I sit outside on the second-floor balcony and savor a cup of coffee along with a cinnamon roll from the German bakery in Arkadelphia. I watch Friday morning traffic on U.S. 67 before returning to my room at the Captain Henderson House.
Having grown up in Arkadelphia, it's still strange to stay in a rented room here even though my sister and I sold our family home years ago. I've been looking forward to spending a night at Henderson House, which reopened in August as an inn and event venue managed by the Goodman family of Arkadelphia.
I've spent nights in historic inns throughout the South, and this is among the best. David and Karrie Goodman have owned Mary & Martha's Florist & Gifts in Arkadelphia for 16 years. Their daughter, Addy Murphree, oversees Henderson House, which is owned by Henderson State University. The inn had been closed since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
"Henderson inquired about people who might run the house," Murphree says. "That was when we first thought it might be a possibility for us. It wasn't until 2022 that we started dreaming about the hands we could extend in our community. We saw this beautiful home, a testament to both Henderson and Arkadelphia, and we felt we had the ability to bring it back to life."
Murphree's grandmother, Marsha Whalen, was a part-time innkeeper at Henderson House for a dozen years. Murphree and her mother often would accompany Whalen as she arrived early to make breakfast for guests. Sometimes they would spend the night in empty rooms.
"She helped us last summer clean rooms and organize the kitchen," Murphree says. "It was such a sweet time because the house had meant so much to her."
The 1876 structure began as a cottage and was expanded several times in the early 1900s. Henderson purchased the structure in 1979 and put a museum in it. Following extensive renovations in 1999, the inn opened. The Goodman family has strong ties in this part of the state because of their work at Mary amd Martha's. That gives them a leg up when it comes to promoting the house as a wedding venue.
Murphree describes the family vision of "a bustling piece of history for those visiting loved ones, academic trips, baby showers, corporate meetings, reunions and community events. We offer a commercial kitchen open for customers' choice of catering companies. We have eight overnight rooms, two dining areas for meetings, a wraparound porch for visiting and a manicured lawn. ... We want this to be the front porch to our town."
The family fills the house with floral arrangements from Mary and Martha's. Because I was in town for an event at Ouachita Baptist University, there was an arrangement of purple-and-gold flowers (Ouachita's school colors) in my room.
"We focused on finding ways to freshen it up," Murphree says. "This project is more than just a business endeavor for us. We see it as an opportunity to bring something back to Arkadelphia and the university."
Henderson House is named for Charles Christopher Henderson, a Scott County native who moved with his family to Arkadelphia in 1869 at age 19. Henderson later made a fortune in banking, timber and railroads. In July 1892, he purchased a plot just across the street from Arkadelphia Methodist College. Two cottages built in 1876 were on the property. Henderson lived in one of the homes before moving to Ruston, La.
People began calling Henderson "captain" when he worked for a St. Louis-based livestock company. He later became a partner in Arkadelphia Lumber Co., Nashville Lumber Co. and Brown-Henderson Lumber Co. as virgin pine timber was cleared across Arkansas during the period known as the Big Cut. Henderson also invested in 10 railroad companies.
Henderson returned to Arkadelphia from Louisiana in 1903. He was president of Arkadelphia's Elk Horn Bank from 1905-16.
Arkadelphia Methodist College had been founded in 1890. Henderson was appointed to the board of trustees in December 1891. He was board chairman from 1903-22. Henderson's wife had been active in the movement to establish the college. In 1901, Charles Christopher Henderson donated $11,000 to pay off the school's debt. He bailed the college out again with a $5,250 donation in 1905 and another $10,000 in 1909. Business partner Walter Brown gave an additional $10,000.
The name of Arkadelphia Methodist College was changed to Henderson College in 1904 and to Henderson-Brown College in 1911. After a fire destroyed the main building in 1914, Henderson gave another $5,000. The campus was given to the state in 1929 and became Henderson State Teachers College that year, Henderson State College in 1967 and Henderson State University in 1975.
After coming back to Arkadelphia in 1903, Henderson moved one cottage on his property to a new location and began expanding the second cottage. He added the wraparound porch with a balustrade on the front of the home.
"The porch curves around a two-story turret and has a portico with six columns," writes historian David Sesser. "The interior of the house is lavishly adorned with fretwork. Two parlors are on the first floor, each with large fireplaces. ... The Henderson family lived in the completed house for only four years before moving to El Paso in 1910. He sold the home the next year to T.N. Wilson, who owned it for seven years before selling the house to Claude Phillips."
The home remained in family hands before it was sold to the university. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in August 1998.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.