Hempstead’s new courthouse is a former bank
The “new” Hempstead County Courthouse is already a building with a recent history in the county.
The Farmers Bank & Trust at 200 E. Third St. will serve as the county courthouse after renovations are completed.
The construction will take an estimated 16 to 18 months to complete renovations at the bank building.
The Farmers Bank building has 36,000 square feet of floor space, compared to the exiting courthouse, which has 33,000 square feet.
The courthouse has 88 parking spaces, while the bank building has 95 off-street parking spaces.
In 2017, Farmers Bank & Trust finalized an agreement with the Hempstead County Quorum Court to sell its main bank building in Hope, Ark., for $1.5 million. Construction on the bank building was completed in 2003. It was originally the First National Bank of Hope.
The bank plans to transition all offices at 200 E. Third St. to a new location to be built across the street.
The current courthouse at 400 South Washington was built in 1939, a year after Hope beat out Washington as county seat.
The majority of courthouses in Southwest Arkansas were built during the 1930s by the Work Projects Administration, and signs of age are surfacing.
The county faced the quandary of repairing and upgrading the courthouse building to meet national building standards or purchasing an existing, newer building with fewer maintenance problems.
The existing courthouse has asbestos and roof leaks. It also is not in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act standards for bathrooms. When the courthouse was built in 1939, the standards didn’t exist.
Farmers Bank and Trust was established in 1906. direct link in one of the main display windows, or you can click on any of the related courthouse stories for links to the Challenge. You will also find links to the polling site from our Facebook page, and some of you may find links through Breaking News or Updates we send out through email.
The system that manages the Challenge will accept one vote per computer or mobile device. The top three vote-getters, in reverse order, will be featured in articles from Dec. 28 to Dec. 30. A week before this announcement three other courthouses will be featured, notable buildings that are either outside this region, or are no longer active county seats. These are not part of the Courthouse Challenge, but we think you will find them interesting. All the courthouses in the Challenge can be seen at the online polling site.)