Johnswood, located at 10314 Cantrell Road in Little Rock (Pulaski County), was built in 1941 as the home of poet John Gould Fletcher and his wife, writer Charlie May Simon. Designed by architect Maximilian F. Mayer, Johnswood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, 1994. John Gould Fletcher and Charlie May Simon were married on January 18, 1936, and five years later hired their friend, architect Max Mayer, to design a house for them on wooded property they owned eight miles from downtown Little Rock and, at the time, well outside of the city limits. Simon later wrote of Mayer that “because he was also a dear friend, I’m sure he took more pleasure watching …
Jones Bar-B-Q Diner, a nationally known eatery in Marianna (Lee County), is perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Arkansas, as well as perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the South owned by a black family. In addition, it is the state’s first recipient of the James Beard Award, which many in the food community consider one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a chef or restaurant. Jones Bar-B-Q Diner has drawn barbecue enthusiasts from around the world while maintaining its important position in this rural Arkansas community. No one is sure when the restaurant first opened, but multiple generations of the Jones family have manned the pits. Some version of the diner has been serving …
Jones Truck Lines was a catalyst for change and growth in Springdale (Washington County). Established in 1918 by businessman Harvey Jones, the company made Springdale a regional center for the transportation of goods. In 1918, Harvey Jones began hauling dry freight for individuals and businesses. Originally, he hauled hardware and groceries from Springdale to Rogers (Benton County) and Fayetteville (Washington County) with two mules and a wagon. Local business owners quickly discovered that they could place an order one day and have it delivered the next. Jones sold his mules and wagon in 1919 and bought his first truck. When the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad (M&NA) went on strike in 1920, Jones began hauling freight between Seligman, Missouri, and …
Jonesboro Baptist College was a Christian junior college located in Jonesboro (Craighead County) from 1924 to 1934; after Woodland College, this was the second attempt at establishing a Baptist college in Jonesboro. Ten of the ninety-two acres of the campus were located in the Jonesboro city limits. The college was founded as part of an ongoing Baptist commitment to education. Arkansas Baptists had previously opened multiple schools in the state such as Judson University at Judsonia (White County), Shiloh Institute at Springdale (Washington and Benton counties), Red River Academy near Arkadelphia (Clark County), Ouachita Baptist College (now Ouachita Baptist University—OBU) in Arkadelphia, and Buckner College in Witcherville (Sebastian County). Of these early Baptist educational efforts, only what is now OBU, …
The Jonesboro Municipal Airport is located three miles east of the Jonesboro (Craighead County) central business district in the northeastern part of Arkansas. It is a mixed-use airport, with the overwhelming majority of usage coming from general aviation. In 2015, it provided 284 jobs in the Jonesboro area and had a local economic impact of over $40 million. In January 1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) granted $13,000 to the city of Jonesboro to build an airport near the community of Nettleton (Craighead County). Originally covering 190 acres, the airport was little more than a dirt runway by 1935, due to disputes over the leasing of the land. The board of City Water and Light voted in April 1935 to …
The Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern Railroad (JLC&E) was chartered in 1897 and operated in northeastern Arkansas until being sold to the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Co. (SLSF), better known as the Frisco, in 1925. The company provided a vital service to the people of the region for over twenty-five years and was crucial to the area’s development. Although there were several railroad lines in northeastern Arkansas by the 1880s, they had not ventured into the sunken lands created by the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811–1812. However, the expanding timber business demanded a better way to transport its product to sawmills. In the East Bottoms of northeastern Arkansas before 1895, the logs were conveyed by oxen pulling broad-wheeled wagons along …
aka: Foster-Robinson House
The Joseph Taylor Robinson House at 2122 Broadway in Little Rock (Pulaski County), a two-and-a-half-story Craftsman-style structure, was the home of a prominent Arkansas politician when he was at the top of his career. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1975, and designated a National Historic Landmark on October 12, 1994. The house at 2122 Broadway was built for Harry H. Foster and his family. Foster was born on March 15, 1857, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. After finishing school, he entered the lumber business with his father, Edward Augustus Foster, before venturing into other opportunities on his own. Foster moved to Arkansas in 1901 to run the Wisconsin and Arkansas Lumber Company, based in …
The judiciary of Arkansas comprises men and women in government who exercise or have exercised various forms of judicial power of the state and territory of Arkansas. The purpose of the judiciary is to decide cases and controversies between parties that come before it. Judicial power has best been defined by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the case of Prentiss v. Atlantic Coast Line as that power which “declares and enforces liabilities as they stand on present or past facts and under existing laws.” Judicial power is distinguished from legislative power in that the latter looks forward and tries to remedy problems growing out of changing societal conditions. The Arkansas Supreme Court has adopted the Prentiss definition of “judicial …
Judson University was a short-lived institution of higher education in Prospect Bluff—present-day Judsonia (White County). The institution stimulated the migration of Northern families to the area, thereby significantly increasing the population and refining the social atmosphere of this typical, mid-nineteenth-century river town. Judson University began as the dream of Professor Martin R. Forey of Chicago, Illinois. Forey was a professor at Chicago University and had established Chowan Female Institute in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He believed it was his calling to establish Christian schools and, in 1869, traveled to Arkansas to found a Baptist college in the South. His first stop in Prairie County was met with hostility, but he received a lukewarm welcome in White County. Forey returned to Chicago …
aka: Archeognatha
The Archaeognatha (formerly Microcoryphia) are an order of apterygotes belonging to the Superclass Hexapoda, Class Insecta, Subphylum Labiata, and Phylum Arthropoda. They are known by various common names, such as jumping bristletails. The order is cosmopolitan and includes about 500 species (thirty-three species within twelve genera are Nearctic) in two families (Machilidae and Meinertellidae). None are currently evaluated as being a conservation risk. Little is known about the archaeognaths of Arkansas, as only Machiloides banksi and Pedetontus gershneri have been reported from the state, both from Mount Magazine (Logan County). Among extant arthropod taxa, they are some of the most evolutionarily primitive insects. The fossil record of Archaeognatha is sparse and often represented by fragmentary material. They first appeared in …
The Junction Bridge is a lift-span bridge crossing the Arkansas River between downtown Little Rock (Pulaski County) and North Little Rock (Pulaski County). One of six bridges linking the two downtowns, the Junction Bridge was originally constructed as a railroad bridge in 1884; it was rebuilt in 1970, then converted to serve as a pedestrian bridge in 2008. Its southern end rests upon the geological feature that gave the city of Little Rock its name. The Little Rock, Mississippi River and Texas Railroad and the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad created a partnership in the early 1880s, envisioning a route that would stretch from the Gulf Coast to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). A new bridge across the Arkansas …
The June Sandidge House is an English Revival–style home located in Gurdon (Clark County). Constructed in 1935, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1993. Gurdon was founded in 1880 on the Cairo and Fulton Railroad. The town grew as more rail lines were constructed in the area and large-scale timber operations began. June Sandidge worked as a signalman on the railroad and resided in Gurdon with his wife, Beatrice Sandidge, and their six children. The family name also appears as Sandedge in some records. Originally from Missouri, the family resided in Illinois before moving to Arkansas. Sandidge purchased four lots in the Wright’s Park Addition in 1935 and began construction on the house …
The Justin Matthews Jr. House, located at 257 Skyline Drive in North Little Rock (Pulaski County), is a two-story, stucco-clad residence sited on a prominent corner lot and designed around 1928 by architect Maximilian F. Mayer in the Spanish Colonial Revival style of architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1990. Real estate developer Justin Matthews Sr. began building houses in what became the Park Hill neighborhood in the early 1920s as an alternative to Pulaski Heights (Pulaski County) but later in the decade started work in “Edgemont,” which would cater to wealthier buyers in the area, establishing lots along the curvilinear Skyline Drive (originally Crest Road). Matthews hired architect Max Mayer to …