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Jay Lewis House
The Jay Lewis House, constructed in 1955 in McGehee (Desha County), was one of the few residential designs of Arkansas native Edward Durrell Stone. Influenced by dog-trot cabins, the house does not include interior hallways. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 20, 2005.
Fayetteville (Washington County) native Edward Durrell Stone studied at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, embarking on a career in architecture in the late 1920s. Among his notable designs are Radio City Music Hall in New York City; the United States Embassy in New Delhi, India; and the Pine Bluff Civic Center in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). The Jay Lewis House is one of three structures designed by Stone in Arkansas that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Located in a residential neighborhood on the north side of McGehee, the house faces north. Many of the surrounding homes were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s and are of the typical ranch style popular in the period, making this particular house stand out. The exterior walls are covered in vertical cypress board siding. Topped with an asphalt roof, the house rests on a continuous red brick foundation. The house was originally constructed with a brick chimney, but two metal chimneys were built after a storm damaged the structure.
The entire home is surrounded by a raised wooden walkway. Access to the front is gained via three wooden steps centrally located in front of a single door. The door is flanked by large plate-glass windows. Above the door and first-floor windows are two large windows that illuminate the second floor. Above those windows is a final set of two triangular windows that extend into the gable peak of the home. The gable eaves overhang the porch, and the Douglas fir beams that support the roof are visible. The beams were shipped on railcars from California.
The rear of the home includes a screened porch and French doors that replaced an original sliding glass door. A carport is located to the east of the home and is connected by a breezeway.
The interior of the house includes a centrally located living and dining area, with other rooms opening directly into the space. This negates the need for hallways, an unnecessary usage of space according to Stone. Minimal changes have been made to the building over the years.
Jay Lewis was a native of New York and married a McGehee native, moving to the town to operate a gasoline distribution business. The couple selected Stone to design the house after initially working with an architect in Memphis, Tennessee. The total fee charged by Stone’s firm was $2,500 and included the plans and working with the construction company Erhart, Eichenbaum, and Rauch. Lewis corresponded with Stone and members of his firm during the planning and construction process, with the letters preserved in Stone’s papers housed at UA.
The Lewis family resided in the home until 1978, and the house passed through several private owners over the decades, last changing ownership in 2016.
For additional information:
“Jay Lewis House.” National Register of Historic Places registration form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://www.arkansasheritage.com/docs/default-source/national-registry/DE0238-pdf (accessed January 30, 2025).
Edward Durrell Stone Papers. Special Collections. University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://uark.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/1971 (accessed January 30, 2025).
Sutherland, Cyrus A., et al. Buildings of Arkansas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018.
Sutherland, Cyrus A., Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore, Jeannie M. Whayne, and Contributors. “Jay Lewis House.” SAH Archipedia. http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AR-01-DE6 (accessed January 30, 2025).
David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University
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