Moving rule a non-issue for Thaden home

The house at 703 W. Central Ave. in Bentonville was home to Louise McPhetridge Thaden, an accomplished female pilot in the 1920s and 1930s. The home will now be moved to the new Thaden School campus. It had been scheduled for demolition.
The house at 703 W. Central Ave. in Bentonville was home to Louise McPhetridge Thaden, an accomplished female pilot in the 1920s and 1930s. The home will now be moved to the new Thaden School campus. It had been scheduled for demolition.

BENTONVILLE -- It's not necessary for the city to amend its ordinance to move the Louise Thaden house if it will be moved in pieces, Mayor Bob McCaslin said.

McCaslin said he was informed by a Thaden School board member the historical home of Louise Thaden at 703 W. Central Ave. may be dismantled to be moved rather than being moved as one structure.

"There will not be a house moving per se," he said. "They will take the house apart and put it in storage."

The City Council was considering amending an ordinance that prevented buildings from being moved into or within the city, but McCaslin said such requests are rare. The mayor said he can't recall a single request since 2003 when he was elected to the council.

It was announced last week the home would be included as part of the future Thaden School campus, which will be built at the old Benton County fairgrounds, at the southeast corner of the intersection of South Main and Eighth streets.

The private school is supported by the Walton Family Foundation and to be built on land donated by Wal-Mart.

"It's too early to know how the house will be incorporated into the campus master plan," said Clayton Marsh, founding head of the school. "Of course, we will treat it with great care given its history and association with our school's namesake."

The campus will open in fall 2017 with "spaces and structures" needed for seventh through ninth grades. The full campus should be completed by fall 2019, Marsh said.

Details about moving the Thaden house are sill being worked out, but "we expect that it will be best to dismantle it" to store it before relocating it to the campus, he said.

There's no date on when the process will begin, but school officials hope to start as soon as possible, Marsh said.

Thaden, an accomplished female pilot in the 1920s and 1930s, moved into the house at 703 W. Central Ave. when she was 14. Her family owned the house from 1919 to 1945, though she left Bentonville after living there only a few years.

The Scott family donated the house to Thaden School.

The family bought the house, along with three other adjacent homes, between October 2015 and April 2016.

Eric Scott, son of Lee and Linda Scott, said in May the family likely will build single-family homes on the properties. Lee Scott is a former CEO of Wal-Mart.

Residents protested the homes' demolition when permits were posted in May.

The Scott family announced at the end of May they were looking at moving Thaden house. Interested residents and Alderman James Smith expressed concern about the city ordinance about moving buildings, seeing it as an obstacle to preserving the house.

The ordinance from 1999 states "No house, dwelling or structure shall be moved from outside or within the city to a location in the city, except and excluding only new manufactured buildings and new modular type buildings. Houses, dwellings and structures may only be moved out of or through the city."

The original ordinance dates to 1969. It was amended in 1996 and rewritten in 1999. The only amendment since then was in 2001, increasing the permit fee to $1,500.

Smith suggested at the May 24 City Council meeting that the ordinance be revisited and a possible amendment be included regarding relocation options for buildings with historical significance.

McCaslin said Tuesday an amendment was drafted, but it won't be necessary if the house will be dismantled to be moved.

"It's a mix of what we've heard before," he said of plans for the house. "But it's still honoring the history that's associated with Louise Thaden and her time she spent in that home."

NW News on 08/19/2016

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