Old City Hall building purchased from Taylor in 1970

The following article by Billie Jines is the history of the building which is now city hall. Billie was the editor of our local newspaper for a number of years.

Just how many operated a cafe there is not known, nor was the writer able to contact some who might have known more. For instance, it was mentioned that Retha Jefferson and the late Pearl Miller might once have had the cafe, as well as Ruth and Hubert Follett and Ruth and Frank Dean. Records do show that Oct. 26, 1956, Eula Campbell, a daughter of Charlie Tetrick and his wife issued a Warranty Deed to Roy W. Taylor and Nada Z. Taylor, his wife, for the property.

During the Taylors’ proprietorship, it is said that they cut a door between the two buildings, whereas, it had been a separate wall between the two parts of the structure previously. In the east building, they established a banquet room. The cedar wainscoting in that room still was in use in what had been -the Council Room until recently. Just how long the Taylors ran the cafe is not now known.

It is known that it was Nada Z. Taylor, who sold the property to the city in 1970. At that time, there were two other businesses operating in the building: Elkhorn Gun and Gift Shop and Walker’s Radio and TV.

The purchase agreement was dated Oct. 8, 1970, with Mrs. Taylor selling the property to the City of Pea Ridge. This was the city’s second city hall. About three years earlier, the city and Earle and Billie Jines, publishers of The Pea Ridge GRAPHIC, now The TIMES, shared the rent on the building immediately north of Sisco Funeral Home. It served not only the city but the paper’s office until the Jines sold their home in Springdale and moved to Pea Ridge. The former city hall now is part of the funeral home.

Prior to that, it was sometimes said that Water Department superintendent Paul Chase carried the city Water Department around in his hip pocket. Actually, that was not quite accurate. Eva Patterson was taking care of the books at her home, and Webb’s Feed Store was the repository for records. Fred McKinney said that in those days, the state auditor would come to the feed store and audit the books out of a paper sack.

When the city occupied its rented city hall, Eula Mae Walker was hired as the city’s secretary to manage the office.

The purchase of the building then used as City Hall and Council/Court Chambers was not without controversy. The city’s purchase price was $7,890 of which $600 was made as a down payment and the balance was to be paid in annual installments.

A group of local citizens signed a petition asking that the voters decide whether or not to proceed with the transaction. The election was held Dec. 1, 1970, and resulted in 197 votes in favor of the purchase, as opposed to 136 opposing it.

The city occupied the building as it was at first, and along the way work began, mostly by city workers, to make improvements. One change was taking out the stairway that had led up to Dr. Greene’s office and to the apartment up there. It was replaced by a door and a hallway downstairs.

Joe Lasater, whose family lived practically in town and whose father was a downtown barber when Joe was a boy, was one of many who offered me help with this story. One of his boyhood memories had to do with that staircase. He recalled how he and another boy used to earn a bit of spending money by carrying Dr. Greene’s firewood up to his office.

The west side of the building became the Pea Ridge Fire Department, housing not only the fire trucks but the city ambulance, as well. Charles pointed out that the addition of an outside stairway to the east side of the building allowed the city to establish its first police department upstairs. It existed there until the building of the Emergency Services building on South Curtis Avenue. Of course, the Fire Department vehicles and the ambulance also were moved to that new building.

And later the, interior of the historic building in downtown Pea Ridge were completely remodeled. It provided attractive, efficient offices and a council/ courtroom that a town or city of any size might be proud to introduce to citizens and their friends.