ENDANGERED
Grapette Building among most at-risk places in state, group says
The former headquarters of Grapette has been listed as one of the Most Endangered Places in Arkansas by Preserve Arkansas.
The Most Endangered Places Program began in 1999 to raise awareness of historically and architecturally significant properties that are facing threats such as deterioration, neglect, insufficient resources and insensitive development.
Preserve Arkansas solicits nominations from individuals and organizations throughout the state to compile the annual list. The list is updated each year to generate discussion and support for saving the places that matter to Arkansans.
Properties named to the 2020 list are as follows:
Grapette Building
Camden Ouachita County
The headquarters and bottling plant of the Grapette Company, makers of one of
America’s bestselling soft drinks, that now has structural safety issues
Army & Navy General Hospital Historic District
Hot Springs, Garland County
A nationally significant military hospital known for treatment of arthritis and polio that will soon revert back to the Department of Defense with no plan for its future use Bank of Carthage
Carthage, Dallas County
A small town bank designed in 1907 by well-known Arkansas architect Charles L. Thompson that is now in an advanced state of deterioration Henry Brothers Store
Jacksonville, Pulaski County A 1925 mercantile and the oldest building in the National Register listed Jacksonville Commercial Historic District in desperate need of roof repair Old Jail Log Cabin
Lewisville, Lafayette County A log cabin built circa 1830 to serve as the county’s first jail that is now in need of emergency repairs to secure its future; Old Pocahontas High School/Old Rock Building,
Pocahontas, Randolph County
A 1939 building constructed by the NYA and WPA that for many years housed the school auditorium, is now in danger of being demolished to make way for a new school complex Plummer’s Station
Plumerville, Conway County
The ca. 1830 home of Samuel Plummer, namesake of Plumerville, and a witness structure to the Trail of Tears and stop along the Butterfield Overland Mail Route that is now in extremely poor condition.
Arkansas’s Most Endangered Program is modeled after the America’s 11 Most Endangered Places List announced annually by the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 1987. Arkansas’s list is updated annually to raise awareness of endangered properties and to generate discussions and form strategies to save these places.
Previous listings include the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess; the Rohwer Japanese-American Relocation Center in Desha County; the Hantz and Durst Houses in Fayetteville; Downtown Hot Springs; the William Woodruff House in Little Rock; and many others.
Properties are nominated by individuals, communities, and organizations interested in preserving these places for future Arkansans.
Criteria for inclusion in the list include a property’s level of local, state or national significance and the imminence and degree of the threat to the property. Once selected for the list, these properties become a priority for Preserve Arkansas’s advocacy efforts.
According to a press release from Preserve Arkansas, the Grapette Company was founded in Camden in 1939 by Benjamin Tyndle Fooks. Fooks purchased the headquarters and bottling plant at 157 Grinstead from the Rockwell Manufacturing
Company in 1945 and moved the bottling plant to its current, well-known location from its previous spot on Washington Street; he eventually added a second story and an addition on the west side of the building.
Grapette was one of the best-selling soft drinks in the country during the middle part of the 20th century, the release says. Fooks was known for his charisma. He developed his own soda syrups, according to the release, emphasizing fruit flavors like Grapette, Lemonette and Orangette. By 1950, Grapette was being bottled in 300 facilities in the U.S. and the company was divided into Grapette, a domestic company, and Grapette International. Although the brand declined and was shelved for a period after Fooks’s retirement and sale of the company, Grapette International currently sells the brand exclusively at Walmart, another Arkansas-founded business that has grown exponentially.
“The Grapette Building is now owned by the Ouachita Enrichment Center, which recently vacated the facility after structural problems were discovered. The sheer size of the one-story factory portion of the building will make it expensive to stabilize; however, the two-story office portion is in relatively good condition. The owners and local residents support saving the building—if not all of it, at least the office section. It has accessible parking and would make an excellent museum space dedicated to telling the Grapette story. The property owner would like to sell the facility to someone with the vision and funding to rehabilitate it,” the release says.
“The very back section is structurally unsound, now whether it can be fixed or not I don’t know. But in that back section there is a Grapette boiler still back there,” Cathy Cash, Executive Director of Ouachita Enrichment Centers, said.
“I would love to see it be saved. I would love to see it be used for something for the community, but it’s huge too. It’s a massive building. It’s about 68,000 square feet. I know there’s been talk of a Grapette museum, which I think would be wonderful. I would love to see it not go away because it’s just history,” she added. Cash said that over the years she has had engineers review the building, but due to Ouachita Enrichment Centers nonprofit status, they do not have the funds to repair the building.
“We’re a nonprofit; that’s just not in our range,” Cash said. “It’s not something we would ever have been able to undertake.” The building is currently unoccupied.
”That was one of our fears when we moved out is that it would just sit there and decay, and I would really hate to see that happen,” Cash said. “I just hope something comes to fruition. I’ve always loved the building. It’s not something we can save on our own. I just think it would be a tragedy to lose it. I think it’s one of Camden’s treasures. I would love to see it be saved, but it’s definitely going to take a village to do it.”