An ark of memories

Luetgens’ vision combines history, art, community

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Passers-by on U.S. 71 might notice the row of old houses only because they need work.

That's not what Sara Parnell Luetgens sees.

Web Watch

The Artist Retreat Center

artistretreatcenter…

The History

bellavistamuseum.org

Fast Facts

Bella Vista

Timeline

1853 — Jabez Hale builds a cabin.

1903 — The Linebarger family moves to Bentonville, buying 120 acres where the Walmart Home Office is now.

1909 — The Rev. William Baker and wife Mary buy property along Sugar Creek north of Bentonville.

1915 — The Bakers dam Sugar Creek to create a 20-acre lake and hold a contest to name their development. The winning name is Bella Vista.

1917 — The Linebarger Bros. buy Bella Vista, paying $6,100 for 206 acres.

1917 — The Linebargers open a lodge with 30 guest rooms and a dining hall that accommodates 150 diners.

1920 — The Linebargers add a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, horseback riding and a dance pavilion near Lake Bella Vista. They also build the elegant 65-room Sunset Hotel overlooking Bella Vista.

1930 — Wonderland Cave opens as an underground nightclub.

1952 — Bella Vista is sold to E.L. Keith — minus Wonderland Cave and the Linebarger cabin. Keith adds 402 acres to his original purchase of 450 acres.

1963 — John A. Cooper buys 40,000 acres in the name of Cooper Communities, including old Bella Vista and the right to use its name and reputation.

1979 — C.A. Linebarger dies.

1995 — The three Linebarger granddaughters inherit the cabin.

1996 — Carole Westby — now Carole Harter — buys out the shares of the Linebarger cabin from the other grandchildren. She renovates the home’s detached garage and eight acres as her residence.

2011 — Troy Parnell purchases the cabin and Harter’s property and reunites the two parcels.

2014 — The Artist Retreat Center opens.

— Source: Bella Vista Museum & staff reports

Go & Do

Classes

at the ARC

The Blank Canvas — Kids’ art with Karen Goodsell, (816) 304-9436

Loosen Your Grip — Fluid acrylics with Shawna Elliot, (479) 684-7434

Basic Fluid Acrylic — Paint a floral with Shawna Elliot, (479) 684-7434

Open Studio — Art in progress with Shawna Elliot, (479) 684-7434

Color Study Workshop — Paint a nocturne with Shawna Elliot, (479) 684-7434

Basic Strokes — Beginners’ technique with Shawna Elliot, (479) 684-7434

Words on Metal — With Nancy Dallison, [email protected]

Art Journaling — With Nancy Dallison, [email protected]

Keep It Simple — Adult yoga with Kenslee Etheredge, (479) 310-5593

Kaylin’s Keys to Health — With Kaylin Gilkey, (539) 777-1670

Zentangle — Creative drawing with Sara Bainbridge, (479) 263-6628

Basic Wire Jewelry — With Delane Cox, (479) 254-0894

Raised on a farm outside of Bentonville, Luetgens, 52, remembers the houses as the original Bella Vista -- the resort, not the retirement village or the bedroom community it has become. And that's what she wants others to see, too -- the rich history of a town that conceived itself around the vision of men like her father, Troy Parnell.

So Luetgens is building an "ARC" -- an Artist Retreat Center -- to carry Bella Vista's past in to the future.

"There is so much hidden beauty in Bella Vista that I hope to reveal a glimpse of that to people traveling through our area," she says.

But there's more:

"I also hope to create an art community to learn, create, display and someday sell original art made by locals and visitors to our area."

That's why Luetgens and Parnell have renovated the old Linebarger cabin at the far southern edge of Bella Vista, right beside U.S. 71. Fashioned of field stone and dating back to 1853, it's now a beacon that says "Look! There's more going on here than you could possibly imagine!"

Filling the ARC

Luetgens is an artist herself -- a photographer who has worked in Houston and Dallas and traveled far and wide -- and she knows every artist needs a place where he can commune with his muse. She envisions the Linebarger cabin as that place -- until the houses that march in a row south of it are restored. Then, perhaps, the homes might be live/work accommodations for many artists, with public gallery space to share.

Luetgens also knows art is the eye of the beholder, and she's taken that into account in her vision for the nonprofit that is the ARC. Behind the sturdy rock structure is 8 acres she's calling Wildflower Hollow. She can see it as a commercial space -- a wedding location, for example -- but also a nature park where students can walk on ground that hasn't been "mowed or swept," she says. And she'd like to see the immediate area surrounding the cabin become a farmers' market populated by organic growers, makers of local honey or other foodstuffs, quilters, crafters and nonprofits that want the friendly, small-town exposure.

Inside the ARC, she can imagine all sorts of classes -- there's already a yoga studio operating and a scheduled slate of learning activities from art journaling to acrylic painting -- plus a workshop space for artists, perhaps a supper club or wine tastings, meetings of people interested in "cottage industry type" skills, nutrition and cooking, art therapy and, of course, photography.

"I'd like to have an emphasis on photography," Luetgens admits, and the first exhibition scheduled in the building is by photographer Silas Byers, who will meet and greet visitors from 7 to 9 p.m. July 25.

"Byers prints in large format, and many of his photographs are 3 feet tall," says longtime journalist Susan Porter, who is driving from Eureka Springs a couple of days a week to act as special projects coordinator for the ARC. "A native Arkansan, he has photographed throughout Arkansas and the world, traveling from the Straits of Alaska to the jungles of Africa to capture the majestic details of nature."

Kenslee Etheredge has been teaching "Keep It Simple" yoga at the ARC since April.

"The room we do yoga in reminds me of a treehouse," she says. "Everyone loves the space and loves how it feels. Sometimes yoga can be a little intimidating, and the atmosphere definitely takes some of that away."

"I have not yet taught in the ARC, but I have two classes scheduled this fall," says jewelry maker Delane Cox. "I have had the grand tour of the building and grounds, and I think it has such great potential. I'm really excited about its possibilities."

Building a harbor

The structure itself has a long record of morphing to meet demand, says Carole Harter, the granddaughter of C.A. Linebarger.

"The history of Sara's cabin is a bit unclear," she writes from a vacation in Europe. "It is known to have been built by Jabez Hale in 1853, but the exact location is unknown, there being no Google Earth at the time.

"Hale added on rooms as his family increased until he had a 10-room house. Then, as his children married, some were allowed to disassemble some of the house, unstacking the logs and stacking them on a wagon to be carried and re-erected on their new property as the beginning of a new home," Harter says. "In time, the 10-room house was reduced back to the original ground-floor room with two 16-foot by 16-foot rooms above."

The cabin became part of the history of Bella Vista when it was purchased by Clarence A. Linebarger in 1926 -- but a Presbyterian minister named the Rev. William Baker has to be introduced first. He and wife Mary bought property along Sugar Creek north of Bentonville in 1909 and "visualized sharing this land of theirs with others by creating a resort," according to history provided by the Bella Vista Museum.

"In 1915, they built a dam across Sugar Creek and plotted a subdivision with the intention of selling lots. Its name was selected from entries submitted to the Bakers. Mrs. George Crowder, owner of Park Springs Hotel in Bentonville, submitted 'Bella Vista,' a Spanish name meaning beautiful view, and it was chosen."

Money didn't flow like water or wine, apparently, because "in early 1917, brothers Clayton C. and Forest W. Linebarger bought the fledgling attempt at the seasonal real estate development named Bella Vista from the Baker-Smith Co.," Harter recounts. "Hale's log house was located on the dirt road to Bentonville just where the lawn meets the present-day Lookout Drive. It became part of the nearly 1,000 acres which the Linebarger brothers amassed for their very successful summer resort. In 1926, 9.5 acres containing Hale's log house and a dozen small camp cottages were sold to Clarence A. Linebarger, the youngest brother and new partner in the Linebarger Bros. Company.

"C.A. (as he was known) had the log house moved about 60 feet up onto a small knoll ... and an additional seven rooms were added to the original three rooms with modern accommodations appropriate to the times.

"Once the Sunset Hotel was built in 1929," Harter continues, "the Linebargers spent their summers in a suite of rooms designed for their use there and maintained a small cottage for the periods before and after the season before the annual treks to the Florida Keys for three months.

"During the summers while Linebarger Brothers still owned and operated the summer resort until 1952, the house was leased to a number of tenants, the most well-known being Patrick Jay Hurley, who leased the house one summer for his family as he tended to his duty as secretary of war from 1929-33. In 1951, the house was renovated by C.A. Linebarger Jr. and his wife Florence, who occupied it until soon after Linebarger's death in 1956."

The grandchildren, including Harter, inherited the property when C.A. Linebarger Sr. died in 1979, and Harter bought the others out in 1996.

She moved to Fayetteville in 2011, and Troy Parnell purchased the cabin.

Launching the ARC

"My father is a visionary and a dreamer of what might be if you had no limits to your dreams," Luetgens says. "Fortunately or unfortunately, he has rubbed off on me."

Luetgens says Parnell "has built tiny A-frame lake cabins and luxury homes with my mother as designer and draftsperson. He has also built factories, shopping malls, schools, gymnasiums and many commercial buildings including numerous Walmart stores. I remember asking my dad if Sam Walton wasn't taking a huge risk by building two stores in Corpus Christi, Texas, at the same time. He explained that one was on the north side of town and one was on the south side so they thought it would be successful.

"I hope that people will say that my father and I preserved some history of the original Bella Vista back to its original charm."

Luetgens has many fond memories of her childhood in northern Benton County.

"I loved playing on the creek, gardening and playing with our dogs, cats and horses," she reminisces. "I spent many hours reading a book inside a lilac bush or under a tree in the woods.

"Sometimes we would take our bikes to my dad's office in town so we could ride to the swimming pool or the parks during the summer. After school we would walk to Walton's, perusing the candy aisle, the toys and buying snacks at their snack bar. My dad's office was near Gus's News Stand, so I would go there to buy comic books and candy -- which was behind the glass case. Bentonville had a nice hometown atmosphere and was a nice place to grow up.

"We visited Bella Vista since my maternal grandparents settled there and built a house in Pinion Hollow in the late '50s," Luetgens adds. "The first time I remember meeting C.A. Linebarger was when I was about 6, and we were out for a Sunday drive and my dad stopped by the cabin on Lookout Drive. His companion and he were out front, and she was giving their goldfish a bath in the big rock fountain out front. She had a soft toothbrush and was brushing the moss off of him.

"I loved the waterfalls and caves that were at Blowing Springs and have fond memories of hugging the hot concrete after swimming in the spring water swimming pool until our lips turned blue," Luetgens adds. "We paddled around on the paddle boats on Lake Bella Vista and played miniature golf. It was and still is a great nature 'resort' community filled with outdoor activities in one of Arkansas's most beautiful areas."

Luetgens says she returned to Northwest Arkansas for a simple reason. She was driving back in to Dallas from a trip scouting photo locations. "The tears started flowing down my face, and I asked myself why I was living there when I could live in the hills and trees of Arkansas, so I moved back with no job.

"I missed the clean air, the trees and the abundant water."

Now, as owner of the ARC, she hopes to offer it to other artists who need to retreat from city life.

"The Old Bella Vista part is really just fascinating to me," she adds. "And this a beautiful example of the natural Arkansas environment."

NAN Our Town on 07/17/2014