Kahn-Jennings House

The Kahn-Jennings House at 5300 Sherwood Street in Little Rock (Pulaski County) was built in 1927 from a design by architect Maximillian F. Mayer that incorporates elements of the English Revival and French Eclectic styles of architectures. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 1992.

Sidney L. Kahn Sr. was a former banker who, in 1919, formed a real estate business and began developing subdivisions in Little Rock. Prominent among those was the Prospect Terrace neighborhood in the Pulaski Heights Addition, and Kahn chose to build a large home for his family there on six lots between Sherwood and Edgewood.

Kahn hired Mayer, an architect with an emerging Little Rock practice, in 1926 to design the house, and it exhibited many of the recognizable elements of a Mayer design: unusual window designs, creative ironwork, French doors, archways, and stone patios.

The Kahn-Jennings House is two stories tall, but a full attic gives it a three-story appearance. It is covered in variegated honey-colored stone and features a multi-colored tile roof; its chimneys are built of brick. The house “exhibits many characteristics associated with the English Revival style: large horizontal and simplified wall surfaces, steeply pitched roof, overscaled and underscaled window openings and restrained but finely crafted details,” according to the National Register nomination. “However, the house design also reflects the influence of the French Eclectic style.”

Kahn sold the house to Alston Jennings Sr. and his wife in 1968 with the stipulation, according to the National Register nomination, that the house would be sold to them only if the dining room were left exactly as it was. Hence, the room retained the same Adrian Brewer paintings as well as the drapes, furniture, and chandelier that it did when the Kahns lived there.

The Kahn-Jennings House remains a private residence in the twenty-first century.

For additional information:
Barry, Helen. “Kahn-Jennings House.” National Register of Historic Places registration form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/National-Register-Listings/PDF/PU3870.nr.pdf (accessed February 24, 2020).

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System