Benton built with DIY determination, bricks
BENTON — Do-it-yourself was pretty much the only way to go in antebellum Arkansas. Local builders had to make their own bricks in 1852 when German immigrant John William Shoppach had his house built in Benton.
Arkansas had been a state for just 16 years, and Benton was a village of a few hundred residents. Chosen in 1836 as the seat of Saline County, the little community did boast a jockey club with a horse track, as well as Mrs. Jeffries’ Female School. A courthouse gave the place a sense of larger purpose.
Shoppach House, 508 N. Main St., is now the oldest standing dwelling in Benton and the oldest brick structure in Saline County. Listed since 1975 on the National Register of Historic Places, it makes a good starting point for a touristic stroll through the past in today’s prospering city of nearly 31,000 residents.
Four blocks south of Shoppach House lies Benton Commercial Historic District, also on the National Register of Historic Places and showcasing 53 properties of note built mainly in the first half of the 20th century. It is bordered by Sevier Street on the north, North East Street on the east, South Street East and River Street on the south, and North Market Street on the west.
Another two blocks south stands a unique structure, Gann House Museum. Erected in 1893 as a doctor’s office by patients who couldn’t pay their fees, it is said to be the only building in the world made of bauxite ore, excavated from nearby mines by the aluminum industry.
John William Shoppach was Saline County clerk when he died in early 1861. During the Civil War, the building was home to his son, Confederate Capt. James H. Shoppach, until Union troops occupied Benton in the fall of 1863. Five generations of Shoppachs lived here until 1959. Ownership was later transferred to the Saline County Art League.
Alleged to be haunted, the house is rarely open to visitors. But it merits a stop to admire the exterior’s American Colonial style architecture. The front features two glass windows on each side of painted double doors. Behind the house is Pilgrim Rest Church, established in 1833 just west of Little Rock and moved here in 1962. There’s also a 19th-century wellhead, as well as a tiny post office built in 1940 and moved from DeTonti.
Three sites in the Benton Commercial Historic District are worthy enough to have earned National Register status on their own. Listed in 1976, the most impressive is the towering Saline County Courthouse, dating to 1902. Architect Charles L.Thompson designed it in Romanesque Revival style, an unusual choice in Arkansas. Its most striking feature is the four-story clock tower at one corner, accented by smaller towers at the other three corners.
Entertainment still takes place at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., which was listed on the National Register in 2003. The building’s oldest section, dating to 1920, was part of the silent-movie era’s IMP (Independent Motion Pictures) cinema. Renamed the Royal in 1949, it was operated as a playhouse from 1996-2000 by Jerry and Jerri Lynn Van Dyke. He gave the theater to the Royal Players, who stage productions there.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building, 123 N. Market, was erected in 1913 and gained National Register status in 2004. The fraternal order used the second floor as a meeting hall and leased the ground floor to a hardware store. Evidently Odd Fellows frowned upon ground-floor meeting space. The Odd Fellows now meet elsewhere in Benton after having donated the structure to the Saline County History and Heritage Society.
The courthouse, at 116 years of age, is the oldest building in the historic district. But the district’s street layout goes back to an 1836 decision by Benton’s founders to create a traditional grid pattern around a town square. The first courthouse, completed three years later, was a two-story edifice that cost $3,574. Its bricks, like those of the Shoppach House, were made on the spot.