Ancient village, Johnny Cash home among those being discussed

Board considering 14 sites for U.S. register

Johnny Cash’s boyhood home and the site of a prehistoric village — both in Mississippi County — are two of the 14 properties the state review board of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program will consider Wednesday for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

Mark Christ, a spokesman for the preservation program, said it could nominate all 14 properties. Then it would be up to the National Park Service to determine which ones make the final cut. Christ said the board has about a 98 percent success rate with the nominations it sends to the National Register.

“They go through a rigorous internal determination of eligibility before going to the board, so if a nomination makes it through both of those processes, it’s definitely a property that should be listed,” he said in an email.

The Arkansas board meets three times a year and usually considers seven to 15 properties at each meeting.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation.

The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home is administered by Arkansas State University.

Ruth Hawkins, director of ASU’s Heritage Sites, said Cash’s 1934 boyhood home near Dyess wouldn’t have qualified for nomination until after restoration was finished in 2014.

Previous owners had installed paneling, wallpaper and modern tile flooring, which had to be torn out, Hawkins said. They also had

rebuilt the kitchen, altered windows, removed the wood-burning stove and added a sliding glass patio door, according to the nomination form.

“It was just impossible before you started tearing into it to know how much of the original material was there,” Hawkins said.

Fortunately, most of the original material was still there.

Besides its significance as Johnny Cash’s boyhood home, the building is a good example of a New Deal-era colony house, Hawkins said.

The one-story, five-room farmhouse was built by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration using standard plans designed by Arkansas architect Howard Eichenbaum, according to the nomination form.

In 1934, the house was valued at about $1,000.

“Unlike the smaller houses, the five-room house included an indoor toilet and bath facilities, though it still utilized a well for water and the plumbing fixtures were never operational when the Cash family lived in the house,” according to the nomination. “The house also was pre-wired for electricity that arrived at the colony center in the mid-1930s, but to the houses in 1946.”

After the restoration, the house resembled its appearance in 1934, Hawkins said.

“The house retains much of its original 1930s vernacular/Colonial Revival design,” according to the nomination form. “The property retains the feeling of a farmhouse from the 1930s-era Dyess Colony.

“The largest change to the property’s integrity centers on its setting. The barn, smokehouse, chicken coop, and privy have been demolished, and the university does not own the entire 40 acres that the Cash family received.”

The Cash family sold the farm in 1954.

Along with wider recognition, being listed on the National Register will make the house eligible for grants that are available only to National Register properties, Hawkins said.

Another Mississippi County site being considered is unique because the board doesn’t often nominate archaeological sites, Christ said.

He’s referring to Sherman Mound and Village.

Archaeological evidence suggests it was an American Indian village during the Late Woodland period, around A.D. 400-700. It grew during the Middle Mississippian period (A.D. 1200-1400) to become a large, fortified town with a mound-and-plaza complex, according to the nomination form.

The Sherman Mound and Village archaeological site has religious and cultural significance for the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, according to the nomination. The site has been known to archaeologists since Cyrus Thomas first published an image and description of it in his classic Mound Explorations in 1894.

Archaeologists believe the site served as a civic/ceremonial center for a chiefdom-level society.

The site included a primary mound, two secondary mounds, one or two plazas, a palisade wall with bastions and a residential area, according to the nomination form.

The most conspicuous remaining element of the town is the Sherman Mound, which is 334 feet by 134 feet at its base and 20 feet high, according to the nomination form. It’s one of the largest and best-preserved Middle Mississippian period earthworks in the Central Mississippi Valley.

Other properties being considered for nomination are:

■ The Arkansas Teachers Association headquarters building and professional services building in Little Rock.

■ The College Avenue Historic District in Conway.

■ The Greenwood School at Hot Springs.

■ The Robert Wanslow House, Fitzgerald Historic District and Elmwood Cemetery in Fort Smith.

■ The R.L. Leach Grocery Store at Dutch Mills in Washington County.

■ The Highfill Community Building in Highfill.

■ The Gentry Grand Army of the Republic Monument in Gentry.

■ The Green Valley Homestead at Sturkie in Fulton County.

■ The Blytheville Air Force Base Strategic Arms Command Alert and Weapons Storage Areas Historic District in Blytheville.

The board also will consider properties for listing on the Arkansas Register of Historic Places, which recognizes historic properties that don’t meet National Register requirements.

The properties being considered are:

■ Edwards Chapel in Russellville.

■ The Lafayette School gymnasium in Camden.

■ Lake June at Stamps in Lafayette County.

■ The Captain Daniel Matthews House in Osceola.