Progress made on Webb House
Roof nears completion; windows to follow
Despite the occasional thunderstorm, workers restoring the former John Lee Webb House have kept up a steady pace, and expect the roof of the historic home to be completed within two weeks.
“The roofers are doing a heck of a job,” Tony Usdrowski, supervising contractor for the project, said last week. Employees with C. Cougill
Roofing Co. Inc. of North Little Rock began work on the roof March 20. He said that, even on the days it poured, they would resume work as soon as the rains stopped.
Cheryl L. Batts, president and founder of P.H.O.E.B.E. (People Helping Others Excel By Example), is spearheading the project to restore the home, which was built around 1900 at 403 Pleasant St., into a community resource center and museum of local African-American history.
Prior work included the demolition of the house’s dilapidated porte cochere. The original plan was to replace it first, but Batts noted they quickly realized renovating the roof was the top priority and shifted gears. “It’s also more visibly seen so people see the money being put to use,” she said.
“It all starts with the roof,” Usdrowski said, noting it was crucial to stop any leaking from the top. “We have to restore the exterior before we can begin work on the interior,” he said.
The work, as expected, is very meticulous, with workers removing each roof tile by hand, making note of its location, and then cleaning it off to be put back later in the same place. Once the tiles in one section are removed, a moisture barrier sheet or ice shield, made from a rubber and asphalt combination, is installed, to rest underneath the tiles.
“Any moisture, rain or humidity, that gets past the tiles won’t get past that barrier,” Usdrowski said.
While the majority of the tiles being put back on the roof are the originals, he said about one-fourth were too damaged and had to be replaced. But they were able to find another building being torn down that had the same type and style of tile and are salvaging those to use on the Webb House.
“They are very ornate, a glazed tile. You don’t hardly see these type of tiles anymore. They are clearly from the turn of the century,” he said, noting the tiles actually get better with age. “They may get faded in the sun, but they actually become harder and stronger over time,” he said.
Usdrowski said the next project will be the windows and exterior brickwork, with the same system planned of removing the bricks, cleaning them up and then putting them back as they were with new mortar.
“The mortar was not so great way back when,” he said, but noted that as they put new mortar in they plan to use a dye to make the mortar look the same age as the bricks “so you don’t have bright white mortar contrasting with the older brick.”
Usdrowski noted some of the concrete lintels were missing and will have to be replaced. “We’re building them ourselves so they match the others,” he said.
He praised the work of the project’s carpenters, including his brother, Mike Usdrowski, and Alan Bartsch.
Batts said a Community Development Block Grant the project received will pay for the windows, and they have applied for a $125,000 grant from Lowe’s Home Improvement’s charitable fund. Batts noted Lowe’s manager has been very supportive of their project and “is working to help us in other ways too.”
She said since the beginning they are operating on a “pay as we go” basis, getting funding in place before proceeding to the next phase of the project. “We work the money as far as it will go and then raise more,” she said.
Usdrowski said as soon as people learn the project is a not-for-profit restoration of a historic house “everyone wants to jump on board and help.” He noted American Termite and Pest Control was brought in for a consultation, and ended up donating its services and treating the house. Likewise, City Plumbing Heating and Electric and Menzies Electric LLC have both donated services to the project.
“Everyone involved is an expert in their area,” Batts said. “I couldn’t be happier with how it’s coming along.”
Usdrowski said the house “has a lot of character to it,” both the exterior and interior. While there was work to be done on the interior, including redoing the plumbing and electric and replacing plaster and drywall, he said the framing inside is in good shape. “This house was built by craftsmen back in the day and I can tell you it is very well built.”
The house sits in the middle of the Pleasant Street Historic District, which is the largest African-American historic district in Arkansas, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Webb, who opened the Woodmen of the Union Building, later remodeled into the National Baptist Hotel, was the person most associated with the district.
After the death of their only child, Webb and his wife, Carrie, donated a building to the community in 1945 in her memory. The Emma Elease Webb Community Center is located at 127 Pleasant St.
Batts said their next fundraiser is the second annual children’s fashion show, this year being held April 29 at the former Vapors Club, 315 Park Ave. Tickets will be $20 for adults and $10 for students. “We hope to fill the place up,” she said. “The children all wanted to help and for the money to go the house. I mean, the house is going to be for them, too.”
Batts said her mission since returning to Hot Springs in 1999 has been to research and document the Hot Springs history from an African-American perspective. “To share, not just in books, but with pictures, exhibits, lectures, plays and other forms of media. To build in our youth a strong foundation of who they are, what they can do when they stick to it.”
She admitted the Webb House “was a surprise and what we are doing is more than a surprise to some, but our faith and the might of God has not wavered, when our now silent leader and brother, Cornelious Leron Hollinshed said that ‘God is not broke,’ I can see his face and his smile and we all thank his wife, Virginia, for lending him to us.
“We move forward on the faith that he showed and taught us … he loved his children, grands, the children of Hot Springs, the people he worked with and he loved this organization,” she said.
Batts noted that within the house will be the Cornelius Leron Hollinshed Learning Center, named for Hollinshed, who was a founding member of P.H.O.E.B.E. and worked with the Arkansas Career Training Institute and the Quapaw Children’s Center for many years.
“These are the reasons that we ask you to continue to support us, we believe that this is a special place that will have special meaning for many people,” she said.
As of Monday, the GoFundMe campaign for the house had raised $74,755 toward a goal of $300,000.
For more information or to donate, call 624-9400, email info@theuzuriproject.org or visit https://www.gofundme.com/Savethejohnleewebbhouse.