Cultural resources survey starts as part of preservation initiative

The first payments have been made for a survey that is being conducted as part of a citywide historic preservation plan.

Elizabeth Eggleston, chairman of the El Dorado Historic District Commission, said the first two payments have been made to Terracon Consultant Services, who is surveying more than 300 properties to determine if they are eligible for a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Terracon is headquartered in Kansas and has multiple offices throughout the country, including Austin, Texas, whose office is conducting the survey in El Dorado.

The scope of work includes a Determination of Eligibility (DOE) survey for the Mellor Park residential area, the Forest Lawn/Eastridge subdivision, a small section of the McKinney and Bodenhamer subdivisions and some un-platted properties in the area.

During an EHDC meeting Dec. 10, Eggleston explained that the work entails a cultural resources survey, saying that she wanted to clarify the matter for residents who may think a construction survey is under way.

The survey, which includes 326 properties, is being funded by a $49,049 Certified Local Government grant that was awarded to the city by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program — the largest CLG grant to be awarded by the state.

The CLG program represents a partnership between local governments, including cities and counties, the AHPP and National Park Service to preserve historic resources at the local level.

Eggleston said the rate is $125 per property and the first two invoices have already been paid for preliminary

work, including archival research, that Terracon has performed.

She also said that city treasurer Trena Dean suggested a blanket invoice statement document to take care of invoices as they come in from Terracon, noting that the El Dorado City Council must approve bills over $2,000.

“That way, the bills won’t have to keep going back to the council,” Eggleston said.

The survey is one of the proposed projects in a citywide historic preservation plan that was approved by the city council last summer.

Historic district commissioners had anticipated a visit to El Dorado and an update from Beth Venezuela, senior architectural historian for Terracon, on Dec. 10 but Eggleston said the latest surge in COVID cases in Austin and around the country halted Venezuela’s plans to travel to El Dorado.

If the survey determines that the properties are eligible for a National Register listing, a nomination is presented to the State Review Board for consideration and upon a favorable vote from the board, the proposal is then forwarded to the National Park Service for final approval.

The next phases of the city’s historic preservation plan include surveys for properties in the Retta Brown and Country Club Colony neighborhoods and an African American context.

Eggleston said a working board is needed to help identify properties, places and structures to help preserve the city’s African American culture and heritage.

“We need to have a really strong, active group working on this,” she said.

Commissioners suggested teaming up with the Nile and Marzell Smith Museum of African American History and the South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society on the project.

She noted that she has collected materials and information from working with Janice Bush, president of the El Dorado-Union County chapter of the NAACP, on an ongoing project to install a historical marker on Hill Avenue, which was once home to several black-owned businesses and professional offices and other businesses that served the African American community.