By Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — After several years of work by the El Dorado Historic District Commission, four local residential and commercial properties are one step closer to becoming part of the National Register of Historic Places.
The State Review Board of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program convened on April 5 to consider 15 properties in 10 counties around the state, including the four in El Dorado, for nomination to the National Register.
The meeting was held in Little Rock.
The two local residential properties, houses designed by famed Arkansas architect E. Fay Jones — who spent part of his childhood in El Dorado — qualified for a nomination to the National Register as a small historic district.
Architectural surveyor/historian Sandra Taylor Smith, who was contracted by the El Dorado Historic District Commission to survey the properties, submitted the nominations and made a presentation to the State Review Board.
Elizabeth Eggleston, executive director of the
historic district commission, and Nancy Arn, interim director of Barton Library, also presented before the board.
Arn previously served as the library’s director for 40 years before retiring in 2014. She agreed to return as interim director following the recent resignation of her successor, Laura Cleveland.
“I spoke on the mortuary and the Fay Jones houses, and Nancy Arn spoke on the library,” Eggleston said of the State Review Board presentations,
Eggleston noted that Dr. Ben Johnson — historian, author and associate professor of History at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia — of El Dorado, is a member of the State Review Board.
His wife, Sherrel Johnson, also attended the meeting, Eggleston said.
Sherrel Johnson is chair of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board, special projects coordinator for the Union County Water Conservation Board and former president and chief executive officer of the El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce.
The local properties included in the National Register nomination are:
• Rumph Mortuary, now Perry’s Funeral Chapels, 312 Oak Street, which exhibits a rare commercial example of the Gothic Revival style, Smith wrote in the nomination.
• Barton Library, 200 E. Fifth Street, a one-story Mediterranean Revival style building constructed in 1957 by local businessman and philanthropist Thomas Harry Barton and given to the city of El Dorado,” according to the nomination.
• Henley-Riley Historic District, the 2500 block of Calion Road. The Henley and Riley houses, 2523 and 2525 Calion Road, respectively.
The nomination said the houses are “excellent” examples of the late Jones’ mid-20th century work — organic elements, such as “low sloping rooflines, the use of exterior and interior space and materials to create a sense of connectedness with the outside and a sense of open space.”
The proposed historic district contains two ornamental objects and a pavilion that were also designed by Jones.
Parks Hammond, a member of the El Dorado Historic District Commission, previously explained that the Riley house was actually designed as guest quarters for the larger Henley property when the houses were built in the late 1950s and early 60s.
The National Register nomination will be forwarded to the National Parks Service for final approval.
“They (the State Review Board) unanimously approved all four properties. It’s been a process,” Egglston said, referring to an effort that began in 2013 when she first submitted a an application to the State Historic Preservation Office for a grant to survey the four properties and others that commissioners were hoping to include in the National Register nomination.
The historic district commission learned in early 2016 that several of the other properties were ineligible for a listing on the National Register but could potentially qualify for the Arkansas Register of Historic Places.
Two such properties were Memorial Stadium and the TAC House.
Other properties that were initially surveyed as part of the project were the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium, Boy Scouts of America building on Peach and the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado, north west unit, which did not qualify for either the state or national registers.
“Now, we’ll review the remaining properties and see which ones we can nominate to the State Register,” Eggleston said.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.