A Gothic-style Baptist church that turns into a haunted cathedral each fall joined a wood-frame train depot, a commercial building central to the 1957 desegregation crisis of Central High School and other sites across the state as part of this year’s additions to Preserve Arkansas’ Most Endangered Places list.
The 10 endangered properties were announced Friday morning in Little Rock by Preserve Arkansas Executive Director Rachel Patton.
“The list this year had a wide variety of places,” Patton said. “Overall, the theme seemed to be on African-American churches and sites.”
The additions to the state’s Most Endangered Places Program — which began in 1999 — are announced each May during Arkansas Heritage Month and National Preservation Month. To qualify, the historic properties must be threatened by deterioration, neglect, insufficient resources, insensitive public policy or inappropriate development.
Twelve nominations from individuals and organizations throughout the state were received for 2018.
The overall list totals 135 properties. Of that number, 21 have been destroyed, 39 saved and 75 still endangered in some way, according to Patton.
“The properties still listed as endangered — and that includes this year’s list — may have made progress since their initial listing, but we don’t record it as ‘saved’ unless a complete rehabilitation has been completed, or until the resource has been put back into active use,” Patton said.
The annual list is a powerful tool to raise awareness of the significance of the state’s historic places, said Preserve Arkansas Board President Bobby Braly.
“The primary point of the Most Endangered Places list is advocacy,” Braly said. “Hopefully in a year or two, we will hear their success stories. We don’t always have that. We’ve lost some and that sort of speaks to the importance of this list. We’re losing historic structures every week, it seems.”
The annual list also prioritizes conservancy needs in the states for other preservation organizations, Patton said. She recently reviewed the proposed five-year plan for the state Historic Preservation Program and said that group placed an emphasis on preserving sites important to the history of minority groups.
This year’s announcement was made at Little Rock’s Curran Hall, located at 615 E. Capitol Ave. The hall was rescued from demolition in 1996 and rehabilitated to become the Little Rock Visitor Information Center.
Properties named to the 2018 list are:
Camp Monticello, Monticello, Drew County
An Italian prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, Camp Monticello is located along Arkansas 35 southeast of Monticello. It was one of four main camps and 30 branch camps in Arkansas that interned enemy prisoners during the war.
Construction was completed in 1943 and included within its barbed-wire perimeter three compounds for enlisted men, two compounds for officers, a hospital, garrison echelon and other facilities. The vast majority of Italian prisoners of war were officers.
Camp Monticello was closed at the end of the war in 1945 and was eventually purchased by what is now the University of Arkansas at Monticello and used for teaching livestock and forest management.
Centennial Baptist Church, Helena-West Helena, Phillips County
A Gothic Revival-style church, the Centennial Baptist Church is located at the corner of York and Columbia streets. Designed by black architect Henry James Price, the church was completed in 1905.
The church is in disrepair and is held up by steel bracing.
First Baptist Church, Little Rock, Pulaski County
Designed in the Collegiate Gothic style, the First Baptist Church — located at the corner of 12th and Louisiana streets just north of the Governor’s Mansion Historic District — was built in 1941.
The site sat vacant from 1974 until 1993, when it was turned into the Ernie’s Museum of Black Arkansans. Each Halloween season, the church building transforms into the “Haunted Cathedral.”
A portion of the building’s roof has collapsed and the property is decayed from lack of maintenance.
First Presbyterian Church, Fordyce, Dallas County
The First Presbyterian Church — constructed in 1912 on Arkansas 79B — was the third building for Fordyce’s first church, which was organized in 1883.
The church, which was used until about 10 years ago, has water damage to sanctuary walls, a leaky roof and foundation issues.
The church still contains its original pipe organ, pews, pulpit and even the hymnals.
Latimore Tourist Home, Russellville, Pope County
Located at 318 S. Houston Ave., the Victorian-style home was built at the turn of the 20th century and was turned into a lodging house for black travelers and railroaders in the early 1930s.
The Latimore Home was the only lodging house between Little Rock and Fort Smith listed in “The Negro Motorist Green Book” as a safe place to stop for food and lodging.
The home is boarded up and is condemned.
MagnoliaCemetery, Helena-West Helena
The black cemetery located north of downtown was established about 1870 and is the burial site of several pioneering black families including W.H. Grey, one of the state’s first black legislators.
Part of the cemetery is damaged from erosion and flooding and have been subjected to vandalism and neglect.
Ponder’s Drug Store/ Capel Building, Little Rock
Built in 1926 at the corner of West 16th and Park streets, across from Little Rock Central High School, the Capel Building once housed grocery stores and pharmacies. The Clark G. Ponder’s Drug Store served in 1957 as a “command central” for news reporters who filed their stories by pay phone during the desegregation crisis.
The facility has stood vacant for numerous years, causing its decay. The roof has collapsed and a portion of the upper brick facade fell onto 16th Street last summer.
Quinn Chapel AME Church, Fort Smith, Sebastian County
The Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal church — a red brick, Gothic Revival-style building constructed in 1917 — sits in the middle of Fort Smith’s oldest neighborhood.
The church, which was abandoned in 2013 because the congregation could not afford its maintenance, was damaged in a March fire.
The sanctuary’s curved and handcrafted pews remain unharmed and the original ceiling, choir loft and wood floors are intact.
Rock Island Railroad Depot, Perry, Perry County
The Rock Island Railroad Depot, built in 1918, is the only remaining wood-frame depot from the Rock Island in the state.
The Perry County depot was on the “Sunbelt Line” that ran from Memphis to Amarillo. The last passenger train went past the depot in 1967.
Last year, the Little Rock and Western Railroad, the current owner, announced it intended to demolish the depot to make way for a new machine shop. Plans are in the works to move the depot to a city-owned site across the tracks from its present location and turn it into a community center and museum.
The designation on the Preserve Arkansas’ Most Endangered Places list will bring some much-needed attention to the efforts, said Buford Suffridge of the Perry County Historical Society.
“I hope that it will generate some interest from the public in wanting to save it and quite frankly, to raise some funds to help preserve it,” Suffridge said. “We’ve got the funds to move it, but we need some matching funds to meet some grants to restore it.”
Thomas-Tharp House, Fayetteville, Washington County
Built in 1845, the Thomas-Tharp House at 2650 W. Old Farmington Road served as an example of early vernacular architecture. After the Civil War Battle of Prairie Grove, the Thomas family women tended to sick and wounded soldiers from the Union and Confederate armies.
The house — which is unoccupied and deteriorating from vandalism and weather damage — backs up to 228 acres recently acquired by Fayetteville with the help of the Walton Family Foundation. The acreage will be developed into a mountain bike park and trail system.