". This was a simple business that catered to its customers with a line of general merchandise of good quality and affordable prices. The store routinely operated long hours each day with the exception of Sunday. During the cold winter days, Mr. Trussell was known to open his store as early as 5am selling gloves, boots, and hats to accommodate the early shift workers en route to the Fordyce Lumber Company. The People's Store was an important fixture in the Fordyce economy for many years until it closed in the sixties.

The Nutt-Trussell Building was the first two story brick building in Fordyce and was constructed to house Nutt & Barnes Company General Merchandise. This was the first important building in Fordyce and signaled the prosperity brought about by the arrival of the railroads that played an influential role in the growth and development of Fordyce and of Dallas County.

Cook Building-Saved

Built in 1897, the Cook Building's second floor was used as a meeting hall for organizations such as the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, the American Organization of United Workmen, the Elks Club, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Cook Building is two stories, with late nineteenth-century Italianate characteristics. Cast iron columns are visible on the first floor storefronts, and a decorative metal cornice spans the building on the north and east elevations.

A. C. Wells Building-Lost

The building was built in 1889 by A.C. Wells. It was one of the earliest commercial buildings in Morrilton. When it was constructed, it was the Wells' Brothers General Merchandise Store, then later became Warren's Cafe, then finally, Eleanor's Shop.

Near collapsing, it was demolished in 2008.

Helena High School-Still In Danger

Helena High School was built in 1912 at 313 S. Briscoe Street, the site of the old General Hindman home. The first class graduated in 1913. Vacated in 1972 and now in poor condition, the building is owned by the Helena/West Helena School District, the building was used for storage for several years. Proponents of historic preservation envision the building being put into service as condominiums, apartments, or a community resource center.

The old school building is one of the most monumental and lavishly detailed early neo-Classicism buildings in Helena. The facade of its simple rectangular structure is enlivened with patterns of tan and red bricks and terra cotta cartouches containing round windows at both corners of the top story. The simple, rather recessed entry is outlined with egg and dart terra cotta molding.

Dr. E. A. and Hattie Turner Dennard House-Lost

The Turner-Dennard house is said to be Fort Smith's most significant African American landmark. It became the home of the Fort Smith Chapter of the NAACP in 1923, which was founded by the Turner-Dennards as well as James and Minnie Cox. The chapter meetings were held in the home's living room where plans for the Elm Grove housing project and the African American Twin City Hospital were conceived.

City Water and Light Building-Lost

The building was built in 1900, and from 1927 until the 1940's, housed all of the CWL operations, and thereafter until the late 1970's, housed generating equipment. Until its demolition, it served as a maintenance facility.

Toltec Mounds National Historic Landmark Viewshed-Saved

The Toltec Mounds are one of the largest and most impressive archeological sites in the Mississippi River Valley. With 18 mounds on 100 acres, the site is large in area and in the number of mounds.

People started living at this place well before 700 A.D. Distinctive aspects of the culture of the people who lived here are the arrangement and construction of the mounds, the style and decoration of the pottery, and kinds of stone tools. The distinctive sulture at Toltec Mounds is given the name Plum Bayou, which is the name of a local stream. We know that some of the mounds were arranged to line up with each other and the positions of the sun on the horizons on the solstices and equinoxes. The position of the sun on the horizons mark seasons and signal activities such as planting crops and holding ceremonies.

2000 Most Endangered Historic Places

Adrian Brewer Studio-Still In Danger

Adrian Brewer, his children and his father, have been termed by the director of the Arkansas Arts Center as the "First Family of Arkansas Art". Brewer's illustrious career included exhibits of his landscape paintings in major American museums and portraits of prominent political and social leaders including U.S. Vice President John Nance Garner. He established an early professional art school and produced a painting, "Sentinel of Freedom", which was liberally reproduced and hung in most American schools. Late in his career, he accomplished through his own labor, a highly functional architecturally unique working artist's studio in the garden of his home, aided by the skills of two prominent Arkansas architects. The design of the studio recalls features of the Arts and Crafts movement as it also blends Post-War modernism and technology. The studio not only provided a livelihood for Mr. Brewer and his family, but it also served as the backdrop for gatherings of nationally artists and writers, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet, John Gould Fletcher. This unique site remains a living record of a master southern artist, the mid-twentieth century studio he hand-built to further his professional career, and a rich coterie of artists and writers who shaped the urban culture of a small southern state during that period.

Donaghey Building-Saved

The Donaghey Building was designed by Little Rock native Hunter McDonnell. It is associated with George W. Donaghey, who served as Arkansas' governor for two terms. As a contractor, McDonnell built outstanding public buildings, including the 14-story Donaghey Building, the Wallace Building at Markham and Main Streets, and the Walden Building. As governor, Donaghey oversaw the completion of Arkansas' State Capitol Building. The Donaghey Building was constructed for office space for medical, legal, and other professionals and has been almost fully occupied since its completion in April 1926.

The ground floor serves as a retail shop and cafeteria. The other floors are professional offices housing departments of Arkansas state government, private individuals, and small businesses.

Fitzgerald Station Stables-Saved

The station was built in 1885 by the John Butterfield Overland Mail construction crew.The Butterfield Trail ran from St. Louis to San Francisco and became the nation's first east to west transportation for passenger and freight service. The Fitzgerald family were appointed to serve as an important stop along the route in Shiloh (now Springdale). The original stables still stand along State Highway 265 in East Sprindale.

The structure was built from native lumber sawed in the area and from field stone picked up from the surrounding fields. It is now used as a stop in the annual Butterfield Trail Run.

John H. Johnson House-Saved

John H. Johnson is the founder and president of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., the most prosperous African American publishing company in America. His company publishes Black Star, Black World, and Ebony Jr. magazines. Johnson was born in 1918 in Arkansas City. He attended Arkansas City Colored School through the eighth grade. Since there was no schooling available after the eighth grade, his mother saved enough money to move to Chicago by working two jobs. There, John became one of the most successful entrepreneurs in America. He founded Johnson Publishing Co. in 1942 and launched the Negro Digest, a magazine modeled after Reader's Digest, but aimed toward African Americans. Ebony, first published in 1945, was a breakthrough vehicle for national advertisers. His other corporate interests included radio stations, books, and cosmetics.

H. L. Mitchell/Clay East Building-Saved

In 1934, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded with 18 men, 11 white and 7 black. H.L. Mitchell was one of them; and he convinced Henry Clay East of the position of the Union. Mitchell was the executive secretary for the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union until forced to leave Tyronza in 1935.

The Union was integrated when almost no other institution in America was. It exposed the evils of farm tenancy and the sharecropper system. The Southern Tenant Farmer's Union became a powerful force in American labor, and eventually a prototype for the United Farm Workers of America.

Saenger Theatre-Still In Danger

The Saenger Theatre in Pine Bluff opened in 1924 to replace an earlier theatre on the site that had been destroyed in a fire in 1922. Constructed by Saenger Amusement Company from New Orleans, one of more than 350 Saenger Theatres built mostly in the Southeastern United States. The Pine Bluff Saenger is considered one of the first "first class" theaters the chain built. Designed by the company's chief architect, Emile Weil, for $350,000. For over 50 years, the Saenger was heavily patronized by the locals and was the scene of Pine Bluff's most glittering social affairs. The theatre held minstrel shows, comedies, lectures, and vaudeville companies. Some of the most famous performers were D.W. Griffith, Norma Talmadge, Tom Mix and his Wonder Horse, John Philip Sousa's Military Band, Will Rogers, Gene Austin, and more recently, Fay Wray, Ruth Warrick, Teppi Hedren, and Cameron Mathison. It has also been rumored but now confirmed that Houdini performed there.

White River Bridge-Saved

Clarendon is a delta town where the ferry for the 1826 Military Road crossed the White River on the trip from Memphis to Little Rock. Before the double-span, Warren truss White River Bridge was constructed, traffic crossed the river by the ferry. The bridge was built by the Austin Bridge Company, and upon its completion on June 11, 1931, it was the longest bridge in southwest.

1999 Most Endangered Historic Places

Treece House-Lost

The Treece House in Fayetteville was built circa 1876 by A.M. Byrnes who helped erect the University of Arkansas' Old Main Building. Left over lumber from the campus project was used to build this house and the one to the right of it for his two daughters.

All of the detailing was original, and although it probably needed some work, there was enough there and photos available to have restored it completely. The inside was much the same except that it was turned into two apartments. Mr. Treece lived on the left side. The Treece House was also important to Fayetteville, the state of Arkansas, and the United States for its connection to the Bonnie and Clyde robbery next door at the Brown's Grocery Store. 

Woodman of Union Building-Saved

The Woodman of Union Building in Hot Springs was erected in 1923 along the length of Malvern Avenue, between Gulpha and Garden Streets. On January 21, 1924, African American men from every region of Arkansas participated in the dedication of the Woodman of Union Building. Created by J.L.. Webb, Supreme Custodian of the Woodman of Union, the unique building housed various activities of the fraternity. A 100 bed hospital and nurse training school, a 75-room bath hotel, the Woodman of Union Bank, a 2,500 seat auditorium, and electronically operated printing plant, and executive offices were all located within the building. In 1950, the building was purchased by the National Baptist Association, U.S.A. and became known as the National Baptist Hotel and Bath House. The NBA expanded the bath house and upgraded the bath facilities according to the regulations of the United States Department of  Interior. The bath house was finished with an abundance of nickel-plated brass and marble. In 1971, the NBA purchased the land directly behind the hotel to use for a parking lot. As segregation ended and integration of public facilities became prevalent, usage of the National Baptist Hotel waned in the late seventies and finally, in 1981, the hotel closed and has remained closed to this date.

Old River Bridge-Saved

The Old River Bridge in Saline County is one of the oldest remaining bridges in the state. It was constructed in 1889 at the cost of $5,000 and represents a great deal of the history of Saline County. In 1827, Ezra M. Owen established a small settlement west of the Saline River and named it Collegeville. Early in 1931, a post office was established at the "crossing of the Saline" with William Lockhart, the first recorded settler in Saline County, as postmaster. The settlement was officially named "Saline". The Old Missouri Trail became important as the connection between Collegeville and Little Rock and as a main road through the county. It was made a military road in 1824 and there were constant requests for Congress to appropriate funds to improve it. In the early 1830s, all that had been done to change the road from a barely passable trail was cutting of timber. The argument was made to Congress that it was the main artery of travel from St. Louis and Memphis southwest into Texas and Mexico, and therefore a national concern. In 1831, the Arkansas Legislature passed a law giving William Lockhart an exclusive right to construct and operate a toll bridge over the Saline River where the Military Road crossed it. In 1830, Charles Caldwell started a settlement five miles up the river. Benton, as it came to be known, began to grow and was named the county seat at the formation of Saline County in 1835. This expanded the importance of the Military Road but slowly led to the decline of the settlement in Lockhart's Saline. 

Old Hotze House-Saved

Peter Hotze, an Austrian immigrant, built a home for himself in 1869 on what was little more than a country road complete with tree stumps. Known today as the "old" or "little" Hotze House to distinguish it from its more elaborate successor behind it, the house at 17th and Main in Little Rock was endangered for lack of a plan to put the building back into use for today's needs. Moving to Little Rock in 1857, Peter Hotze entered the general merchandise business. During the Civil War, he served with the famous Confederate Capitol Guards until 1864 when he was wounded, captured, and sent to an Ohio prison camp for the remainder of the war. In 1862, Peter's brother Conrad arrived in Little Rock and, following Peter's instructions, dug up $5,000 in gold to pay his brother's Northern debts. In 1863, Conrad bought Block 166 on which the Hotze houses stand today. Returning to Little Rock after the war, Peter entered business with John Gould Fletcher. Soon the narrowed their general business interests to cotton, pursuing the lucrative New York market. Hotze's early payment of Northern debts meant he was able to obtain unlimited credit in the North. In 1868, Peter married Johanna Krause, moving to New York City to supervise his cotton trade. He lived in New York for 27 years, but returned to Little Rock in 1900, where he died in 1909.

The symmetrical floor plan of the little Hotze House is similar to the Jeffersonian Classic style of Trapnall Hall, but the exterior is early Victorian with Italian Renaissance influence. At one time, the house was being used as a scout  hut, but it has since had period of disuse and misuse, surely leading to its endangered status.

West Side Junior High School-Saved

West Side Junior High School at 1300 Marshall Street in Little Rock is an example of a fine structure left largely to the forces of nature and vandalism. The building was designed by Theo Sanders in 1917 and built in 2 phases. It is a three-story classical building that fills the entire block between 13th and 14th Streets and Marshall and Wolfe Streets. The entrance bay facing Marshall Street is defined by an entablature, pilasters and a pair of Tuscan columns flanking a set of double doors with transom.

Not only is this building important for its history and architecture, this school building and many like it across Arkansas contributes to the stability of its neighborhood when it is functionin in its intended role of public space and architecture. When left to decay, the structure cannot function in these ways and is a serious detraction from the neighborhood.

Union Depot-Saved

The Union Depot in Brinkley was built in 1912 and is a symbol of Brinkley's origins as a railroad town and a symbol of the continuing importance of transportation in this agriculture-based community.

Since 2003, the Delta Historical Society has restored and occupied this building, using it to display Brinkley's important historical memorabilia.

Louis Jordan Boyhood Home-Still In Danger

The height of Louis Jordan's career was in the 1940s, when his music was a favorite of G.I.s. Jordan had 55 top ten hits, and number one hits on three different Billboard charts. Many consider Jordan the "Father of R&B"and the "Godfather of Rock&Roll". He was held in the highest esteem by Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, James Brown, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and others who followed.

As of today, the house is structurally unsound and options are being look at, the most likely is that the house will be moved to the site of the Marion Anderson High School.

Stephen H. Chism House-Still In Danger

This two story log house was built by Dr. Stephen Chism in 1845. Dr. Chism married Jeanetta Logan, daughter of James Logan, for whom Logan County was named. Mrs. Chism and 2 children died before the Civil War and are buried nearby the home. The Chism family occupied the house until the time of the Civil War when Dr. Chism moved to Roseville. Ben Chism, son of Dr. Chism, served as Secretary of State for the state of Arkansas in the post-Civil War period. Throughout the years, the house was occupied by various families; however, the house has not been occupied for perhaps 50 years. 

The house is perhaps the oldest structure in Logan County and is a wonderful example of pioneer architecture. The structure of the house remains much the same as when originally built. The floor is stone. Throughtout the years, minor alterations have been made. The house was originally a dogtrot style. At some point, the dogtrot was enclosed by wooden planking.

At this time, the house is leaning and in imminent danger of collapse.

Fielder House-Saved

The Fielder House in Fordyce is the only remaining dwelling from the pre-railroad period or from before the founding of Fordyce, the county seat. Mr. Elon Hawkins Fielder built the house around 1875 and lived in it until 1888. Mr. Fielder moved that it is the only documented structure built in the decade of 1870. Reflecting traditional evolutionary patterns in Arkansas, the house, initially constructed as a long one-pen structure eventually became a dogtrot. The Pollard family constructed the structure into today's central hall house in about 1910. After this date, the house became associated with the successful early 20th century popular novelist, Harold Bell Wright. In the winter of 1915-1916, Wright visited his father who was then living in the house with his father's sister, Mrs. Pollard. Local interviews revealed that Wright wrote all or part of his widely acclaimed novel Trail of the Lonesome Pine during this stay. The novel, later adapted for the screen, became the first outdoor Technicolor feature film.The entire site was at one time a farm. Trees are those that are planted by some of the original inhabitants. Two rose bushes and a pear tree, brought with the Fielders and planted when they built the log cabin, continue to bloom. Two oak trees which they planted are alive and well. The current owners of the building are direct descendants of the original settlers. They have restored the house and are currently living in it. 

Russey-Murray House-Still In Danger

The Russey-Murray House in Nashville was built circa 1861-1862 and is known as the first brick house built west of the Mississippi and south of St. Louis, Missouri. It is in its original location and at one time had a wood kitchen and summer kitchen adjoining the house though they have long since been torn down. It had a very wide hall that was enclosed and made into two rooms years ago.