State board approves picks for National Register

Sixteen Arkansas properties — including a train depot, a Jewish temple and a farmstead — will be nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

The State Review Board of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program approved the nominations in its meeting Dec. 2. It generally takes a couple of months to hear whether the National Park Service has accepted the properties for listing on the National Register.

Among the nominated properties is the Rock Island Railroad Depot in Perry.

For years, an effort has been underway to save the century-old depot from demolition. That effort included moving the depot about 150 feet down the line so the railway could construct a new building on the original depot site.

The project also entailed building a new foundation and repairing structural damage, according to Michael Hibblen, author of “Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas” and news director of KUAR, the National Public Radio station at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has blogged about the progress at hibblenradio.com.

Preserve Arkansas listed the Perry depot in 2018 as one of its 10 most endangered places.

The railroad line going through Perry was constructed in about 1899 by the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad to transport coal from Indian Territory to the Mississippi River at Memphis, according to Preserve Arkansas.

Perry was incorporated in 1914 and grew around the railroad.

“Built about 1918, the Rock Island Railroad Depot at Perry is the only remaining woodframe depot from the Rock Island line in Arkansas,” according to the nonprofit preservation organization.

The last regular passenger train came through Perry in November 1967.

Another nominated property is the United Hebrew Congregation Tilles Memorial Temple in Fort Smith.

The single-story structure at 126 N. 47th St. serves as the only Jewish house of worship in the city of Fort Smith, as it has since it was built in 1956, according to the National Register nomination.

“Though Fort Smith had a history of Jewish residents since 1842, it was not after the Civil War that the area had enough Jewish residents to warrant any kind of a local Jewish community,” according to the nomination prepared by J. Mason Toms of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. “The significant economic boom that the frontier town saw during the Reconstruction era attracted many newcomers, including several Jewish families, who were in search of new and promising economic opportunities.”

A Jewish cemetery was established in Fort Smith in 1871 and a Temple of Israel congregation in 1880. Six years later, two Jewish congregations came together to establish a new United Hebrew Congregation.

Work began on a temple in 1892. The congregation continued to grow, and by the 1950s was in desperate need of more space, according to the nomination.

The temple building is an excellent example of the International Style of architecture by the notable Fort Smith architect E. Chester Nelson, according to the nomination.

Other nominated properties that have been approved:

• Highway A-1 Bridge, Plumerville (Conway County)

• Spring-Harrison Historic District, Camden (Ouachita County)

• Bella Vista Village Country Club, Bella Vista (Benton County)

• Newbill-Porter House, Little Rock (Pulaski County)

• Oak Forest United Methodist Church, Little Rock (Pulaski County)

• Walter Vestal House, North Little Rock (Pulaski County)

• Locust Street Overpass, North Little Rock (Pulaski County)

• Irvin and Elizabeth Daniel House, North Little Rock (Pulaski County)

• City Cemetery, Hot Springs (Garland County)

• Reiffs Chapel Cemetery, Fayetteville (Washington County)

Besides the 12 nominations unanimously approved Dec. 2, the board also decided four properties that were slated for the Arkansas Register “were deemed to have met criteria to receive nominations for the National Register,” according to a news release.

Those nominations will be revised and sent later to the National Park Service for National Register consideration.

They include Willow Oaks Acres Horse Barn in Prescott (Nevada County), Morrow Farmstead in Washington County, Castleberry Building in Salem (Fulton County) and the Robert and Marion Millett House #1, North Little Rock.

The Washington County farmstead is significant because it dates from the 1820s.

Located at 16995 Hale Mountain Road just to the north of the small town of Morrow, the farmstead consists of the Morrow house, a double-pen log cabin and several outbuildings, including a smokehouse, outhouse and a concrete-block pump house.

The farmstead also includes a field-stone well with concrete water trough, a separate concrete cattle trough, and the Morrow family cemetery.

“When George and Elizabeth Morrow built the house in the late 1820s, they would have been early settlers in the Morrow area of Washington County, and the fact that their house has survived makes it a rare survivor of a farmstead from the early 19th century,” according to the nomination prepared by Margaret Reed of Morrow.

The farmstead remained in the Morrow family until the current owners purchased the property in 2014, according to the nomination.

The main house has been altered over time.

“Over the years, the house was sided with wood weatherboard siding, and had additions added on the south side,” wrote Reed. “In addition, the windows were replaced and the western chimney and fireplace were removed. Once the house was purchased by the current owners in 2014, they removed the additions and the siding, and restored the house to its original log double-pen design. However, the western fireplace and chimney were not replaced. …

“Due to the alterations to the main house, it is not being nominated to the National Register, but it definitely meets the criteria for listing on the Arkansas Register.”