Arkansas historic locations put on endangered-sites list

Stressing the importance of protecting vital pieces of the state’s heritage, the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas on Thursday released its 2013 listing of “most endangered places,” which includes structures in five counties.

Three of the sites are in Pulaski County: the Roundtop Filling Station in Sherwood and Park Hill Elementary School and the former St. Joseph Orphanage, both in North Little Rock.

Also listed are the side-by-side 1950-51 Hantz and Durst Houses in Fayetteville, the1858 Frith-Plunkett House in Des Arc (Prairie County), the 1861 Ferguson House in Augusta (Woodruff County) and the 1900 Wynne Opera House in Wynne (Cross County).

The Preservation Alliance’s selections are meant to raise awareness of the importance of the state’s historic properties and the risks that they could be lost through neglect, encroaching development or loss of integrity. The list is updated with additions each year. More information on the properties is available at preservearkansas.org.

Being designated as “most endangered,” said John Greer Jr., president of the Preservation Alliance’s board of directors, is about showcasing “the importance of these structures in our state.”

“These are structures that are really in dire need,” Greer said at a the announcement outside the historic William Woodruff House in Little Rock.

Vanessa McKuin, the group’s executive director, said that the properties “represent important, irreplaceable pieces of Arkansas’ history and heritage.”

Earlier this year, an effort began to preserve the Roundtop Filing Station in Sherwood. The long-abandoned former gasoline station was built in 1936 and became a popular stop on what is now Arkansas 161, then “the highway” between Little Rock and Searcy. The station closed in 1972 and the property was donated to Sherwood in 1999.

The city and its newly formed Sherwood History and Heritage Commission have worked to clean up and secure the filling station building and plan to restore it as a police substation, said Darrell Brown, chairman of the city commission. Making the Preservation Alliance’s endangered list draws attention to the project, Brown said.

“I see a lot of people here who are important in the Historic Preservation community,” Brown said after the news conference. “This helps expose our building to them and to what we are doing. This is telling the citizens of Sherwood how important it is to save this building and helps to inform and lend credibility to what we’ve been saying in Sherwood.

“People will tell us that they know about this building, but are not aware of the story, the history of it,” Brown added. “Being able to tell about it is exciting to us.”

The two North Little Rock properties face uncertain futures, Sandra Taylor-Smith, executive director of the North Little Rock History Commission, said later by telephone.

The former orphanage, built in 1910, is atop a hill on 63 acres along Camp Robinson Road. In 2010, it was leased to a newly formed nonprofit group, St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, to try to preserve the property. A preservation plan is due Sept. 1, but if no viable plan emerges, the building’s future will be in doubt, she said.

“The St. Joseph Orphanage is a monumental structure designed by renowned architect Charles Thompson,” Taylor-Smith said. “We certainly don’t want it to fall into any hands that would demolish it or damage it because it really is a treasure to the city.”

Park Hill Elementary School, built in 1924, is the oldest active school building in the North Little Rock School District. The school is to be closed in two years under a district-wide restructuring plan. At this time, the “district has no plans to use the building for another purpose,” a school spokesman said Thursday.

“The plan is to close the school, so its future is highly in danger, according to the Park Hill Neighborhood Association,” Taylor-Smith said, adding that the building could be adaptable to a multi-residential use, as has happened with historic school buildings in neighboring Little Rock. “It’s a prime piece of real estate in the Park Hill neighborhood.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 05/28/2013

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