Spa City restoration job forges ahead

Transforming historic home into museum is happening in fits and starts

HOT SPRINGS — A project to restore the historic John Lee Webb house into a community resource center and museum has marched steadily forward since it began in 2014, continuing to get grants every year.

“We’re doing this by grants and donations, so it’s a slow process,” said Cheryl Batts, president and founder of People Helping Others Excel by Example, which has led the restoration effort of Webb’s former home at 403 Pleasant St. in Hot Springs.

Webb was a well-known black businessman and contractor who was active in many social and civic organizations. He and his family lived in the large, brick Queen Anne-style house from the 1920s to 1940s.

“Grants come once a year, so we do what we’re supposed to do, sit down and apply, get the grant and then wait and do it again the next year,” Batts said.

A $90,000 Historic Preservation Restoration grant from the Arkansas Department of Heritage in 2016 paid for the restoration of the home’s green tile roof. That work has been completed.

A $50,973 Community Development Block Grant obtained through the city went to repairing and restoring all 47 windows in the house.

In the 2018-19 period, the organization picked up an additional historic preservation grant of $30,946 to secure the building’s footings and foundation. That work is scheduled to start this year, Batts said.

“We knew before we got the house, there was termite damage,” she said. “Basically, whatever’s under there that is holding this house together that needs to be replaced or firmed up — that’s what they’re going to do.”

One grant requires a match of $15,473, and the organization is going to be able to put more than $13,000 from unspent funds in the city’s Community Development Block Grant annual action plan toward the match.

She said the organization needs to raise $2,000 to complete the match, which it hopes to do with an upcoming event. “A Thanksgiving for the John Lee Webb House” is scheduled for Nov. 15 at the Historic Visitors Chapel AME Church, and will feature an evening of gospel music.

Another $62,000 Community Development Block Grant grant obtained through the city will fund the restoration of the porch and porte-cochere.

That project will require stabilizing the eight columns that hold up the porch and porte-cochere before the area’s roof can be replaced.

Earlier this year, the group applied for and received a $10,000 grant for a protective, polycarbonate clear-boarding to protect the windows. She noted that the treatment is used in other cities to protect historic buildings and can easily be removed when construction is finished.

Batts said day-to-day maintenance of the grounds, such as cutting the grass and trimming hedges, has been handled for free by members of Teen Challenge of Arkansas, the Master Gardeners and RA PSYCHLE, a local community education and restoration organization consisting of former graduates of the People Helping Others Excel by Example’s Uzuri Project.

Funds still need to be raised to pay insurance and incidental costs, such as rental of a dumpster for construction debris.

Batts said she hopes the exterior work can be completed by the beginning of 2021. She said the interior renovation will likely be easier and less expensive, and could be completed in a year, although it will require more funding.

“Maybe we’ll be completely finished by the end of 2021,” she said. “That’s my hope.”