A DAY IN THE LIFE
Deep roots allow historic city to flourish
Despite its state-of-the-art medical facilities and university, the history that permeates Searcy’s downtown area and lines the streets like maple trees is sure to spark nostalgia, even for visitors like me. As I set off to explore the home of the Three Rivers Edition office, I prepared myself for a journey through history, greenery and some of the city’s other sights and sounds.
9:20 A.M.
Searcy is known for its fabulous parks, so I began my day with a visit to one of the more unique parks, Berryhill Park. One of its most distinguishing features is an all-inclusive playground, which caters to all levels of physical ability with accessible swings and play structures.
At the playground, I met a couple from Indianapolis who were visiting their grandchildren in Searcy. While the grandfather hung out on the swings with his infant grandchild, the baby’s older brother pretended to drive his grandmother to a nearby snow-cone establishment using a steering wheel on the playground.
After leaving the playground, I took a brief stroll along part of the Searcy Bike/Walking Trail, which offers a convenient, healthy and environmentally sound way to traverse the city. The trail, like Berryhill Park, was absolutely beautiful, and I saw a number of robins near Gin Creek.
10 A.M.
My next stop was the Searcy Public Library, where actors from the local community theater, Center on the Square, were giving children a sneak peek of the theater’s current production, The Secret Garden. Audiences can still catch performances at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4 and 5 and at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 6.
“I’ve wanted to do The Secret Garden for seven years now, and I finally found someone who was willing to produce it with me,” said producer Wendy Neill, who plays Lily in the musical. “It has 25 cast members, and the cool thing about this show is there are cast members of all ages, from age 10 to age 83 and everything in between.”
She added that she expects audiences to walk away not knowing which song is their favorite because the musical features scads of winning tunes. I got to hear two songs that day. Neill entered the children’s room in character singing part of the opening song, “Clusters of Crocus” to a large audience of kids and their parents.
The library was a fitting place in which to preview The
Secret Garden, which is based on a novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Neill explained how in the story, her character has died, breaking the heart of her husband, Archibald. His niece Mary comes to live with him because her parents have also died. In hopes of making them happy, Lily’s ghost helps them find her garden, which had been abandoned since her death.
Neill read an excerpt from the book in which Mary finds the garden, a silent wasteland of lifeless brown vines. Then Brianna Foust, who plays Mary, and Myles Kreh, who plays Dickon, a nature-loving boy who helps Mary find the garden, came out to sing “Wick.” During the song, Dickon reveals that the garden is not dead, but merely dormant, and helps Mary revive it.
After the song, Neill reads another excerpt that describes how the garden springs back to life with a rainbow of flowers. Then the children in the audience made crafts related to gardening. The theater has a great program of shows scheduled in the upcoming months, Neill said, adding that anyone is welcome to participate.
“Center on the Square is a place where anyone in the community can come, and they can audition to act. They can be a director; they can be a producer,” she said. “It’s not a professional company, but we put on really good shows.”
10:40 A.M.
Right beside the library, I found a little area that might rival Lily’s garden — Spring Park. The green space provides a little slice of nature in the heart of Searcy, and I took my time wandering through the park’s lush gardens before visiting the capped-off sulphur spring that once drew visitors to its alleged healing waters.
After drinking in the park’s natural beauty, I proceeded to downtown Searcy, which is neatly situated around the White County Courthouse. Completed in 1871, it is the oldest such structure in Arkansas that is still used as a courthouse.
Nearby, I stopped to take pictures of the Rialto Theater, another historic landmark. Constructed in 1923, the building boasts an art-deco design and eye-catching neon lights, and audiences can still catch a flick at the Rialto today. After visiting a few of the adorable boutiques downtown, I grabbed a bite at Burrito Day before continuing my adventure.
12:30 P.M.
Only a couple of blocks from the courthouse is the Black House, home of the Searcy Art Gallery. The deceptively titled yellow home was named for its early residents, the Black family. Debbie Higgs, assistant director, gave me a tour of the grand abode, which was built onto a two-room log cabin.
Benjamin Clayton Black and his wife, Molly, began upgrading the house after their New Orleans honeymoon filled them with architectural inspiration, which explains why the structure looks like it would be at home in the French Quarter. Completed in 1874, one of the home’s most striking features is the curved staircase in the entryway, which the family ordered from Paris.
The couple raised 11 children in the home, and some of their furniture, which was gifted back to the museum, is kept in an upstairs bedroom. The Black house is furnished with period antiques donated by locals. In fact, two women dropped by to donate some gorgeous chairs during my visit.
The home also displays several paintings of the Black House that artists painted in the garden, as well as a series of charcoal portraits drawn by a woman thought to be a contemporary of the Black children.
“They are absolutely fascinating because each one’s personality just springs off the paper, and they’re all their own person,” Higgs said. “They’re all so incredibly personal.”
The gallery also includes temporary exhibits. During my trip, the gallery was featuring Nicole Smith’s photography exhibit Seen in Arkansas: Through My Lens. The photos of horses, churches, nature and other aspects of Arkansas life are distinguished in part by Smith’s masterful use of light filtered through tree limbs or, in one case, lace linens drying on a line.
“I am absolutely fascinated by her eye and, frankly, her wit,” Higgs said, adding that the exhibit is Smith’s first.
“Even to be her first show, her eye has a wisdom there.”
Up on the balcony, Higgs and I peered down Race Avenue toward the courthouse and envisioned what the view might have looked like to the Blacks.
“Can’t you just see 11 kids playing in the yard?” Higgs asked, “and this [road] is all dirt and the wagons going up and down the street, and the kids are up in the trees.”
Higgs, who grew up riding her bike along that very avenue, said the house is like a family member to her. In fact, her mother and sister’s names are in the Black family Bible. She added that she is grateful to live in a community that supports the arts.
“I hope that we always have the arts in school,” she said, adding that art can provide a crucial emotional outlet for kids. “To become a great artist, you have to have that when you’re a child. What an escape the arts are! I’m so thankful that I get to work in a place that showcases that.”
2 P.M.
Eager to learn more about what Searcy might have been like during the time of the Blacks, I headed to Pioneer Village, a collection of 19th-century buildings owned by the White County Historical Society. Elizabeth Heard, chairwoman of Friends of Pioneer Village, took me on an extensive tour.
I could write a book about all the things I learned, but for this article, I will settle on a few highlights. One of my favorite spots was a replica of a trapper’s cabin based on Wild Sports in
the Far West, a firsthand account of German traveler Friedrich Gerstäcker’s hunting trips in mid-19th-century Arkansas. I was also taken with the old Pangburn jail, an intimidating structure built in the early 1900s and used until 1960.
One of the most noteworthy attractions is the Gordon House, a dogtrot-style log structure built in the 1870s. The home is filled with antiques that reflect how wealthy families like the Gordons, who owned 900 acres, might have lived during that time.
Pioneer Village hosts open houses in spring and fall that feature volunteers in period dress, demonstrations of pioneer crafts, live music and dancing. The village also opens at Christmastime to give visitors a glimpse at how their ancestors might have celebrated the holiday. In addition, volunteers give tours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays during the summer.
Some guests actually remember the buildings from their original locations. One time, a woman unlocked a post office box at the general store that had once belonged to her family, Heard said, and another time, a man found his own initials carved on a desk in the schoolhouse. Those who volunteer with the village are just as enthralled as the visitors, she added.
“The volunteers all have different interests,” she said. “Some know about machinery. Some know about wood. Some know about this, that and the other, but we all share a love of the village.”
A current labor of love is the old Garner Railroad Depot, which was used as a doctor’s office in Beebe before the structure was moved to the village in 2009. The depot offers a peek at how one might have boarded a train in the past but is still being refurbished. The foundation has been leveled, and volunteers are working to replace some of the boards.
Pioneer Village has more items to display than the current space allows, so the Friends of Pioneer Village are working to expand the grounds, Heard said. Like with the depot, a solid foundation and hard work have allowed the village to grow. Similarly, the folks who hunted and farmed in the area hundreds of years ago helped Searcy blossom into the city it is today.