Bar Code Provides Downtown History

Cole Golden Hester, a freshman at the Benton County School of the Arts, developed QR codes for historic buildings in downtown Rogers. Using a smart phone individuals can scan the code on the building and learn a brief history of the building complete with photos.
Cole Golden Hester, a freshman at the Benton County School of the Arts, developed QR codes for historic buildings in downtown Rogers. Using a smart phone individuals can scan the code on the building and learn a brief history of the building complete with photos.

ROGERS — People interested in the history of downtown buildings can learn more about them, thanks to their smartphone and Cole Hester.

Cole, a ninth-grade Benton County School of the Arts student, created a tour using a quick response code — a type of bar code — placard for 15 historical buildings. The bar code gives the individual a photo of the building in its heyday, plus a brief history of the building.

The bar code placards are displayed in the windows of the buildings.

“We had to do a project in my Environmental and Spatial Technology class. I’ve lived downtown all my life and wanted to do something that benefited downtown,” Cole said.

Cole is the son of Barry Golden and Brenda Hester, owners of Golden’s Designers Jewelry, 206 W. Walnut St. The family lives on the second floor of the building over the store.

Cole Hester said after he got the idea of creating a QR code for historic buildings he talked to Kerry Jensen, Main Street Rogers executive director, about the project.

“Making the QR codes was interesting, I had to learn how to make the codes,” Cole said.

At A Glance

QR Code Tour

The historic downtown buildings on the QR code tour are:

• The Hawkins House, 322 S. Second St.

• Applegate Drugstore, 116 S. First St.

• Museum Annex (former post office), 120 W. Poplar St.

• The Lane Hotel, 121 W. Poplar St.

• The Mutual Aid Building, 224 S. Second St.

• The Victory Theater, 118 S. Second St.

• The Juhre Buildings, 202-206 W. Walnut St.

• The Stroud Building, 114-116 W. Walnut St.

• The Opera Block Buildings, 102-106 W. Walnut St.

• Rogers Wholesale Grocery, 101 E. Walnut St.

• Bank of Rogers, 114 S. First St.

• The Burnham Buildings 122-124 S. First St.

• Rogers Commission Company, 318 S. First St.

Source: Staff Report

He asked his teacher and got a two-word answer.

“He told me to ‘Google it’,” Cole said with a laugh.

“I googled ‘bar codes’ and found a program that makes the QR codes and after that it was pretty easy,” Cole said.

“I thought it was a neat way of highlighting some of our buildings downtown. It makes history convenient in a modern way,” Jensen said. “It also easy to change the text if a building changes hands.”

Cole began his research on the buildings at the Rogers Historical Museum.

“I got a lot of help from the Rogers Historical Museum and James Hales as I researched the history of the buildings and searched for old photos,” Cole said.

Gaye Bland, museum director, said Cole did the majority of the research himself.

Cole “searched our files for photos, wrote the first draft of the histories and developed the QR codes,” Bland said. “We’re thrilled with his project. It gives tourists and other individuals a third option for learning about our historic downtown.”

The museum offers a brochure as well as an MP3 audio walking tour of downtown.

“The bar code walking tour allows anyone with a smartphone to learn about the history of a building anytime day or night,” Bland said.

Cole said he spent about 100 hours pulling the project together. He even put together a “Trivia Quest” puzzle based on the bar code history tour.

After reading the histories of the buildings, an individual can decode trivia questions at the Rogers Historical Museum website and spell a word.

Web Watch

Historic Rogers Trivia Quest

To find the Historic Downtown Rogers Trivia Quest go to: rogersarkansas.com/museum/QRCodes/TriviaQuest.pdf

With the historic building project over, Cole is looking for a new challenge.

“I think I’m going to try to do some videos of downtown restaurants. That should be fun,” Cole said.

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