A gas station in Fordyce, college dormitories in Magnolia and the Flippin City Jail have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
That's according to Ralph S. Wilcox, National Register and survey coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
The Gulf Oil Filling Station was built around 1930, according to the National Register nomination form. It's a one-story brick building located at 211 West 4th Street in Fordyce, which is in Dallas County.
The building consists of two parts, a filling station office building and a garage that was added in the early 1940s.
"The filling station office has seen very few changes and retains its original interior layout and wood dividers," according to the nomination. "The office is a one-story brick structure with white-painted brick and a Colonial Revival door surround. A large stationary window with transoms and sidelights takes up the main facade."
The garage was originally a wood-sided building, but brick was added to the north and west sides in the 1960s, according to the nomination. There are two original wood-framed garage doors that provide access to the interior.
A canopy was built in the early 1990s to cover two fuel pumps that were out front.
The gas pumps were removed in 2008 when the business ceased operation as a gas station and became primarily an auto repair service, according to the nomination.
MAGNOLIA
The Greene-Talbot-Talley Halls Historic District is on the northern end of the campus of Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.
The historic district is composed of three virtually identical dormitories and a cooling plant building, according to the nomination.
Construction on the dormitories began in 1962 and continued until 1966. The cooling plant was added in the 1990s.
"All three dormitory buildings are composed of four distinct pavilions that are linked together by glass walkways," according to the nomination. "The central pavilion is two stories in height, while the three outer pavilions are three stories in height. The cooling plant is also two stories in height."
The boundaries for the historic district were selected based on the fact that these three dormitories are the only buildings of their style on the campus, and they were as a "cohesive grouping," according to the nomination.
The dormitories were nominated to the National Register for their local significance as a good example of "post-war design principles." The buildings were designed by the Arkansas firm of Wittenberg, Delony and Davidson in the modern movement/brutalism architectural style, according to the nomination form.
"The Greene-Talbot-Talley Halls Historic District represented a departure from the Colonial Revival style that had been used for most of the university's other buildings at the time," according to the nomination.
FLIPPIN
The Flippin City Jail is a one-story, reinforced-concrete building located at the southwest corner of South 2nd and Park streets in downtown Flippin in Marion County.
Built around 1928, the tiny building – 9x12 feet -- served as the town jail until the 1960s, according to the nomination form. The Flippin City Jail is a good example of a calaboose, a word that has been used to describe one-room jails since at least the 1850s, according to the nomination.
"The jail contains a single cell with concrete floor, walls and ceiling," according to the nomination. "Each wall of the building has a small rectangular opening near the top of the facade that has bars in it that ventilates the building.
A sign above the entrance reads "Old Flippin City Jail / Circa 1928." It was added by the Marion County Historical Society in the 2010s, according to the nomination.
"The jail has suffered no alterations since its construction circa 1928," according to the nomination. "The only changes to the building that have occurred is the installation of the sign on the east facade and the inclusion of a replica bed, 'prisoner' dummy, and desk to form a sort of interpretation exhibit inside the jail. ...
"The Flippin City Jail, which measures only 9-by-12 feet, was built to mainly deal with homeless people that arrived in Flippin on the railroad and were seeking work or food, though long-time citizens of Flippin were not immune to a night in the jail."
To view Arkansas' National Register properties, go online to https://www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-preservation/properties/national-registry and scroll down to "Search the National Register listings in Arkansas below."