Ellen and Tom Fennell of Little Rock have turned to what's new, social media, to spread the word about what's old, historic houses. The couple live in one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, the Quapaw Quarter, and in part inspired by its architectural past, they launched a Facebook group page, Forgotten Little Rock.
Big or small -- that's 4,000-square-foot manses down to shotgun-style cottages -- they highlight historic structures that might go unnoticed or unappreciated otherwise.
"We started with the really obscure but then realized a lot of people didn't know even the more high-profile historic places downtown like the Foster-Robinson House," says Ellen Fennell, 64, retired executive director and vice president of Audubon Arkansas.
She and Tom, 63, an architect with Fennell and Purifoy, are standing in front of the stately house at 2122 S. Broadway in the Quapaw Quarter where Sen. Joe T. Robinson once lived. Across the street is a dwelling on the couple's list to photograph this particular weekday afternoon -- the Alexander M. Keith House. "This is a really great example of Craftsman style, with its clay tile roof," he says. "You can see the Craftsman-style features in the exposed rafter ends, but it also has elements of Prairie-style popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright."
It's not just sightseeing. It's investigating, it's research -- each place, each construction. The book How We Lived: Little Rock as an American City by Dr. F. Hampton Roy, Charles Witsell and Cheryl Griffith Nichols is a desk reference. A photo (or photos) of the place goes up on Facebook along with the address and a description of its architectural features.
Because social media is collaborative, the edification doesn't stop there. Co-author Nichols, a longtime resident of the Quapaw Quarter, often adds more details on the structures posted on the Fennells' Web page. "Cheri knows practically everything about every house, and she and other people like her have been very instrumental in helping to add to it," she says.
The pair started Forgotten Little Rock in November. "Winter was coming on and we were kind of bored, enjoyed taking photographs and thought Facebook was the perfect venue for this type of educational project," Ellen says.
Tom, a native of Versailles, Ky., moved into a home in the 2000 block of Arch Street in 1967. He graduated from Central High School, and then from Sewanee, The University of the South, with a double major in philosophy and fine arts. He'd worked at architectural firms during summers since he was about 14. He attended architecture school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a year before returning to Little Rock where he worked as a draftsman with Robinson and Wassell in Little Rock and took night classes in engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a number of exams to qualify as an architect.
Ellen grew up in Stuttgart but her father and grandfather lived in Little Rock and as a child, she often visited them. She graduated from Southwestern in Memphis (now Rhodes College) where she majored in English but worked as an artist. The couple met and married 33 years ago.
Their page began as a public group but has since been changed to a closed group in order to protect the current homeowners' privacy and avoid off-topic posts. "So much on Facebook is about dogs or politics, so one of our rules is no politics," Tom says.
"It's just a hobby for us," Ellen says. The future may bring some opportunities, like a book, but right now they're happy to be amateur archivists, anthropologists and explorers. No money has changed hands.
The couple try to post a new entry each weekend. Tom goes out once a week to shoot a new location, Ellen every other week. Meanwhile, members of the group add historic photos to the site -- this collaboration is more serendipitous than a periodical or museum might work. For instance, after a photograph of a particular house was added one member posted a photograph of her grandmother, who was married in the house decades earlier, throwing her bridal bouquet.
"That's great because we wouldn't otherwise [know about] those photos," Ellen says. "We've learned so much about who built Little Rock, who were the people who lived here in the latter part of the 19th century, and what their jobs were."
Such as the house in the Central High neighborhood which was built by a man who was a tailor at one of the city's downtown department stores. "He was a second-generation German who made his whole livelihood making other people's clothes. His family lived in the house for two generations," Ellen says.
"We did a whole feature on shotgun houses where working-class people lived. [We] started scouting neighborhoods and found a bunch of them," she said. "We've gone to a lot of places people won't ever go."
So what do they look for when they're scouting for new structures to feature?
"We look for materials," Tom says during a driving tour of the Quapaw Quarter neighborhood. "Those are marble steps," he says stopping in front of a house at 2206 Izard St. "Meanwhile the home across the street was built in the 1940s and has siding on it."
He explains that Little Rock has a national reputation for its great masons, namely around the turn of the 20th century. "It was known as a training ground for some very good masons," he adds.
What's the end goal for Forgotten Little Rock?
"Want to educate others and raise an appreciation for the historic houses Little Rock has to offer," Tom says.
"We have people, like our friends in California, who are commenting on posts, writing things like 'My grandfather lived in that house,'" Ellen says.
The couple hope to change the widely held concept of what a good neighborhood includes.
"It's a place where people know each other and take pride in their street," Ellen says, adding that younger people are beginning to appreciate the area's unique qualities. "The SoMA [the neighborhood including Little Rock's Main street south of Interstate 630] area has really had a large influx of young people."
In addition to their Facebook page, the couple's other volunteer work includes serving on the board of and as founding members of TreeStreets, a private, nonprofit group established about a decade ago. Since its inception, the organization has planted more than 1,400 trees.
Those wishing to follow the Fennells' Forgotten Little Rock page should join Facebook, search for the name and then join the group.
High Profile on 07/26/2015