Historic Preservation

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Entry Category: Historic Preservation - Starting with H

Hendrix College Addition Neighborhood Historic District

The Hendrix College Addition Neighborhood Historic District in Conway (Faulkner County) is primarily a white, middle-income neighborhood. Its namesake, and the focal point for the neighborhood, is Hendrix College, and the neighborhood’s popularity has historically depended on the success of the school. On September 19, 2007, the neighborhood was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hendrix College Addition is positioned north along Washington Avenue to Fleming Street, east along Fleming Street to Cleveland Avenue, south along Cleveland Avenue to Harton Street, east along Harton Street to Harkrider Street, south along Harkrider Street to Winfield Street, and west along Winfield Street to Washington Avenue. It is directly across the street from Hendrix College, and both are in close …

Henry Atchley House

The Henry Atchley House is located in Dalark (Dallas County). Constructed in 1908, the house is notable for its Colonial Revival details. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1983. Henry Adolphus Atchley was born on January 22, 1878, in Princeton (Dallas County) to Robert and Cornelia Atchley. He married Edna Hernsberger in 1908, and the couple had three daughters and one son. Atchley moved with his parents to the Dalark area around 1900. Dalark was founded to provide timber to the Ultima Thule, Arkadelphia and Mississippi Railway. As it is located in extreme western Dallas County near Clark County, the town got its name from combining Dallas and Clark. Atchley owned a general …

Henry McKenzie House

The Henry McKenzie House is a transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival home located in Prescott (Nevada County). Constructed in 1902 at 324 East Main Street, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 3, 1998. Prescott was founded as a railroad town in 1874 and became the seat of Nevada County in 1877. The growing town attracted many professionals, including attorney Henry McKenzie. McKenzie purchased the lot from the nieces of former Arkansas governor Thomas C. McRae. Local oral tradition suggests that the house was designed by Charles Thompson, although no evidence has been found to support this claim. McKenzie sold the home to fellow attorney William V. Tompkins, who was McRae’s law partner, and his wife …

Henry’s Chapel

Henry’s Chapel was a log church built at Mound Prairie (Hempstead County) around 1817 by Methodist pioneers from Bellevue Valley, Missouri. Many accounts refer to Henry’s Chapel as the area’s first Protestant church. In 1817, a Methodist conference appointed itinerant Methodist preacher William Stevenson to the Hot Springs Circuit, a wilderness area on the western frontier in what would later become southwest Arkansas. Stevenson had scouted the area in 1813 and realized the need to establish a church. He chose the tiny settlement of Mound Prairie as the place for it. At Stevenson’s urging, thirty families from the Bellevue Methodist Church moved to the area. The leader of the group was the Reverend John Henry, a thirty-eight-year-old preacher and farmer. Several others …

Heritage House Museum of Montgomery County

Located in Mount Ida (Montgomery County), the Heritage House Museum of Montgomery County (HHMMC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, officially incorporated in 1998. The museum is the culmination of R. R. (Dick) Whittington’s dream of a repository of artifacts, archives, and photographs to honor the history and heritage of Montgomery County. The Whittingtons were one of the families who settled this west-central Arkansas county, and members of each generation documented and recorded bits of local history. Dick Whittington perpetuated the family’s keen interest in the past and, in the early 1970s, began recording interviews with locals regarding people, events, customs, and conditions of the past. A core group of interested county residents began researching and developing the organization of the …

Herndon, Dallas Tabor

Dallas Tabor Herndon, father of the archival movement in Arkansas, was the first director of the Arkansas State Archives (previously called the Arkansas History Commission). From 1911 until his death in 1953, he labored tirelessly to preserve manuscripts and other material relating to Arkansas history and culture. Dallas Herndon was born on August 28, 1878, the son of John Alpheus and Mary Mildred Brown Herndon, farmers who lived in Elberton, Georgia. He received his BS and MS degrees in history and political science from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) in 1902 and 1903, respectively. After four years of teaching at Mobile and Auburn, Alabama, he entered the University of Chicago, where he worked toward a PhD in history and English …

Herschell-Spillman Carousel

aka: Over the Jumps Carousel
The Herschell-Spillman Carousel, also known as the Over the Jumps Carousel, features an undulating track with forty carved wooden horses and four chariots, most created around 1924. The carousel was the object of a sixteen-year, $1 million acquisition and restoration project that ended with it being placed in the Little Rock Zoo in Little Rock (Pulaski County) in 2007. The Herschell-Spillman Carousel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1989. Allen Herschell was born at Arbreath, Forfarshire, Scotland on April 27, 1851, and he immigrated to the United States in 1870. He entered into a partnership with James Armitage in 1873, establishing the Tonawanda Engine and Machine Company in North Tonawanda, New York, which created …

Hickman House

The Hickman House is a Folk Victorian–style home located near Camden (Ouachita County). Constructed around 1898, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 2, 2006. The land on which the house is located was owned by John Brona Hickman, an early settler in Ouachita County. Arriving in Arkansas in 1841, Hickman settled south of Ecore Fabre, which would be renamed as Camden in 1844. Hickman owned more than 1,000 acres by the 1880s. He continued to grow his land holdings, and he and his wife, Daphney Hickman, had ten children. The youngest Hickman child, George Edward Hickman, built the home after his father’s death in 1897. The house faces Mount Holly Road to the …

Highway 7/51 Bridge

aka: Arkadelphia Bridge
The Highway 7/51 Bridge crosses the Ouachita River in Arkadelphia (Clark County). The bridge was originally placed in 1933 at the Arkansas Highway 7/U.S. Highway 67 crossing of the Caddo River north of Arkadelphia. It was moved to its current position in 1960 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 1, 2006. It is also known as the Arkadelphia Bridge. The Ouachita River played an important role in the settlement of Arkadelphia, with the town growing along the western bank of the river. While the shallow nature of the river made most water travel impossible, locals were able to ship goods down the river in small craft. The arrival of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad in …

Highway 79 Bridge

Located in Clarendon (Monroe County), the Highway 79 Bridge spanned the White River for eighty-eight years until the structure was demolished in 2019. Constructed in 1930–1931, the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1984. The western approaches were added to the National Register on September 28, 2015. The first settlers in the Clarendon area arrived around 1816. More people began to settle in the community, and by 1828, both a post office and a ferry across the White River opened. Located just south of the mouth of the Cache River, the city grew over the decades, although it was plagued by floods and was completely destroyed during the Civil War. After the war, …

Hill Wheatley Downtowner Motor Lodge

aka: Springs Hotel
The Hill Wheatley Downtowner Motor Inn, located at 135 Central Avenue in downtown Hot Springs (Garland County), was constructed in the mid-1960s in the Modernist style of architecture by the noted Little Rock (Pulaski County) firm of Eichenbaum and Erhart. The hotel, built by Hot Springs real estate magnate Hill Wheatley, thrived during the late 1960s and the 1970s as one of only a few buildings in the downtown area to have a Modernist design. It became the Springs Hotel in 2006 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction on the ten-story building began in 1963 and was completed at a cost of $2 million. It was part of a construction boom in Hot Springs during the …

Hinderliter Grog Shop

Hinderliter Grog Shop is a two-story, hand-hewn log cabin in the heart of downtown Little Rock (Pulaski County). Considered the oldest remaining structure still standing in Little Rock, Hinderliter Grog Shop reflects architecture common in Arkansas during the 1820s and 1830s. Chester Ashley sold Lots 7, 8, and 9 on Block 32 to Jesse Hinderliter for $128.10 sometime between 1820 and 1830. Hinderliter built the grog shop (with grog being defined as alcoholic liquor such as rum, sometimes cut with water and served warm) on the corner of Cumberland and Mulberry (now Third St.) sometime between 1828 and 1831. After his death in 1834, the property was sold at public auction to pay off Hinderliter’s debt to Ashley. The building …

Hindman Hall Museum

Hindman Hall Museum is a single-story structure made out of precast concrete (rather than concrete cast on site). Completed in 1965, it contains a visitor’s center and museum for the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 15, 2020. In 1961, the estate of the late Biscoe Hindman, son of Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman, bequeathed the Prairie Grove Battlefield Park with a $100,000 grant for creating some sort of memorial for General Hindman at the park. As the collection of Civil War artifacts grew at the Prairie Grove Battlefield Park Museum, additional space was needed. By 1963, the Prairie Grove Battlefield Park Commission had decided that the grant would …

Historic Arkansas Museum

aka: Arkansas Territorial Restoration
What is now the Historic Arkansas Museum (HAM) opened in 1941 as the first state-supported history museum in Arkansas, under the name Arkansas Territorial Capitol Restoration, commonly shortened to Arkansas Territorial Restoration. Originally consisting of a half-block of historic houses in downtown Little Rock (Pulaski County), the museum site has expanded to the equivalent of two city blocks and now features a wide array of programs, too. The first history museum in Arkansas accredited by the American Association of Museums (1981), the Historic Arkansas Museum has become—with the Old State House—the de facto state history museum. Its mission emphasizes the frontier period and the work of Arkansas’s artists and artisans from prehistoric times to the present. Pioneering preservationist Louise Loughborough …

Historic Dyess Colony: Boyhood Home of Johnny Cash

aka: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home
When the Historic Dyess Colony: Boyhood Home of Johnny Cash opened in 2014, it became the fourth heritage site established by Arkansas State University (ASU) to preserve the history and culture of eastern Arkansas. The site consists of two main structures in Dyess (Mississippi County): the Dyess Administration Building, located at 110 Center Drive, and the Boyhood Home of Johnny Cash, located at 4791 W. County Road 924. The museum allows visitors to explore the construction of one of America’s first and largest New Deal agricultural resettlement colonies, see what it was like to live in the colony, and learn how colony life influenced and helped shape legendary musician Johnny Cash as well as music promoter Gene Williams. The white, …

Historic Preservation

Arkansas has an active preservation community with a notable success record in saving buildings, sites, and neighborhoods. The tools successfully used in Arkansas were developed on the national stage and successfully transplanted to the state. The first preservation achievements were the result of strong individual leadership focused on saving landmark buildings. The first major success was what is now called the Old State House (Arkansas’s first state capitol building), which was constructed beginning in 1833. It remained the capitol until 1911, when construction of the present Arkansas State Capitol was sufficiently completed for occupancy. Since 1901, the legislature and the governor had debated the idea of selling the old building once it was vacated. This proposal garnered serious attention again …

Historic Washington State Park

Historic Washington State Park, originally called Old Washington Historic State Park, is one of fifty-two state parks operated by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. This park primarily exists to preserve and interpret the history of the town of Washington (Hempstead County), emphasizing its political, cultural, and architectural history in the nineteenth century. Washington was a major stopping point on the Southwest Trail that connected St. Louis, Missouri, to Fulton (Hempstead County) on the Red River. Many pioneers and settlers traveled this route on their way to Texas and the Southwest. Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie each traveled separately through Washington before they fought for Texas’s independence. While in Washington, Bowie commissioned local blacksmith James Black to …

Historical Archaeology

Archaeologists do more than study the ancient remains of Native Americans; they are also interested in the lives of the explorers, colonists, settlers, and their descendants who contributed to the more recent history of America. Even during periods when written records were kept, not everything about the past was recorded. The details of everyday life often are neglected in historical accounts, but archaeologists believe that these details contribute to a fuller understanding of the past. This more recently developed field of archaeological study is called historical archaeology, and perhaps its greatest strength is its partnership with other fields of study, including history, archival documentation, architectural studies, and folklore. When combined, these different approaches provide a richer and more complex understanding …

History of Hot Springs Gambling Museum

The History of Hot Springs Gambling Museum located at 3339-C Central Avenue in Hot Springs (Garland County) preserves, restores, and displays gambling memorabilia from Hot Springs’ rich gambling history. In particular, the museum covers early twentieth-century gambling in Hot Springs. The museum was established in 2016 as a partnership between two Hot Springs gambling history collectors, Lanny Beavers and Chris Hendrix, to display their collection for public viewing. The museum features a vast collection of items from notable Hot Springs venues such as the Vapors, the Southern Club, the Belvedere Club, Oaklawn Park, and the Essex Park Racetrack. The collection holds eighty functional slot machines, fifteen of which were used in Hot Springs, in addition to ten gaming tables among …

Hodges House

The Hodges House is located on Arkansas Highway 7 in Bismarck (Hot Spring County). Constructed in 1907 in the folk Victorian style, the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 2, 1995. The home was constructed by Dr. Lee Bray and his wife, Clara. The couple lived in the home until 1925, when Dr. Thomas Hodges and Charlotte Hodges bought the house. It appears that the Hodgeses bought the Brays’ medical practice. Thomas Hodges was born in Kentucky in 1868 and grew up in Missouri. After medical school, he established a medical practice in the state and married Charlotte Mikulus in 1925. The couple moved to Bismarck shortly after the wedding. Thomas worked as a …

Holley, Donald

Donald Holley was a historian, author, and longtime professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM). His scholarship generally focused on agricultural history in Arkansas in the twentieth century. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Arkansas Historical Association in 2007. James Donald Holley was born on February 24, 1940, in Vernon, Alabama, to the Reverend William Albert Holley and Wilma Harris Holley. His parents were from Alabama, but the family lived in Texas for a time when Holley was young. He eventually moved to Louisiana, where he finished his education. On August 14, 1962, Holley married Bankie Rae Hollis at a Church of Christ in Ruston, Louisiana. The couple had two children together. Holley received his …

Hollywood Cemetery—Confederate Section

aka: Hollywood Cemetery Confederate Section
The Confederate Section of Hollywood Cemetery in Hot Springs (Garland County) is a 60′ x 54′ cemetery plot surrounded by a low concrete wall with ornamental concrete posts at all four corners and an opening on the western side inscribed “Confederate Veterans.” The plot contains thirty-four marked burials, a fieldstone monument, and four concrete benches. David Stone Ryan, who served as a lieutenant in a North Carolina unit during the Civil War and later made a home in Hot Springs, purchased the Confederate Section in Hollywood Cemetery in 1900, on behalf of the Albert Pike Camp of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), to ensure a final resting place for his fellow aging Confederates. The Albert Pike Camp was disbanded in …