Jacob Wolf House set for Oct. 11 dedication

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program will dedicate a historic marker for the Jacob Wolf House on Oct. 11 at Norfolk, and the public is invited to check out the reopened site.

Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, will dedicate the marker at 1 p.m. The house is open 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday with guided tours at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Built in the 1820s, it is the oldest two-story dog-trot used as a public building in the United States, according to a news release. Other two-story dog-trots were private homes, stagecoach inns or taverns. The Central Arkansas Library System Encyclopedia of Arkansas adds that it is the state’s oldest standing courthouse.

It carries the name of its builder, Jacob Wolf, a merchant, Indian agent, Baptist preacher, carpenter and blacksmith. An article in the April 11, 1915, Arkansas Gazette says he named the community of Norfolk. The article describes the yellowpine log building as daubed and whitewashed, with shutters on wrought-iron hinges Wolf made, along with their fasteners and all the nails in the house.

Although today in Baxter County, the land the house occupies was Independence County until 1825 when the Territorial Legislature created Izard County. Izard County’s first government convened at Wolf’s house; a second-floor room was the courthouse. (Baxter County was created in 1873 by Gov. Elisha Baxter using parts of Izard, Marion, Fulton and Searcy counties.)

“Since the state of Arkansas took over the property in 2017, there have been investments in needed renovations and safety upgrades,” says Scott Kaufman, division director of Historic Preservation, in the news release. Grants paid for replica furniture, the guided tours and other improvements. The log structure is nearly 80% original, he adds.

The site’s phone number is (870) 499-0556.