NR ; u other, \" 1ain:) D not for publication N/A D vicinity N/A. ational Register of Historic Places Registration Form

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1 NPS Form (Ot. 1990) Mational Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Registration Form ~ -ls-01 NR ; OMB No This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and distrits. See instrutions in How to Complete the National Register of Histori Plaes registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete eah item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If an item does not apply to the property being doumented, enter "N/A" for "not appliable." For funtions, arhitetural lassifiation, materials, and areas of signifiane, enter only ategories and subategories from the instrutions. Plae additional entries and narrative items on ontinuation sheets (NPS Form a). Use a typewriter, word proessor, or omputer, to omplete all items. 1. Name of Property histori name other names/site number N/A ;_;: ;: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- 2. Loation street & number ity or town Roughly bounded by Rie, Thomasville, Jordan, & MDonald Streets Poahontas D not for publiation N/A D viinity N/A state Arkansas ode AR ounty Randolph ode 121 zip ode State/Federal Ageny Certifiation As the designated authority under the National Histori Preservation At, as amended, I hereby ertify that this C8l nomination 0 request for determination of eligibility meets the doumentation standards for registering properties in the lational Register of Histori Plaes and meets the proedural and professional requirements set for in 36 CFR Part 60. In.ny opinion, the property C8l meets 0 does not meet the National Register riteria. I reommend that this property be onsidered signifiant D nati lly D statewide C8l loally. (See ontinuation s et to additional omments.). Signature of ertifying offiial/title Arkansas Histori Preservation Program State or Federal ageny and bureau In my opinion, the property 0 meets 0 does not meet the National Register riteria. (0 See Continuation sheet for additional omments.) Signature of ertifying offiial/title Date State or Federal ageny and bureau 4. National Park Servie Certifiation I hereby ertify that the property is: 0 entered in the National Register. D See ontinuation sheet D determined eligible for the National Register. D See ontinuation sheet D determined not eligible for the National Register D removed from the National Register. u other, \" 1ain:) Signature of the Keeper Date of Ation

2 Name of Property Randolph County, Arkansas County and State v.:1assifiation Ownership of Property (Chek as many boxes as apply) Category of Property (Chek only one box) Number of Resoures within Property (Do not inlude previously listed resoures in ount) ~ private D building(s) ~ publi-loal ~ distrit D publi-state D site D publi-federal D struture D objet Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A Contributing Nonontributing (vaant lots) buildings sites strutures objets Total Number of Contributing resoures previously listed in the National Register 3 6. Funtion or Use Histori Funtions (Enter ategories from instrutions) GOVERNMENT/ity hall COMMERCE/TRADE/finanial institution MERCE/TRADE/business COMMERCE/TRADE/restaurant RECREATION AND CULTURE/musi faility HEALTH CARE/ lini DOMESTIC/single dwelling Current Funtions (Enter ategories from instrutions) GOVERNMENT/ity hall COMMERCE/TRADE/finanial institution COMMERCE/TRADE/business SOCIAL/meeting hall COMMERCE/TRADE/restaurant RECREATION AND CULTURE/musi faility EDUCATION/library VACANT/NOT IN USE 7. Desription Arhitetural Classifiation (Enter ategories from instrutions) LATE VICTORIAN/Italianate, Romanesque LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY REVIVALS/ Classial Revival LATE 19rH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MOVEMENTS/Commerial Style MODERN MOVEMENT/Moderne, Art Deo Materials (Enter ategories from instrutions) foundation CONCRETE, BRICK, STONE walls BRICK, METAL, STONE, WOOD roof other ASPHALT bronze "ative Desription,ribe the histori and urrent ondition of the property on one or more ontinuation sheets.)

3 Name of Property Randolph County, Arkansas County and State (..;statement of Signifiane Appliable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the riteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.) [8J A Property is assoiated with events that have made a signifiant ontribution to the broad patterns of our history. Areas of Signifiane (Enter ategories from instrutions) ARCHITECTURE COMMERCE D B Property is assoiated with the lives of persons signifiant in our past. [8J C Property embodies the distintive harateristis of a type, period, or method of onstrution or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artisti values, or represents a signifiant and distinguishable entity who's omponents lak individual distintion. Period of Signifiane Ca D D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Criteria Considerations N/A (Mark "x" in all boxes that apply.) Property is: A owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes. D B removed from its original loation. D C moved from its original loation. D D a emetery. Signifiant Dates 1875 Old Courthouse 1914 fire along Broadway 1940 New Courthouse Signifiant Person (omplete if Criterion Bis marked) N/A Cultural Affiliation N/A D E a reonstruted building, objet, or struture. D F a ommemorative property D G less than 50 years of age or ahieved signifiane within the past 50 years. Arhitet/Builder Henry Lesmeister, arhitet Spinnenweber & Peters; John A. MKay; T. Jarvis & Co.; National Youth Administration, builders. Narrative Statement of Signifiane (Explain the signifiane of the property on one or more ontinuation sheets.) 9. Major Bibliographial Referenes Bibliography (Cite the books, artiles, and other soures used in preparing this form on one or more ontinuation sheets.) Previous doumentation on file (NPS): N/A D preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested previously listed in the National Register Previously determined eligible by the National Register D designated a National Histori Landmark D reorded by Histori Amerian Buildings Survey # ~~~~~~~~~~ D reorded by Histori Amerian Engineering Primary loation of additional data: [8J State Histori Preservation Offie D Other State Ageny D Federal Ageny D Loal Government D University D Other Name of repository:

4 Poahontas Commerial Histori Distrit Name of Property Randolph County, Arkansas County and State l_ ) Geographial Data w Areage of Property ~~ ~ UTM Referenes (plae additional UTM referenes on a ontinuation sheet.) Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing [8J See ontinuation sheet Verbal Boundary Desription (Desribe the boundaries of the property on a ontinuation sheet.) Boundary Justifiation (Explain why the boundaries were seleted on a ontinuation sheet.) 11. Form Prepared By name/title Joan Gould & Andra Kowalzyk Martens, edited by Ralph S. Wilox, National Register & Survey Coord. organization Arkansas Histori Preservation Program date _O to_b_e_r_2_0_0_8 street & number 1500 Tower Building, 323 Center Street telephone (501) ity or town Little Rok state AR zip ode Atiditional Doumentation 1it the following items with the ompleted form : s Maps A USGS map (7.5 Or 15 minute series) indiating the property's loation A Sketh map for histori distrits and properties having large areage or numerous resoures. Photographs Representative blak and white photographs of the property. Additional items (Chek with the SHPO) or FPO for any additional items Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of SHPO or FPO.) name Multi le street & number ity or town state telephone zip ode Paperwork Redution At Statement: This information is being olleted for appliations to the National Register of Histori Plaes to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listing. Response to this request is required to obtain iefit in aordane with the National Histori Preservation At, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.) Estimated Burden Statement: Publi reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response inluding time for reviewing instrutions, gathering and maintaining data, and ompleting and reviewing the form. Diret omments regarding this burden estimate or any aspet of this form to the Chief, Administrative Servies Division, National Park Servie, P. 0. Box 37127, Washington, DC ; and the Offie of Management and Budget, Paperwork Redutions Projets ( ), Washington, DC

5 PS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page DESCRIPTION resoures # Property address Owner name Owner Resoure address number N. Bettis 102 N. Bettis Marilyn Box 361, RA0063 Hotze Poahontas, 2 St. Charles Hotel N. Bettis MaryRapert 2805 RA0062 Killdeer, Poahontas, 3 The Villager 108 N. Bettis Byron& 3866 Hwy. RA0061 Franes 90W., Futrell Poahontas, 0 4 Merle Norman Studio 110 N. Bettis Donald & 110 N. RA0060 Rebea Bettis, Wilson Poahontas, 5 R VI Realtors 112 N. Bettis MNabb Box 733, RA0059 Properties, Poahontas, LLC 6 Lewallen Hotel N. Bettis MNabb Box 733, RA0058 Properties, Poahontas, LLC N.Bettis 207 N. Bettis Brian Hayes 530 English RA0140 Hulse Rd., 1401 Hwy. 304E, Poahontas, 8 Randolph County Bank /Western 102 South Bettis Byron 3866 RA0074 Auto Futrell Hardware Futrell Highway90 W., Poahontas, 9 Old Randolph County Courthouse City Square Randolph 201 S. Marr, RA County Poahontas, New ourthouse East Broadway x N. Marr Randolph 201 S. Marr, RA0039 County Poahontas, loa Veterans memorial Broadway x Van Bibber Randolph 201 S. Marr, RA0039 Co. Poahontas, A Cl NC NC NC NC IL IL NC

6 PS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page 2 11 Bank of Poahontas 101 East Broadway Bank of 101 E. RA0075 Poahontas Broadway, Randolph County Bank 12 Presley's Dry Goods Store 104 East Broadway RA DeClerk LP Gas 105 East Broadway Robert A. 906 N. Oak, RA0070 DeClerk Poahontas, 14 DeClerk LP Gas 109 East Broadway David, Box400, RA0071 William, & Poahontas, Sharon DeClerk 15 Futrell Pharmay 115 East Broadway Mark& 115 E. RA0069 Elizabeth Broadway, Futrell Poahontas, 16 Enlosed Alley B/W RA0073 & RA0068 J.R. Jakson Box 467, RA0072 Poahontas, AR' Old City Hall East Broadway James & 213 E. RA0068 Amanda Broadway, Tinker Poahontas, 18 Western Auto storage 212 Broadway Byron & 3866 Hwy. RA0064 Franes 90W., Futrell Poahontas, 19 Little Flower Health Clini W. Broadway M.A. & Clo Rita RA0040 Mary Louise Dust, 1410 Baltz Paul St., Poahontas, 20 The Broadway Plae Building 202 W. Broadway Broadway 202 RAOl 15 Plae In. Broadway, /o Jim King Poahontas, 21 Martin Ageny 210 W. Broadway Martin Box 50, RA0116 Ageny In. Poahontas, /o Robert Olvey Million Motors Ford Broadway x Thomasville Elwood 607 RA0117 Rd. Smith Trust Thomasville Rd., Poahontas, 23 Turner's Saloon 102 East Everett Fred Brown 102 East RA0049 Everett, ~ NC NC NC NC NC NC NC

7 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page 3 Poahontas, 24 Spinnenweber & Peters Groery 104 East Everett Wendell& 452 Lake RA0050 Marilyn Dr., Hogan Poahontas, 25 Spinnenweber & Peters Merantile 106 East Everett Five Rivers Box 896, RA0051 Histori Poahontas, Preservation 26 Jansen Buther Shop East Everett Five Rivers Box 896, RA0052 Histori Poahontas, Preservation 27 Poahontas State Bank 114 East Everett Joe& Box 249, RA0053 Summer Poahontas, Voohers Lumber Co. 200 East Everett Grider James Box 546, Throgmorto Poahontas, RA0054 n 29 M.M.Carter's Livery Stable East Everett Leslie & Box 463, RA0055 David Poahontas, Throesh 30 Hamill Blok 102 West Everett Kenneth or 271 RA0048 Jan Ziegler Marigold, trustees Poahontas, 31 Palae Rexall West Everett Rey Family 349 RA0047 Trust Middlebrook Rd., Maynard, AR Sturdy Outdoor Furniture 108 West Everett David & 210 E. RAOl 10 Leslie Everett, Throe sh Poahontas, 33 Peters Variety Store 110 W. Everett David & 3722 Pyburn RAOlll Leslie Ext., Throes h Poahontas, 34 Ben Franklin 10 ent 109 W. Everett Salvation Box 608, RAOl 12 Army Poahontas, Van Adkins Clothing 111 W. Everett Randolph 107W. RAOl 13 County Broadway, Poahontas, 36 Star Herald 314 West Everett Burklyn 1033 Old RA0114 Company Burr Rd., Warm 0 ic.j NC NC NC NC NC NC NC

8 PS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page 4 Springs, AR Lewallen House 319W. Everett Lewallen 406 Olive, RA0118 Family Poahontas, Living Trust 38 Poahontas Polie & Fire Station 109 Highway 67 S. John A. Box 443, RA0067 DeClerk Poahontas, 39 Conrete Clearwell Building Next to RA0067 John A. Box 443, RA0065 DeClerk Poahontas, 40 Lewallen's arpet & installation 161Highway67 S. Allen 289 Mallard RA0057 Thielemier Ln., Poahontas, State Bank Building N. Marr Carlton & 3674 Madeline Engleberg, RA0041 Throesh Poahontas, 42 Blak River Homestead Co. 103 N. Marr Wilma& Box 764, RA0042 Jimmy Poahontas, Dunlap 43 Sanitary Barber Shop 105 N. Marr Hugh& 902W. RA0043 Joan Churh, Hightower Poahontas, 44 Shneibaum's dry goods 107 N. Marr Riky & 189 Kellet RA0044 Crystal Rd., Kell et Poahontas, 45 Roxie's 109 N. Marr Rik Kellet 189 Kellet RA0045 Rd., Poahontas, 46 Spinnenweber & Peters Wagons & 111 N. Marr Wendell & 452 Lake RA0046 Buggies Marilyn Dr., Hogan Poahontas, 47 Enlosed alley South of 208 N. Marr Tom 302 N. Marr, RA0130 Rakley Poahontas, One-stop Rereation N. Marr Tom& 405 Everett, RA0131 Lu gene Poahontas, Rakley 49 Rosie & Joe's Canteen 211 N. Marr Robert Hik 3265 RA0129 Country Club Rd., Poahontas, ru NC NC

9 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page 5 50 Ella Mae's Creative Gallery 214 N. Marr 51 Raven's Rest 215 N. Marr 52 Tom's Family barber Shop 300 N. Marr 53 Imperial Theater 302 N. Marr ~ Camera Corner Portraits 306 N. Marr 55 Riverside Petroleum Produts 106 MDonald 56 Warehouse 306 MDonald 57 Egg Dehydration Plant 306 MDonald 58 Poahontas-Friso Depot MDonald Pyburn 106 Pyburn u Pyburn 107 Pyburn 61 Randolph County Deputy 109 Pyburn Ella& 214 N. Marr, RA0132 William Poahontas, Kinade Robert& 1943 Rapert RA0128 Siobahn St., Welh Maynard, AR Studio for 1401 Hwy. RA0139 the Arts 304E, Poahontas, Studio for 1401 Hwy. RA0138 the Arts 304E, Poahontas, James Box 546, RA0137 Throgmorot Poahontas, n Riverside Box 106, RA0144 Petroleum Box 400, 1401 Hwy. 304E, Poahontas, DeClerkLP Box400, RA0142 Gas 1401 Hwy. 304E, Poahontas, DeClerkLP Box 400, RA0143 Gas 1401 Hwy. 304E, Poahontas, Eugenia 1111 RA0023 Parker Bowers St., Poahontas, George 3216 Hwy. RA0133 Randall 115, Guntharp Poahontas, Rainer& 1411 RA0127 Sue DeClerk Convent, Trustees Poahontas, Rihard Box 643, RA0126 NC NC NC NC

10 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page Proseutor Castleman Poahontas, 62 Shepherd's bookkeeping 112 Pyburn Mary Ann& 1150 Harper RA0134 Jimmy Cemetery Shepherd Rd., Poahontas, West Pyburn 113 West Pyburn Adam Byrd 1201 W. RA0125 Pine, Poahontas, 64 DeClerk-Throesh Engineering 114 Pyburn Bernard De 114 Pyburn, RA0135 Clerk & Poahontas, Terry Throesh Kajun Konnetion Seafood Mkt. 205 Pyburn Gisele Anita 2080 Sierra 0 Barlow Loop, RA0124 Poahontas, 66 Opera House Jewelry 207 Pyburn Gary Leo 207W. RA0123 King Pyburn, Poahontas, 67 Farmers insurane 209 Pyburn James 505W. RA0122 DeClerk Everett, Poahontas, 68 Computer Comer 211 Pyburn John& Box443, RA0121 Wilma Poahontas, DeClerk 69 Pyburn at omer of Vane Pyburn at omer of Vane Steve Shults 1410 Hwy. RA0141 /o Blak 304E, 1401 River Hwy. 304E, Tehnial Poahontas, College 70 Poahontas post offie 109 Van Bibber Thelma& Box 85, RA0018 J.V. Coming, AR Rokwell Ostao 201 N. Van Bibber Bobbie 2010 Bryant, RAOl 19 Bennett Poahontas, ru Don R. Brown att. 207 N. Van Bibber Patrik W. 301 County Carroll Club Rd. RA0120 #A, Poahontas, Van Bibber 310 Van Bibber Alyssa Sotak 3619 Spring RA0136 Meadow NC NC NC IL NC

11 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page I I I Ln, Lewi.ville, TX I I

12 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 8 Summary Poahontas is a small town in Randolph County, Arkansas, with a population in 2000 of 6,518 residents. The town is loated along Highway 67 west of the Blak River in northeast Arkansas. Poahontas is approximately 140 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and approximately 140 miles northeast of Little Rok. The majority of the 73 ommerial and institutional buildings that onstitute the Poahontas Commerial Histori Distrit lie to the west of Highway 67; a few are loated between the highway and the river. The foal point of the distrit is the 1875 Randolph County Courthouse, and the buildings on eah side of the square date from a The distrit is the histori town enter; buildings there housed mainly ommerial businesses suh as dry goods stores, groery stores, and hardware stores. Inluded in the distrit are two ourthouses, a former "'"age, a theater, a former auto showroom and servie garage, a WP A post offie, and the former City Hall fire and polie department buildings. Forty-three of the buildings (56.6%) are ontributing distrit resoures due to their age, arhitetural and histori signifiane, and integrity. Twenty-eight buildings, two vaant lots, and one objet (39.5%) are non-ontributing. In addition, three resoures (3.9%) are individually listed. In form and styling, the buildings reflet their histori funtions. Most of the buildings of the distrit demonstrate the popular one- or two-part ommerial blok form. These buildings have standard storefronts and flat roofs. Storefronts have a mix of original and replaement elements. Generally, stylisti elements are traditional and restrained, and inlude elements like parapets, brik orbelling, soldier ourses, deorative brikwork, and the oasional arhed window or door or storefront olumns or pilasters. Styles represented within the distrit inlude Italianate, Classial Revival, Art Deo, and Art Modeme. The distrit's buildings and landsape are refletive of its use as a ommerial and soial enter in late nineteenth and early 20th entury Poahontas.

13 PS FORM A OMB App<ovaJ No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 9 Inventory with Arkansas Histori Preservation Program Resoure Numbers North Bettis, RA0063 This is a two-story, a. 1925, brik ommerial building with a flat roof, a metal display windows, single-light glass and wood door, metal asement windows on the side elevation, and a urved, anvas awning. (C) North Bettis, RA0062 This is a two-story, mid-to-late nineteenth entury, Italianate-influened, ommerial building with a flat roof, brik exterior with orbelled ornie, six segmental arhed window openings with two-over-two windows, a remodeled storefront with a full-width, wood shingle awning. (C) 'l 108 North Bettis, RA0061 sis a one-story, early twentieth entury building that has been extensively altered a A shed roof with two gable dormers has been applied to the fa9ade to extend over projeting yvindow bays. The roof itself is flat; an original, three-over-one wood sash window is still present on a side elevation that extends past that of the adjaent building. (NC) North Bettis, RA0060 This is a one-story, early twentieth entury ommerial building whose storefront has been altered with a metal display windows and light-olored brik veneer to original bulkheads. Above the storefront is applied sheet metal. The rear elevation shows ommon bond, red brik. (C) North Bettis, RA0059 This is a two-story, early twentieth entury ommerial building with a brik exterior, flat roof, and a turned beltourse at the roofline of the faade. The storefront has a display windows and an added shed roof awning. (C) North Bettis, RA0058 This is a two-story, a ommerial building with a brik exterior, flat, parapet roof, and four orioletype bay windows on the upper fa9ade. The storefront has been altered with vinyl siding and metal windows. Below the roofline is an original, metal and neon hotel sign. (NC) North Bettis, RA0140 s is a. 1920, one-story garage/warehouse building. The fa9ade has four bays, eah with a gable front roof asphalt shingles and an entrane. The outer two (garage) bays have side-hinged, wood board, double door entranes. The inner two bays have pedestrian entranes. These two bays have been infilled with a wood siding. ( C) South Bettis, RA0074

14 PS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page 10 This is a two-story early twentieth entury ommerial building from It has a flat roof, original display windows and bulkheads, an original nine-light, three-panel glass and wood door, a brik exterior, three-light asement windows on the side elevation, a hamfered entrane with a single olumn supporting a wraparound porh awning. Aross the ornie is brik orbelling. (NC) 9. Broadway at town square, Old Randolph County Courthouse, RA0020 This is a two-story, Italianate ourthouse onstruted in It is of brik onstrution and has a hipped roof ofv-rimp metal and original, elongated two-over-two arhed, wood sash windows with brik hoods and onrete sills. The eaves have double brakets and <lentils. The north and south elevations eah have a two-story, projeting entrane bay with a gabled roof. There are brik quoins on the orners of these bays and the main building. Arhed entranes have original two-light-and-one-panel glass and wood doors and a twolight transom. The roof has a upola with paired pilasters flanking a louvered arh, on eah elevation. (IL) Broadway x North Marr Street, New Randolph County Courthouse, RA0039 & RA0039A (memorial) This Art Deo style, 1940,.brik Courthouse has three stories, a flat roof, and a projeting entrane bay with a smooth onrete exterior, four fluted, square olumns, and inverted <lentils at the ornie. The double-door entry is reessed. Windows are multi-light, fixed and glazed. Site features inlude two war veteran memorials, a flagpole, and a meteor that landed in the Blak River in (IL) At the northwest orner of the new ourthouse lawn (orner of East Broadway and Van Bibber Street) is a 2006 veterans memorial. It features three life-size, bronze soldiers on rok-faed, square pedestals, arranged as points of a triangle. The figures represent veterans of World War II and the Vietnam and Korean Wars. At the base of the triangular arrangement is a marble triptyh engraved with the four branhes of military servie. (NC) East Broadway, RA0075 This is a one-story, early twentieth entury ommerial building from a and remodeled a and again a It has a flat roof, fixed, single-light adonized windows and strether bond brik veneer on the fa;ade, and six-ourse Amerian bond brik side walls with segmental arhed window openings. (NC) East Broadway, RA0073 This is a two-story early twentieth entury ommerial building from It has a flat roof, a storefront of single-light, fixed display windows and bulkheads, an original single-light glass and wood doors, a brik exterior with a orbelled ornie, and one-over-one windows on the seond floor. (C). 105 East Broadway, RA0070 This is a one-story, early twentieth entury ommerial building from a and remodeled a It has a flat roof, fixed, single-light replaement display windows and metal and glass doors, and a fa9ade of brik and applied metal panels above the storefront. (NC)

15 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page East Broadway, RA0071 This is a one-story, early twentieth entury ommerial building from a and remodeled a It has a flat roof, fixed, single-light replaement display windows and metal and glass doors, and a fa9ade of brik and applied metal panels above the storefront. There is also a flat, metal awning aross the storefront. (NC) East Broadway, RA0069 This is a one-story, early twentieth entury ommerial building from a and remodeled a and again a It has a flat roof, fixed, single-light replaement display windows and metal and glass doors. The original brik exterior above the storefront has two retangular insets, eah with an arhed vent, and a dentiled ornie above. There is also a urved, anvas awning aross the storefront. (C) 1 f"i East Broadway, Enlosed Alley between 104 and East Broadway, RA0072 y enlosed in 1942 with brik and blok glass and a flat roof. Originally it housed a restaurant. The fa9ade has been boarded over and has a door applied to resemble an entrane. (C) East Broadway, RA0068 This is a 1939, two-story building with a stone-faed exterior, flat roof, refitted piture window and a metal and glass doors on the storefront. An entry at eah end of the fa9ade is flanked by two-story, brik pilasters. ( C) East Broadway, RA0064 This is a a. 1985, one-and-one-half-story, metal storage building with a gable-front roof of metal, double doors, and a flat awning over the entrane. (NC) West Broadway, RA0040 This is a a. 1940, two-story ommerial building with a light-olored brik exterior, flat roof, and original storefront windows, glass and metal doors, and metal awning. Upper floor windows are tree-light, metal asement windows. On the side elevation are two-over-two double-hung windows. (C) West Broadway, RAOl 15 This is a a. 1930, one-story, irregularly shaped ommerial building with a alterations. The rear elevation shows the original six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution and flat roof with parapet. Loated on a street orner, it has two street fa9ades and a hamfered orner entrane. The two faades have strether d brik exteriors on the lower portion and diagonal wood board on the upper portion. Brik pilasters run i-height; windows are a. 1970, one-light, fixed design. Square, brik olumns support a a. 1970, wraparound awning over with diagonal wood board applied. (NC) West Broadway, RAOl 16

16 r PS FORM A (8-88) OMB Approval No National Park Servie tional Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page 12 This is a a. 1930, one-story ommerial building with a alterations. The rear elevation shows the original six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. It has a flat roof with parapet. The faade has strether bond brik exterior, replaement piture windows, and an applied shed roof awning with wood shingles over a reessed entrane. The awning is supported by a retangular post with brik veneer. (NC) 22. West Broadway x Thomasville Road, RAOl 17 This is a a. 1945, one-story, Art Modeme style auto show room and servie garage. It is irregularly shaped, is of brik onstrution, and has a flat roof. Loated on a street omer, it has a urved omer entrane with original glass and metal doors flanked by blok glass. Display windows on eah street elevation are original, metal, fixed design. Other elevations have six-light asement windows. A side wing, ontaining four servie bays, extends from the bak portion of the building, reating an ell. In the ell is a paved lot enompassed by an open-air type metal beam struture with one large, brik support olumn. (NC) 02 East Everett, RA0049 This is a one-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building with a flat roof and a brik exterior. It has an added flat awning over the storefront, whih has a display windows with some siding. The upper fa;ade has three vents and a orbelled brik ourse. (C) East Everett, RA0050 This is a one-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building with a flat roof and a brik exterior. It has an added shed roof awning over the storefront, whih has a display windows. (C) East Everett, RA0051 This is a two-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building of brik onstrution. It has an added shed roof awning over the storefront and four pairs of two-over-two windows in the upper fa;ade. These have <lentils and art glass above. Above eah pair of windows is a retangular inset with a entral irular vent in eah inset. Aross the roofline is a orbelled ornie divided by brik pilasters. (C) East Everett, RA0052 This is a one-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building of brik onstrution. The fa;ade has been stuoed and has a metal display windows. (C) East Everett, RA0053 This is a one-story, early twentieth entury bank building in the Classial revival style. It is of brik 'trution and has ut, smooth stone on the exterior. The three-bay fa;ade is divided by four pilasters. The tral bay ontains the entrane, and the outer two bays have been infilled with blok glass surrounding a piture window. On the rear elevation are original metal asement windows. (NC) East Everett, RA0054

17 PS FORM A (S-86) OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 13 This is a one-story, a ommerial building of brik stone and brik onstrution. The storefront has been extensively altered with a materials. (NC) East Everett, RA0055 This is a one-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building that has been extensively altered a The storefront has applied field stone, a solid doors, and a shed awning with asphalt shingles. On the rear is a frame addition on onrete piers and has metal siding and vinyl windows. (NC) West Everett, RA0048 This is a two-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building with a flat roof and a brik exterior. It has a flat roof awning over the wrap-around storefront, whih has a. 1950, metal display windows and doors. The side elevation has stuo added. The omer is hamfered. (C) 108 West Everett, RA004 7 This is a one-story, a ommerial building with a flat roof, brik exterior, and original display windows and doors. There are four entranes on the fa9ade. (C) 32. Building west of 108 West Everett, RAOl 10 This a. 1940, one-story ommerial building has a flat roof, reessed entrane, and brik exterior. It has original storefront omponents of metal display windows, bulkheads with arrara glass, glass and metal doors, and an aluminum, flat awning. (NC) 33. West Everett x Van Bibber, RAOl 11 This is a a. 1915, brik, one-and-one-half-story ommerial building with a metal gable roof applied on top of the original flat roof. The storefront has original omponents of wooden bulkheads, display windows, single-light glass and wood double doors. It has a reessed entrane and a shed roof awning of V-rimped metal. In the upper fa9ade are three retangular insets; the entral one has a onrete blok engraved with the name "Peters." At the roofline is a turned brik ourse. (NC) West Everett, RAOl 12 This is a a. 1930, one-story, brik ommerial building with a flat roof with parapet and a storefront omponents of metal display windows, doors and bulkheads. The entrane is reessed under a flat awninglike over. There is metal siding above. (NC) 111 West Everett, RAOl 13 is is a a. 1930, one-story, brik ommerial building with a flat roof and a storefront omponents of metal display windows, doors, and bulkheads. The entrane is reessed under a flat awning-like over over a tiled floor. On the side elevation are original, three-light, metal asement windows and a side entrane to the basement. This seondary entrane is also reessed. (NC)

18 PS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page West Everett, RAOl 14 This is a a. 1930, one-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. The fa9ade has brik veneer, a metal windows and metal awnings. The roof is flat with parapet. (C) West Everett, RAOl 18 This is a a. 1920, one-and-one-half-story bungalow dwelling with a gable roof of asphalt shingles, stuo exterior, shed roof dormers, and two interior brik himneys. Two elevations have been ompletely refitted with multiple twelve-light metal asement windows from floor to eiling. This setion has a flat roof. On the opposite side of the dwelling there is a small projeting bay with an entrane and a gable roof. Other windows are original three-over-one, double-hung wood sash design. (NC) Highway 67 South, RA0067 ~ s is a two-story building from a with a stone-faed exterior, flat roof, fixed piture windows and a ~1tted/infilled entrane from a overed by a shed roof anopy. (C) 39. Highway 67 South, Building adjaent to 109 Highway 67, RA0065 This is a one-story storage building from a with a flat roof, solid door, and shed roof anopy. (NC) Highway67 South, RA0057 This is a two-story, a ommerial building with a brik exterior, flat, parapet roof, and one-over-one windows on the upper fa9ade. The storefront has multiple entranes, inluding a bay door. (C) North Marr, RA0041 This is a late nineteenth entury, two-story ommerial (bank) building in the Romanesque Revival style. Its first story has a large, entral, rounded arh with original single-light doors and sidelights. The upper floor has four one-over-one windows with rounded arhed masonry above. The roofline has orbelling and is divided by four brik pilasters. A a dek and stairs have been added to the rear elevation. The side elevation has an original two-light, two-panel glass and wood door and an opening that has been infilled with a piture window and shiplap siding. (C) North Marr, RA0042 This is a one-and-one-half-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building of brik onstrution. It has a flat roof with orbelling at the roofline and within three retangular insets in the upper fa9ade, whih is divided by four brik pilasters. Eah inset has an arhed vent. An added shed awning is below and overs the efront with a metal display windows and bulkheads. (C) North Marr, RA0043 This is a late nineteenth entury, one story, one-bay ommerial building with a single segmental arh ontinuing the style from adjaent 107 North Marr. The storefront onsists of a a metal and glass door with sidelights, flanked by brik pilasters. (C)

19 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 7 Page North Marr, RA0044 This is a one-and-one-half-story, late nineteenth entury ommerial building of brik onstrution. It has a flat roof with detailed orbelling at the roofline. The upper fa<;;ade has five arhed vents, divided by six brik pilasters. Below eah vent is a segmental arh with stuo infill. An added shed awning is below and overs a a altered storefront. (C) North Marr, RA0045 This alley one housed a small, frame building used as a tavern/bar. The front of the alley was enlosed with brik a (C) North Marr, RA0046..,..,, ;sis a one-story a ommerial building of brik onstrution. It has a flat roof and a reessed iane. The storefront has a metal display windows and a shed roof awning. (C) 47. North Marr, Alley between 102 East Everett and 208 North Marr, RA0130 This is a one-story enlosed alley that originally housed a small, a building only one-third the depth of adjaent buildings. Its upper fa9ade mathes that of 208 North Marr with light-olored brik exterior and a retangular inset and orbelling at the roofline. The lower fa9ade has a a door and plywood overing. (C) North Marr, RA0131 This is a. 1900, one-story ommerial building of brik onstrution. It has a flat roof and an interior end, brik himney. The storefront has been altered a with metal display windows and metal paneling above the aluminum, flat awning. Of the two entranes, one is reessed. The upper fa9ade retains original enter and outer pilasters of brik, four vents, and detailed brikourses. On the rear elevation are two reessed, arhed entranes. (C) North Marr, RA0129 This is a a. 1922, one-story ommerial building of brik onstrution. It has a flat roof. Its fa9ade has been altered a with its storefront infilled with plywood siding. The upper fa9ade retains original brik insets. (C) North Marr, RA0132 s is a a. 1900, one-story ommerial building of five-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution with a s one foundation. The fa9ade has Roman brik veneer and a storefront metal windows. Half of the storefront is reessed on a diagonal with the entrane in the deepest portion. On the rear there is a entral entrane, and segmental arhed openings have been filled with onrete blok. (C) North Marr, RA0128

20 PS FORM A (~6) OMB Approval No )1 8 National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 16 This is a. 1900, one-story, orner-lot ommerial building with extensive a alterations inluding an off-enter, reessed entrane bay with glass and metal door and metal windows, piture windows, and an applied surround of arrara glass. Ca alterations inlude an added shed roof to the original flat roof, with T-111 siding in the upper portion on the fa9ade. (NC) North Marr, RA0139 This is a a. 1940, one-story ommerial building of brik onstrution with a flat roof. The fa9ade has a, 1990 paired metal display windows, sidelights and transom and glazed brik veneer. The side elevations have plain brik. Other windows are three-light aseme.nt design. (C) North Marr, RA0138 This is a two-story, a. 1940, Art Deo-style theater of brik onstrution. It has a flat roof with a stepped ' 1pet. On the fa9ade is a entral box offie. To eah side is a reessed entrane with a pair of original, onet glass and wood doors. On the upper fa9ade is a entral bay that projets slightly from the surfae; within it is a entral bank of blok glass flanked by upright-retangular vents. The outer two bays have a brik veneer a shade lighter in olor with retangular insets of the darker brik. The brik on the fa9ade is all glazed. (C) (Behind the theater is a a. 1990, one-story, gable roof, metal shed.) North Marr, RA0137 At this loation is a a dwelling onverted into a shop. It is one-story, has a gable front roof of asphalt shingles, vinyl siding that overs muh of the original fenestration, and a foundation that is partially stone and onrete piers. The fa9ade has a entral entrane and piture window. There is an original one-over-one wood sash window on a side elevation. (NC) MDonald, RA0144 This is a a. 1900, one-story warehouse type building of frame onstrution and metal siding. It has a gable roof of metal and fixed, single-light windows. The fa9ade has a bay door and a pedestrian entrane. On the rear elevation is a partial-width, shed roof addition. In front of the building is a pumping island; to the side are five above-ground, metal fuel tanks. (C) MDonald, RA0142 This is a a. 1920, one-and-one-half-story warehouse of five-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. It has a gambrel roof overed in V-rimp metal with a brik parapet at the rear elevation. The main entrane has a a door; the rear entrane has an original, five-panel, wood door. Windows are one-over-one, two- -two, and three-over-one, double-hung, wood sash. On the front and side elevation are onrete loading oks. At the rear is a onrete foundation of a removed portion or other building. (C) MDonald, RA0143 This is a. 1925, two-story warehouse originally used as an egg dehydration plant. It is of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution with a flat roof with parapet. At the rear is a wing addition with vinyl

21 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 17 siding and a shed roof of asphalt shingles. The fa;ade has fixed single-light windows and a small, frame, entrane porh with a shed roof. (C) 58. MDonald Street, Poahontas-Friso Railroad Depot, RA0023 This is a a. 1920, one-story, frame depot building. It has diagonal wood board siding and a hipped roof of asphalt shingles. Windows are double-hung, wood sash four-over-four and single-light, fixed. It has multiple entranes inluding a bay door. The rear elevation has a small projeting bay. (C) Pyburn, RA0133 This is a a. 1925, one-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. On the fa;ade, the storefront has been infilled with T-111 siding flanking the entral entrane. A full-width, metal, shed roof awning spans the fa;ade. The upper fa;ade retains the original brik exterior, three vents, and two dpntil rows. The ornie is overed in a metal strip. (NC) Pyburn, RA0127 This is a a. 1920, one-story ommerial building of brik onstrution. On the fa;ade it has a reessed, entral entrane with an original single-light glass and wood door, a brik bulkheads and metal display windows, wood paneling overing the transom portion of the storefront, and orbelling at the roofline. (C) Pyburn, RA0126 This is a a. 1925, one-story ommerial building. It has a flat roof, Roman brik veneer on the lower fa;ade, and added metal siding on the upper fa;ade. The fa;ade also has a metal windows, glass and metal door, and flat, aluminum awning. (NC) Pyburn, RA0134 This is a a. 1930, one-story ommerial building of brik onstrution with a flat roof and metal, 20-light asement windows. The entral entrane has an original, single-light glass and wood door in a reessed alove and a a replaement glass and metal door. Both entranes and a a. 1960, multi-light piture windows have individual awnings. (C) Pyburn, RA0125 This is a two-story, a warehouse building of brik onstrution. It has been altered a with metal windows and door, a panel garage door and a orrugated, syntheti paneling on the upper 1de. (NC) Pyburn, RA0135 This is a a. 1940, one-story ommerial building of brik onstrution with a flat roof with parapet. On the fa;ade is a glazed brik veneer, a reessed entrane with a a three-square-light wood door, multi-plate glass windows with wood surround, and sheet metal aross the upper fa;ade. (NC)

22 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page Pyburn, RA0124 This is a a. 1945, one-story, irregularly shaped, Art Modeme style garage of onrete blok onstrution. It has a stuo exterior and a flat roof. The building omprises an offie bay with a hamfered omer, original, metal piture windows atop original bulkheads, and a small alove for restrooms, onealed by a small privay wall, and a garage servie bay. The latter is obsured behind a a projeting addition of frame and sheet metal onstrution with a gable front roof of sheet metal. (NC) Pyburn, RA0123 This is a a. 1920, two-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. It has a flat roof with parapet. On the fa;:ade are wood, square, fluted, two-story pilasters with a mantel aross the ornie and between stories. The same treatment surrounds the entral entrane, whih is flanked by a :~ ale-light piture windows. Two seond floor windows are overed with plywood. Above eah window is a t. There is a side shed roof addition and a shed roof garage added to the rear elevation. (C) Pyburn, RA0122 This is a a. 1920, one-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. It has a flat roof. On the fa;:ade the entral entrane is flanked by paired five-light asement windows with wood shutters. The entrane has a wood door within a retro-fitted wood-panel infill. Above the entrane is a flat anopy with knee-brae brakets and deorative engaged posts. Above the windows and entrane is a nearly full-width, retangular, brik inset with dentils and two vents. Below the roofline is deorative brikwork. A rear entrane has a shed roof awning. (C) Pyburn, RA0121 This is a a. 1920, one-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. It has a flat roof with parapet. On the fa;:ade are a a piture window and entrane. These are overed by a hipped roof, metal lad awning with deorative engaged posts. A rear entrane has a shed roof awning. (C) 69. Pyburn, west of Vane intersetion, RA0141 This is a a. 1930, one-story dwelling, now vaant. It is of frame onstrution and has aluminum siding and a gable roof of metal. Windows are four-over-four wood sash, double-hung design. The fa;:ade has double doors and a transom. (C) Van Bibber, RA0018 is an Art Deo style original post offie building onstruted in 1936 with a loading dok added to the r ar in It is one-story, of brik onstrution, and has a flat roof with parapet. On the fa;:ade is a entral entrane with onrete steps leading to double doors. Windows are double-hung, wood sash, one-over-one, three-over-three, and six-over-six. On the rear elevation is a brik himney. (IL) North Van Bibber, RAOl 19

23 PS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie tional Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 19 This is a a. 1920, one-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution with a flat roof with parapet and interior, brik himney. On the fa<;ade are a. 1950, aluminum, fixed, single-light windows, replaement doors, and brik veneer and T-111 siding added. (C) North Van Bibber, RA0120 This is a a. 1970, one-story offie building with strethed bond brik, a flat roof, and original, fixed, singlelight windows. On the fa;ade is a nearly full-width projeting bay omprised of three bays and over with a shed roof awning. The entral bay is inset with an entrane. On the rear elevation there is added T-111 siding. (NC) Van Bibber, RA0136 This is a a. 1920, one-story ommerial building of six-ourse Amerian bond brik onstrution. The ~+ efront on the fa;ade has been altered a with a refitted entrane of a paneled wood door and wood ters with paneling above. Flanking the entrane are four-light asement windows that resemble twoover-two, wood sash, double-hung windows. Aross the storefront is a shed roof, metal awning. At the ornie is a turned brik ourse. (C)

24 NPS FORM 1().900-A (B-86) OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The in Randolph County, Arkansas, is eligible for listing in the National Register of Histori Plaes under Criterion A for its loal signifiane in ommere and Criterion C for loal signifiane in arhiteture. Criterion A: Commere Loated equidistant from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Little Rok, Arkansas, Poahontas developed as an important ommerial and ultural enter of the ounty and surrounding area. Nineteenth-entury settlers mainly from Kentuky and Tennessee established the ounty seat there in Steamboat traffi on the kl.k River enabled the transportation of produts as diverse as otton and pearl buttons. The town's 1omy grew as Poahontas beame a leading trading enter of the region during the mid-nineteenth entury. Agriultural produts ontinued to fuel the town's prosperity following the Civil War. Criterion C: Arhiteture The buildings within the represent arhitetural signifiane on the loal level. One- and two-part ommerial blok buildings around the town square are modest examples of these ommon early-20 1 h-entury forms. A fire on the south blok of the square eliminated that row of nineteenth entury buildings in 1914; however, many of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth entury buildings on the other three sides of other square are extant and represent a period of growth that inluded the influx of German immigrants who were diretly responsible for the town's arhiteture. The onstrution of many of these buildings possess a unified appearane, as they were designed, built, and onstruted of brik from the same German arhitet, builders, and brik maker, respetively. Buildings from the 1920s-1930s, one blok north of the square, illustrate the town's ontinued growth into the twentieth entury. Though some storefronts have been altered, the distrit still possesses integrity ofloation, setting, and materials of an early-20th-entury downtown ommerial distrit.

25 Arkansas. NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 2 SUMMARY Poahontas, established in 1836 as the Seat of Justie for Randolph County, is loated on the banks of the Blak River in northeast Arkansas. Geographially the ounty is biseted on the diagonal with the Ozark foothills to the north and west joining the Delta lowlands to the east and south. The town overlays enturies of earlier oupation and was mapped in the 1670s by the Marquette and Jolliet Expedition. The earliest Anglo Amerians and Afrian Amerians arrived in the area two enturies ago as part of the first wave of immigrants to the Trans-Mississippi West reating one of the earliest settled areas in what beame the state of Arkansas; many desendants of these founding families ontinuing to reside in the area today. Poahontas has served the ounty as seat of justie sine 1836 with the 1875 brik Italianate Courthouse (listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes in 1973) ontinuing to dominate the ourt square amidst historially sim ifiant ommerial strutures. The majority of the ira 1900 strutures omprising the histori ntown ommerial distrit were designed by arhitet Henry Lesmeister and built of brik from loal kilns using the lays from the surrounding hillsides - the same lays found in the areas' anient artifats produed by past ultures. ELABORATION The geography of the area that enompasses present-day Randolph County has fostered human oupation for enturies. Within its boundaries five rivers, the Blak, Current, Eleven Point, Fourhe, and Spring, with their numerous smaller tributaries and plentiful springs have supported use of the area sine the last Ie Age, 18,000-14,000 years ago. Speifially, urrent oupation of the modern-day town of Poahontas on the banks of the Blak River over-lays numerous preeding ultures. During this latest Ie Age period the anestral Mississippi River, a large braided stream system, arried melted glaial waters and gravel through the western lowlands of Arkansas. By 14,000 years ago this anient river broke through the north end of what has beome known as Crowley's Ridge to the east of Randolph County, joined the Ohio River, and beame the meandering river the Mississippi is today. About 13,000 years ago Paleo-Indian hunters from Asia first olonized the entral-mississippi valley. From Dalton Culture hunters 10,000 years ago to farmers of the Mississippian Period, 1,200 to 500 years ago, numerous prehistori ultures have lived, hunted, fished, farmed, built homes, and buried their dead on the shores of the Blak River 1 ' 1-ino historial and arheologial researh was ombined in the 1980s to loate a seventeenth entury higamea village on the east bank of the Blak River at Poahontas. Frenh douments of the lateseventeenth entury, inluding a 1673 map by Pere' Jaques Marquette, desribed four Indian villages - three Quapaw and one Mihigamea - in northeast Arkansas. The Mihigamea helped initiate the olonial period in 1 J. E. Morrow, "Shaeffer's Eddy Aess and Arheologial Site." Site signage: Poahontas, Randolph County,

26 NPS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 3 Arkansas when they were serving as trade intermediaries between the Frenh and the Quapaw and, possibly, lower Arkansas River tribes before the arrival of Marquette and Louis Jolliet. The Mihigamea site was almost exatly halfway between Kaskaskia [Illinois] and the Kappa site [the major Quapaw village on the western side of the Mississippi River] by the Nathitohes Trae. Present-day Poahontas enompasses, in part, the late-1600s Mihigamea village, supporting the laim that it has been a strategi trading site for enturies.2 The Mihigamea were but one of numerous Indian tribes that used what beame known as the Nathitohes Trae, or Southwest Trail as it's more frequently alled in Arkansas, whih extended from Vinennes, Indiana, to Nathitohes, Louisiana. It was this trail that initiated the first permanent settlement in the region. A diverse mix of Frenh, Spanish, Cherokee, Shawnee, and numerous other Indian tribes resided on the western shores of the Mississippi, inluding the region of what beame Randolph County, during the ernanes of what was ommonly known as Spanish Louisiana in the late- 1700s. Amerian settlement west of the Mississippi River began in earnest from The 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo del Esorial, or Pinkney's Treaty, between Spain and the United States was the major turning point for the immigration to Spanish Louisiana. It defined the Spanish-Amerian boundaries and opened the Mississippi to Amerian trade without argo duties at Spanish New Orleans. To publiize the attrativeness of their lands and new poliies on trade, the Spanish ommandants irulated English-language pamphlets and plaed newspaper advertisements in Kentuky, knowing there was muh dissatisfation for Kentukians over land transations. The promotions worked and the muh desired aspet of Spanish Louisiana's overall plan began - to build up a population barrier of Amerians against British enroahment from Canada. 3 Word spread quikly, and John Reynolds, living in the Holston River Valley of Tennessee reorded the reations in his homeland. He relates that the Byrd (Bird) and Murphy families, respetable families with numerous onnetions, went to Spanish Louisiana to inspet the land. They ame bak to east Tennessee and "put the people on fire to move." He states his father aught the mania and joined the multitudes heading for what was then the "Far-West." 4 Of the hundreds of Holston River Valley families and their Afrian Amerian slaves who would open Amerianization of this "Far-West", some settled initially in the very earliest years of the 1800s in what beame Randolph County. It was a that Tennessean middle-aged William Hix with his adult hildren 'tled on the Current River and established the first regional ferry where the Nathitohes Trae rossed the 2 Walthall and Emerson, editors, Calumet Fleur-De-Lys: Arheology of Indian and Frenh Contat in the Midontinent. Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1992, Walter A. Shroeder, Opening the Ozarks: A Historial Geography of Missouri's Ste. Genevieve Distrit Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2002, John Reynolds, The Pioneer History of Illinois, 2nd Edition. Chiago: Fergus Printing Company, 1887, 298.

27 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 4 Current; several other Holston Valley families with their Afrian Amerian slaves were among the areas' ira 1800 settlers. Later, numerous Holston Valley families who had settled in what beame Missouri moved further south, settling permanently or semi-permanently prior to the reation of Arkansas Territory. Today the majority of Randolph County, Arkansas, residents, Anglo Amerian and Afrian Amerian, desend from anestors of the Holston Valley in Tennessee, inluding some from the same Byrd family who initiated the mania to move west (William Byrd probate) This inter-onnetedness has ontributed signifiantly to an exeptional settlement history for both the state and region. It was on May 4, 1803, that the United States aquired the vast lands west of the Mississippi with the future Randolph County a part of what was referred to as the Louisiana Purhase. Following several governmental hanges, Randolph's parent - the vast landmass of Lawrene County - was reated in 1815 as part of Missouri Territory with the seat of justie loated at Davidsonville, epienter of its populated area. The site avidsonville on the Blak River is only a few miles south of Po~ahontas in present-day Randolph County. This, thereby, provided the early residents of the area with the servies of the first regional post offie (1817), subsription shool (ira ), and organization of the Baptist Churh (1818). These organizations took plae under the governane of Missouri Territory and were enhaned by the benefit of the Nathitohes Trae, or Southwest Trail, onneting residents to outside markets of the day. 5 The area had been settled for nearly two deades and had fallen under the governane of the Distrit of Louisiana, Distrit of New Madrid, New Madrid County, Missouri Territory, Lawrene County, Missouri Territory, Wayne County, Missouri Territory before Lawrene County, Arkansas Territory, was reated on July 4, In 1831 the setion of the Southwest Trail that ran diagonally aross future Randolph County beame the first road in the nation west of the Mississippi to reeive federal support for improvement, after whih it was known as the Military Road and beame the territory's first leg of an extended mail route. 7 These advantages, plus rih farmlands and abundant natural resoures, prompted the early families of the area to put down permanent roots. This relatively stable population growth of the early 1800s gave rise to the reation of Randolph County on Otober 29, 1835, by the Arkansas Territorial legislature. It is named for John Randolph, a Unites States Senator from Virginia who was influential in obtaining ongressional approval of the Louisiana Purhase of whih Randolph County is a part. Created out of its parent ounty, Lawrene, it originally enompassed the area west of the Cahe River that now omprises Clay County. Establishment of the seat of justie was the first at of the ounty government in 1836, the same year the state of Arkansas was hartered. County missioners were appointed to selet two ommunities that would be suitable for the loation of the seat ustie. Seleted were Columbia, loated along the anient trail that had been the trade route for enturies 5 Carter, Clarene Edwin, Territorial Papers of the United States, Volume XV, Louisiana - Missouri Territory Washington: United States Government Printing Offie, 1936, n.p. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.

28 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 5 and the other, Bettis' Bluff, established prior to 1830 on land owned by Ransom Bettis and his son-in-law Thomas Drew and loated on the western bank of the Blak River near the old Mihigamea village. Aording to Goodspeed' s history: The larger portion of the settlers had gathered (loated) in the northern part of the ounty, and felt orifident that the people would selet the plae at the springs (Columbia) for the seat of justie. Messrs. Drew and Bettis gave a free barbeque at the site of Poahontas (Bettis Bluff), and, as men ould then vote at anywhere in the ounty, the barbeque proved a suffiient induement to draw voters enough to seure a small majority in favor of loating the seat of justie at the latter plae. Here it was aordingly plaed, and has sine remained. 8 was the river site that won the majority vote of the residents, due partly to the barbeque but perhaps also to,rard thinking. The first steamboat, the seventy-five foot long Laurel!, had made stops at Blak River towns inluding then Bettis' Bluff in 1829 reating great exitement. The steamboat industry was hanging settlement and trade patterns aross the state and region. By the 1830s numerous steamboats were plying the Blak River giving good reason for a new seat of justie to prosper as a river port. 9 The newly reated seat of justie for Randolph County was named Poahontas. A post offie was soon established and Thomas 0. Marr was the postmaster. On July 27, 1837, Thomas Drew, destined to beome the third governor of the state of Arkansas, donated a signifiant amount of property to the ommissioners of the ounty for the purpose of building a ourthouse and other publi buildings. Ransom Bettis, and Thomas 0. Marr, brother-in-law of Bettis, donated additional land. Streets were named for these and other loal leaders. 10 The first two-story ourthouse was, aording to Goodspeed, made of brik and measured forty-foot square. It was onstruted by Thomas Marr between 1837 and 1839 for $2,400. The first ourthouse stood until about 1870 when improper onstrution aused the struture to begin falling. 11 The building was offered as a $1,000 redit to the ontrator building the seond ourthouse. 12 Dr. Mihael Beshoar, former state representative and ounty judge for Randolph County, noted in 1860s diary entries that this first ourthouse in "Poa" had floors of quarter-sawn pine and a large fireplae on eah 8 The Goodspeed Bibliographial and Historial Memoirs of Northeastern Arkansas. Chiago, Nashville, and ouis: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889, S.W. Stokard, the History of Lawrene, Jakson, Independene, and Stone Counties of the third Judiial Distrit. Little Rok: Arkansas Demorat Company, 1904, Lawrene Dalton, History of Randolph County. Little Rok: Demorat Printing and Lithographing Company, 1946, Goodspeed, p Dalton, 10.

29 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 6 of its two floors. The ourt room where he had presided as judge in the 1850s was loated on the first floor with ounty offies above. Beshoar had arrived in Randolph County in the early 1850s following graduation from the University of Mihigan's medial shool. 13 The Arkansas Gazette, the state's leading newspaper of the time, presented a glowing report of Poahontas in its Deember 26, 1838, issue: The new town of Poahontas, ounty seat of Randolph ounty is said to have beome, within eighteen months of its existene, one of the most flourishing plaes within the state. Lots in the town had inreased in value from 100 to 5 00 per ent. The farm lands in the ounty, whih had lately sold for $1.25 per are, was now muh in demand at 520. Transportation in and out of the town and ounty is prinipally by steamboats on Blak river and business of every kind is lively with the people saying little about hard times. From its loation at what was the approximate head of navigation on the Blak River, Poahontas had beome the leading trading and distribution point in Northeast Arkansas and parts of Southeast Missouri by It reahed its highest suess in and immediately before the Civil War its ommerial business was indeed extensive. 14 Little is doumented about the arhiteture of "flourishing" ante-bellum Poahontas but a single May 20, 1859 extant issue of the Poahontas Weekly Advertiser douments no fewer than four steamboats with merhandise arriving from as far away as Cininnati and New Orleans had doked in reent days. Daily stages were advertised for onneting with the Iron Mountain Railroad and the railroad to St. Louis. Two saloons and three law firms advertised as did three physiians but only one dentist. A "house, sign, and ornamental painter" also had photography rooms where his eight years' of experiene as an artist assured his ustomers a perfet ambrotype, regardless of the weather. Merhant Louis Hanauer boasted that he had been in business in Randolph County for 20 years and he had just returned with new merhandise from eastern ities. He also advertised a female slave and her three sons for sale. Among the numerous loal Poahontas advertisements there was a variety from neighboring towns and states as well as New Orleans, Memphis, Cininnati, Louisville, and Philadelphia. 15 On January 18, 1861, the Arkansas General Assembly altered the boundaries of Randolph County adding twenty-five square miles from the northern setion of Lawrene County. The reation of Clay County on the heast boundary again hanged the boundaries this time reduing its size. 13 Barron B. Beshoar, Hipporates in a Red Vest: The Biography of a Frontier Dotor. Palo Alto, California: Amerian West Publishing Company, 1973, Goodspeed, p Arkansas History Commission - Misellaneous newspaper file.

30 NPS FORM A (B-86) OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 7 At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 a majority of the people of Randolph County were in sympathy with Arkansas's seession from the United States and support of the Confederay. From 1,000-1,200 troops from Randolph County joined the Confederate Army. 16 With the Military Road oming out of Missouri, biseting the ounty, and ontinuing as the diret route to the Arkansas apitol at Little Rok, Randolph County and Poahontas beame strategi sites for military involvement throughout the ourse of the war. Literally thousands of Confederate and Union troops - both blak and white - were seen on the streets of Poahontas and the surrounding ountryside from Approximately ten thousand Confederate troops were mustered into servie at Camp Shaver (named for Colonel Robert G. Shaver of the Seventh Arkansas Regiment, First Brigade) loated south of Poahontas. In 1861 Confederate General William J. Hardee established headquarters at Poahontas with troops amped at se:veral sites along the Blak River and a training amp at the Current River ferry site (owned by Erasmus D. rnn in the 1860s). From February - Marh 1862 Confederate General Earl Van Dom, ommander of all of Missouri, Arkansas, Indian Territory, and a portion of Louisiana, established headquarters in Poahontas with an army of more than 16,000 troops. Federal General Frederik Steele oupied Poahontas for a short time toward the end of the war. 17 Extant personal aounts of Poahontas during the Civil War fous around the regionally renowned St. Charles Hotel. About 1853 William Allaire, a millwright, purhased the entire east blok of the ourt square and onstruted a two-story ommerial building about 200 feet in length that housed eight little shops as well as the St. Charles Hotel. Allaire is noted to have brought in arpenters, briklayers, and plasterers for onstruting the building. A large slab of steel hung in the vestibule and was struk three times a day- 6:00 AM, 12:00 Noon, and 6:00 PM - beoming an institution as it ould be heard more than a half-mile away. For nearly half a entury the St. Charles ommerial building was a signifiant part of the nineteenth entury eonomi suess in Poahontas. Prior to the war Allaire's widow married William Evans, the war-time proprietor of the St. Charles, who had advertised in the 1859 Poahontas Weekly Advertiser that the hotel had "lately been enlarged and refitted." Evans served as an enrolling offier for the Federal Army. He was shot and killed in the hotel as retaliation for the killing of a Confederate reruiting offier. 18 Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson, niknamed "The Swamp Fox," headquartered in the St. Charles where he was aptured on August 22, 1863, by men of General John Davidson's Federal troops. The aount of General Thompson's apture was doumented in Dr. Mihael Beshoar's diary. The dotor was serving as a 16 Goodspeed, Summary- Civil War history in summary of The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Offiial Reords of the Union and Confederate Armies; The Goodspeed Bibliographial and Historial Memoirs of Northeastern Arkansas; Beshoar, Barron B., Hipporates in a.red Vest: The Biography of a Frontier Dotor; Dalton, Lawrene, History of Randolph County. 18 Dalton, 223; Steve Shults and Joe Martin, Randolph County, Arkansas: A Pitorial History. Morley, MO: Alaim Press, 2006, 33.

31 NPS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie tional Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 8 Confederate surgeon with Shaver's troops and was residing at the St. Charles at the time of Thompson's apture. Beshoar was also the o-owner of a drug store, Beshoar and Putnam, loated on the south side of the square. The night of August 22 d the Federal troops looted the drug store and set fire to an undetermined number of businesses inluding The Advertiser and Herald, Beshoar's newspaper he o-owned with James Martin. 19 In spite of several other engagements fought in Poahontas during , the ourthouse, the St. Charles Hotel, and at least several other pre-1860s buildings on the south side of the square esaped damage as doumented in two extant histori photographs. The buildings on the south side of the square, though no longer extant due to a 1914 fire, reflet similar design details in ommon with the 1850s St. Charles, providing a glimpse of the arhiteture of Poahontas' antebellum ommerial distrit. The photograph of the b11ildings on the south side of the square was taken sometime between 1885 and 1895 aording to the nesses ownership advertised on the buildings. [See Figures 1 and 2.] Beshoar returned to visit "Poa" in 1894 and visited the St. Charles whih he "found pretty muh the same" and noted only the new ourthouse in the square. He drove throughout the surrounding ountryside visiting familiar plaes of his early residene in Randolph County without mentioning wartime destrution. Loal historian Dalton points out that "very little damage was done in this setion." 20 [See Figure 1.] As early as 1865 the deteriorating ondition of the first ourthouse was noted in ourt reords. County offies were reloated to a series of establishments until the seond ourthouse was ompleted. The new two-story Italianate ourthouse was onstruted of loally-made brik with a fire-roof vault for reords attahed. In April, 1875 ourt reords show that new furniture and fixtures were installed, and offies were ordered to move into the new building. The ontrator, embroiled in years of onflit with ounty offiials, was John A. MKay of Helena and the onstrution ost was approximately $40, This ourthouse is the oldest of the extant strutures making up the present histori ommerial distrit of Poahontas. It was listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes on 4/24/1973 with a onstrution date of [See Figure 3.] Alvin Aaron Sago, an aomplished builder and brik layer of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth entury is known to have been one of the raftsmen who worked on the 1875 Italianate Randolph County Courthouse. His known projets extended to at least Constrution of the imposing Italianate ourthouse did not symbolize an assoiated eonomi reovery for --.ahontas following the Civil War. Commerial business piked up after the war until when 19 Beshoar, 13, 22, Dalton, Goodspeed, Shults, 5.

32 NPS FORM A (8 86) OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 9 railways bypassed the town. 23 The Iron Mountain Railroad bypassed Poahontas and lipped Randolph County only in the very southeast omer. Another line, the St. Louis and San Franiso Railroad and ommonly alled the Friso, was built west along the Spring River rather than the Blak. Trade naturally turned to the railroads. Steamboat transportation was on the deline, and the ounty had no good roads. Dalton states, "(t)his aused Poahontas to enter a passive state whih she did not awaken from until around 1900." 24 The Goodspeed history douments the 1880s ommerial atmosphere of Poahontas. With a population of approximately 500, the town supported: ounty buildings, post offie, five general stores, three groeries, two drug stores, two saloons, one livery stable, three hotels, two newspapers, a sawmill, three otton gins, a number of shops, three hurhes - Methodist, Afrian Methodist, and Roman Catholi - a publi shool house, a Roman Catholi Institute, a ompliment of professional men and agents, two Masoni lodges - white and olored - a lodge of Odd Fellows, and two lodges of Knights of Honor, one being omposed of Catholis only. Aording to the 1880 ensus Randolph County and its 1,476 farms produed om, wheat, oats, hay, Irish potatoes, and sweet potatoes in suffiient quantities to export - espeially the six thousand bales of otton. The ounty's 13,000 pounds of tobao ranked it as the tenth highest produer of this rop in the state. Raw materials were proessed in area grist-mills and otton gins and then exported to broader markets from Poahontas. Land owners reeived a large inome from the varied timber speies in the ounty ontributing signifiantly to individual wealth as well as those onduting river exportation. Tax reords from 1880 and 1888 revealed that in that ourse of time the taxable wealth of the ounty had more than doubled and that taxes had dereased. 25 This eonomi suess set the stage for onstrution of many of the extant ommerial buildings in the Poahontas histori distrit today. The town was further awakened from her eonomi slumber in the late 1890s when a St. Louis and San Franiso (Friso) Rail Road branh line was ompleted from nearby Hoxie to Poahontas. A further upturn ame in with an extension of the same line to Cape Girardeau loated on the Mississippi River in Missouri. Not only did this open easy onnetion with the broader trade markets, it made an impat on the loal markets as well. The rail line to Cape Girardeau inluded a railroad bridge aross the Blak onneting Poahontas with the eastern portion of the ounty that had previously 'n almost totally isolated from the town. Aording to Dalton, sine that date there was "a steady.1provement. " Goodspeed, Dalton, Goodspeed, Dalton, 189, 227.

33 NPS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 10 Joseph "Joe" Shmidt, an immigrant from Bavaria arriving in Poahontas in 1885, was one of several hundred Europeans mainly from German states who settled in Poahontas and Randolph County from 1880 to Many of these immigrants ontributed signifiantly to the loal eonomy as skilled raftsmen of various types. Mr. Shmidt's raft was brik making. Using the abundant sand from loal river banks and the red lay from the hills, he began making briks in Poahontas in 1887 after setting up large brik kilns (a later generation of whih still stands today) on what was then the western edge of the town. 27 [See Figure 4.] Among the European immigrants were Ferdinand Spinnenweber and Hubert Peters who reated the ity's major onstrution ompany in Peters' brother-in-law, Henry Lesmeister, was an artist and an arhitet. He designed most of the buildings in the proposed histori distrit. These buildings were then, in turn, onstruted by Spinnenweber and Peters. Lesmeister later designed many of the buildings in the esboro, Arkansas, downtown distrit. Several of the Henry Lesmeister relatives ontinued to reside in Jonesboro through the 1950s. The majority of Lesmeister's designs were typially brik strutures with a faux seond floor faade and featuring various brik patterns and ornate iron grillwork. Spinnenweber and Peters onstruted all the buildin~s on the west and north side of the square along with some of those on the east and south sides as well. They also onstruted the strutures in the 200 bloks of W. Everett and N. Marr Streets, the buildings along W. Pyburn, and the Imperial Theater. All of the strutures built by Spinnenweber and Peters used briks from Joe Shmidt's Brik Company. Briks from Shmidt's works were also used in onstrution of the buildings along W. Broadway and N. Van Bibber streets downtown. Shmidt and his desendents ontinued operating his brik kilns into the 1960s. His briks were used by Spinnenwebber to onstrut a number of extant brik homes in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the Spinnenwebber Addition of Poahontas. In the 1950s, Mr. Shmidt's desendents built several distintive brik homes that still stand in the neighborhood of the brikworks. 28 The histori photograph showing the antebellum St. Charles Hotel [See Figure 1] also reveals a two-story brik building at Bettis and Broadway Streets on the east side of the square. Prior to 1905 the two-story brik Randolph County Bank had also been onstruted on the opposite omer of Bettis Street and Broadway Street. The Martin and Wells Insurane Ageny, established in 1905, was initially housed in this struture. The Martin Insurane Ageny ontinues to the present day, owned by the same Martin family, and loated two bloks west on Broadway. The extant Randolph County Bank building is little hanged today and ses Futrell Hardware. [See Figure 5.] 27 Bill Carroll, Histori Poahontas. Unpublished researh; n.p. 28 Ibid.

34 NPS FORM A (8-88) OMS Approval No National Park Servie ~ ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 11 Dalton reords that an eletrial power plant was built in Poahontas in 1911 and in that same year eletrial lights were turned on for the first time. In 1915 the water system was installed, putting the loal water hauler out of business. Those living in Poahontas without wells or isterns prior to this date had untreated water delivered to them from the Blak River spreading illness for many years. 29 A histori photograph of the ommerial distrit prior to installation of eletriity and prior to onstrution of the buildings on the north half of the east side of the ourthouse square (where the St. Charles Hotel had been loated) emphasizes the dominane of the 1875 Italianate Courthouse. While onstrution of the entire omplex of new brik ommerial buildings was inomplete and streets were still unpaved, there was obviously a growing ommerial transition emerging in Poahontas in the first deades of the twentieth entury. At the omer of Marr and Everett three new brik buildings replaed the huge frame Hamil merhandise store that had burned - one being the first three-story struture in Poahontas. The lipped 1er orientation of the new Hamil building prominently advertised a onstrution date of The Brooks building on the west side displayed a date of At least two buildings on the west end of the north side of the square, both extant today, had been ompleted by the time the photograph was taken - all were of brik onstrution. In the foreground of the photograph is the first ira 1903 Friso Depot as well as a number of railroad ars owned by the Friso Railroad. The photograph is onsidered to have been taken from the railroad bridge aross the Blak River. 30 [See Figure 6.] Long past the introdution of eletriity in 1911, Poahontas streets were filled with a mix of ultural transitions. Yokes of oxen pulling wagons and arts, horses and mules, livery stables and blaksmith shops, steamboats, steam engines, railroads, steel bridges, and the first automobiles reated juxtapositions of old with new. A large two-story frame hotel featuring two-story porhes faing the railroad traks had been onstruted prior to The hotel omplex inluded a livery stable - one of several in Poahontas into the first deades of the twentieth entury. The hotel was owned by Eli Heavener in 1880 when the first group of European immigrants arrived in Poahontas. The immigrants resided in the hotel until they beame established in the town. 31 Just as numerous desendants of the first Anglo Amerian and Afrian Amerian families with ties to the Holston River Valley ontinue to reside in Randolph County so do many families of the 1880s influx of immigrants - all have reated a stable population for the town to the present. Heavener sold the hotel to B. F. Bigger in With the eonomi awaking of Poahontas entered on industry and travel inspired by the railroad, Bigger Hotel beame known throughout the region for its fine hospitality and food with long porhes serving as ommunity gathering plaes for wathing the trains ome and go. The hotel and livery stable were destroyed by fire in Deember [See Figure 6.].. <e other ommunities of the time, fires have destroyed numerous Poahontas businesses. The Sanborn Map Company of New York City produed plat maps of Poahontas in 1910 and 1922 for the purpose of 29 Dalton, Carroll, n.p. 31 Dalton,

35 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 12 assessing fire insurane liability. These maps have been preserved loally by the Martin Insurane Ageny that was established in The maps detail important information suh as streets, shools, hurhes, indexes of businesses, and, of ourse, the fire liability at the time. The 1910 Sanborn map indiates that Poahontas had no water works (not installed until 1915 as pointed out by Dalton), no fire protetion, no publi lights, and streets were unpaved. By 1922 Poahontas had a 75,000-gallon gravity and diret pressure water faility and two Smith-Vaile fire pumps to pump water from the Blak River. The system had been installed in The volunteer fire department had one 1000-foot hand reel. There were eletri lights for the streets but the streets were still unpaved. The 1922 Sanborn map lists the following businesses in the omm'erial area between the ourthouse square Blak River: Baltz Flour and Grist Mill; East St. Louis Cotton Oil Company otton gin; Grafton Stave ompany; Poahontas Lumber Company sawmill; Roberts Cotton Oil Company gin; Sallee Brothers Handle Fatory and Ie Manufaturing; Speie Hoop Mill, hoop manufature; Standard Oil Company, oil house; and the St. Louis and San Franiso (Friso) Railroad Depot. There were also four hurhes, one publi and one parohial shool, and a ounty jail in addition to the ourthouse. The rail onnetions with the Mississippi River markets and international shipping destinations had produed investment from firms outside Randolph County as noted by the St. Louis-owned otton gin. Aess to markets plus tehnologial advanes in agriultural equipment generated inreased otton prodution in the ounty. Poahontas beame the main hub for not only inoming freight and merhandise but for outbound agriultural and timber produts in the ounty. Twelve years earlier the 1910 Sanborn Map had listed some of the same businesses listed in Speie Brothers Hoop fatory, Roberts Cotton Oil gin, and the Sallee Brothers Handle Fatory. All were loated in the industrial area along the river. The Sallee Brothers Handle Fatory, established in Poahontas in 1909, was one of the leading industries of Poahontas for nearly three-quarters of a entury; its history reflets the international marketing growth experiened by several Randolph County businesses. Using quality hikory from Arkansas and surrounding states, the fatory manufatured handles for hammers, axes, hoes, and push brooms that were sold all over the United States, England, New Zealand, and the West Indies. They also produed baseball bats that were used throughout the United States. The sawdust was shipped to New Mexio and used for smoking turkeys and to Missouri to smoke hams. In the early years the mill owned its own paddle wheel boats whose familiar whistles ould be heard all over the town Sanborn map also listed a muh smaller but equally important business in the minds of the people of Poahontas. One of Lesmeister's designs, this extant long, narrow struture is loated near the middle of the west side of the ourthouse square. Sine its onstrution a. 1900, the struture has always housed a barber shop. Histori photographs of the time show the entrane to the barber shop marked by a barber pole 32 Shults, 57.

36 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 13 sign. The Sanitary Barber Shop ontinues operation in the same loation today ontinuing its laim as the longest operating barber shop in the state of Arkansas. Other barber shops existed in Poahontas as well. They supported one of the best known and highly respeted business men in Poahontas in the early twentieth entury, Mabel Johnson. Mabel, an Afrian Amerian desendant of former Randolph County slaves, proudly used his first name given by his family who were hoping for a girl when he was born. He arried on his suessful shoe shining business at the town's various barber shops for nearly half a entury. 33 [See Figures 7, and 8.] Another histori photograph of Everett Street in the 1930s reveals the then City Hall loation, the 1920s lassial style Dudley Building along with Lesmeister's buildings to the west of it. [See Figure 9.] A fire in aused alterations in the Dudley Building and old City Hall struture but the Lesmeister-designed ~trutures on Everett Street remain intat with minor alterations. Inreased use of motorars and truks in the 1920s brought hanges again to the ommerial enterprises and arhiteture of Poahontas just as in the rest of the ountry. In the late 1920s and early 1930s U. S. Highways 67 and 62 were onstruted into Poahontas. Trademark signs mounted to the new forms of arhiteture - the automotive servie station - beame part of the arhitetural landsape with some like ESSO and DX no longer in existene. Coa-Cola with their trademark signs painted on stores around the ourthouse square were also part of the landsape hanges. A few of these signs remain as ghostly figures on present-day histori downtown buildings. The first automobiles had to traverse roads that were not muh better than early wagon trails. U. S. Highway 67 ame into Poahontas along Bettis Street diretly to the square. In the late 1920s area towns all along the highway petitioned to have the highway, slated for improvements, to be reloated along the railroad lines. This hange did our but the roadway was not paved until a number of years later. A Missouri Trailways Bus stopped on the square in Poahontas in the 1930s, taking some of the passage traffi away from the railroads. Motor ourts atering to auto traffi also began to appear along the highway route. 34 Prior to the 1920s a three-story opera house was onstruted just off the ourthouse square at the omer of Pyburn and Marr Streets. No longer in existene, it nevertheless is a part of the ultural and eonomi history of Poahontas. In the early 1920s, the Opera House hosted many Afrian Amerian orhestras passing through from Chiago and St. Louis on their way down to Dallas and Houston as well as W. C. Handy from Memphis. The legendary Half Pint Jakson Band, a very influential orhestra in Memphis during the time, 1s a loal favorite in the s for parties and events at the Opera House. Jakson is said to have \'ed the moonshine made in Randolph County, and it wasn't hard to get him and his band members to take 33 Shults, Carroll, n.p.

37 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 14 a train to Poahontas to play. Distilled spirits, legal and non-legal, have played a part in muh of Randolph C ounty h 1story.. 35 Numerous individuals from Poahontas have played important roles in the town's entertainment and eonomi history. One was the legendary Hillbilly singer and musiian 'Slim' Rhodes, who along with his brothers and sisters, grew up piking otton in Randolph County. When Slim and siblings were kids in the 1930's, they played every Saturday on the steps of the 1875 ourt house in Poahontas on guitars they made from igar boxes and fishing line. They always gathered a large rowd that pithed money in a ardboard box. They laimed they ould make more money playing musi on a Saturday than hopping otton an entire week. 'Slim' eventually went to Memphis and hosted his own television show during the 1950s and '60s. It was one of the most popular loal TV shows in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi for many years. "eryone, inluding legendary rok musiian Elvis Presley, wanted to be on the Slim Rhodes TV Show. In 9, Rhodes performed at the Randolph County fairgrounds and 10,000 people attended. Just as the entire United States was affeted by the great Depression of the 1920s - 30s, Randolph County was no exeption. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), federal government programs designed to easy nationwide unemployment, aided the residents of Randolph County during these eonomially depressed years. Three CCC amps were built in the ounty. Their improvement projets and WPA onstrution projets benefited the downtown ommerial area of Poahontas with paved highways, waterworks, hospital, post offie, and a new ounty ourthouse. Within the present histori ommerial area of Poahontas two of the WP A buildings have been listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes - the Post Offie (listed 5/6/2002) and the 1940 Courthouse (listed 8/22/ 1996). They join the 1875 Italianate Courthouse that was plaed on the National Register on April 24, Constrution of the Post Offie began in 1936 and was ompleted in 1937 with a onstrution ost of approximately $52,000 under ontrator T. Jarvis and Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The National Register Statement of Signifiane notes that the "Poahontas Post Offie learly demonstrates the simplified Art Deo design that was popular in U. S. Treasury Department design during the Great Depression." It goes on to point out that, like other Arkansas post offies onstruted during this time period, the Poahontas Post Offie was seleted to reeive a mural through the Treasury Department's Setion of Painting and Sulpture. Renowned artist H. Louis Freund, himself an Arkansan, won the ompetition for the Poahontas mural. He visited Poahontas to gather historial information and his omposite of senes was entitled "Early Days of ahontas," even though he depited senes from sites on the Blak, Eleven Point, and Current Rivers at a riety of time periods. For a orrelation with post offie history he inluded a depition of the log building that was known to have served as a post offie at Davidsonville in 1817 when the area was Lawrene County, Missouri Territory. For Poahontas he depited the loally renowned steamboat the 'Milt Harry' and the Bigger Hotel. Hufstedler Mill, a mid-nineteenth entury mill on the Eleven Point River, was inluded as was 35 Gary Gazaway, Personal interview on the musi history of Poahontas, 2008.

38 NPS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 15 the late-nineteenth entury Sott Ferry on the Current River. The Sott Ferry was owned by Coleman Sott, a highly suessful Afrian Amerian businessman and eduator at Biggers. Freund's artisti liense paid homage to a broad period of the area's history and its rih diverse ethni bakground. This important work of art ommissioned for Poahontas was removed from the post offie wall due to deterioration and is presently stored at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. 36 [See Figures 9 and 1 O.] Another Depression Era onstrution projet for Poahontas was onduted in 1939 by the National Youth Administration (NYA) of the WPA. The NYA existed from , and the average age of the workers was approximately forty years. Two extant adjaent buildings on Broadway Street and part of the nominated histori ommerial distrit were onstruted of rok in 1939 to serve as offies for the ity government. The largest of the two buildings ontained the City Hall with the jail downstairs and the fire department upstairs. he smaller building loated to the east had the polie department upstairs and the fire truks were kept nstairs. 37 In February 1940, following a supporting vote of the residents, a $130,000 onstrution projet for a new ounty ourthouse was begun. Finaning inluded a $49,250 grant from the WP A. The projet was ompleted by Deember The National Register Statement of Signifiane notes "the struture is a buff brik and onrete struture reflets the Art Deo style in overall massing and omposition, as well as through its restrained employment of the typial Classially-inspired ornamentation. It has been desribed as one of the finest and most substantial ounty ourthouse in the state and remains one of the most intat to this day." Loal residents state that the sunken garden that fronts the struture resulted from a mistake by the ontrator when exavating for the foundation. One the mistake was orreted and the struture's foundation reloated to the present site, the earlier exavation was left in plae and landsaping for the garden/plaza was inorporated into the over-all design for the ourthouse grounds. On the Courthouse Square in Arkansas by John and Margem Gill notes that the Modeme-style ourthouse and sunken garden "dramatizes the view of the hill on whih the (1875) ourthouse still stands. 38 [See Figure 11.] In the 1950s the histori ourt square still formed the ommerial nuleus of the town, and it bustled with the ultural ativities that hanged with the deades, but all keeping the ommerial distrit viable. When early rok and roll was birthed out of a mix of Blues and Hillbilly musi in the early 1950s, many of the noted early musiians performed on a regular basis at lubs and venues along U. S. Highway 67 from the Missouri line and south. Poahontas had two important sites on the north and south side of town where Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others performed. Legendary Sun reording artist Billy Riley was born in Poahontas in the 1930s and later grew up in Oseola. He is onsidered to be one of most important pioneers of Rok and Roll and was the artist Elvis Presley and other rok and rollers most imitated. Elvis stopped at KPOC radio station in Poahontas with his manager in the spring of 1955 where he 36 Shults, 73, Carroll, n.p. 38 John Purifoy Gill, and Margem Jakson Gill, On the Courthouse Square. Private publ iation,

39 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 16 promoted his then urrent reord and played live on the air. Country musi's most award-winning songwriter Bill Rie was born north of Poahontas, and performed at many talent shows and fairs in Poahontas. His first song released was reorded by Elvis on RCA. 39 The first and non-extant Friso Depot was a frame struture loated to the south of the present extant Friso Depot building. The extant depot was used by the railroad until 1970 when it was donated to the town even though trains ontinued to serve Poahontas until 1985 when the last traks were abandoned. Now vaant, several businesses have been loated in the building sine it was donated to the ity. Elmer "Smokey" James, originally a resident of Biggers, moved to Poahontas in 1971 and opened his used ar business in the old Friso Depot that year. Mr. James was a well known loal Afrian Amerian businessman, having operated several enterprises in Biggers throughout his life. He ontinued operation of the used ar business in that -"~ ation through 1983, the year of his death. The depot is part of the histori ommerial distrit mat10n. In 1986 the Afrian Amerian ommunity beame onerned about the deteriorating state of the histori building that now houses the Eddie Mae Herron Center. It served as the Poahontas Colored Shool in days prior to the integration of the Poahontas Shool Distrit in the 1960s. Both Afrian Amerian and Anglo Amerian ommunity leaders worked together to restore the 1918 Plain-Traditional-style shool building that now serves as a ommunity hub, named for a beloved and influential teaher, and was listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes on 8/5/2002. No history of Poahontas ould be omplete without looking at the impat of the Blak River. With major rivers that rise high in the Ozark highlands feeding into it, flooding has been an ever-present issue. Fishing, logging, and button manufaturing from the mussel shells from the river have added to the eonomy of Poahontas over the deades. During the earliest days of Poahontas the Blak River was the highway for keelboats, flatboats, rafts, and steamboats. In 1907 a Missouri lumber ompany onstruted a steamboat named in honor of the town. The "little steamer Poahontas... was a familiar sight running up and down the rivers, towing logs, hauling lumber produts or otherwise serving the people along the river." First ferries, then railroads, and now hard-surfaed highways have all had to solve the issue of rossing the river in order to keep the eonomy of the area alive and growing. Additionally, the Blak, along with the other rivers in Randolph County today, provides rereational opportunities that feed the eonomy. The Blak River bridges have added signifiantly to the built landsape of Poahontas for more than threerters of a entury and enabled expansion on the east side of the river. The first railroad bridge was andoned for rail traffi in 1912 but ontinued to serve as a "wagon bridge" serving the publi until the 1934 Highway 67 Bridge was opened. The "new" 1912 railroad bridge served until the railroads eased operation in The 1934 highway bridge was a swing bridge that allowed for river vessels to pass; in 39 Gazaway. 40 Carroll, n.p.

40 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page 17 spite of being listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes on 4/9/1990, the bridge has been demolished. The 1934 open-spandrel onrete arh bridge rossing Marr's Creek on Highway 67 was listed on the National Register on 1/24/ The population of Poahontas has grown steadily sine the approximately 500 population reorded by Goodspeed in 1888 and the 1890 U. S. Census. In the deade of 1930 to 1940 the population growth inreased from 1,896 to 3,028 due undoubtedly in part to the finanial support and new onstrution taking plae with governmental WPA projets. In 2000 the population was 6, Fires and deterioration ontinued to take their toll on histori buildings on the ourthouse square and the surrounding ommerial distrit. By the 19 50s replaement windows were often metal in plae of repliation 0 - restoration of the originals. Today some of these alterations have themselves beome part of histori iod alterations. Other rehabilitation efforts have aused some strutures to lose their arhitetural and histori signifiane. In the 1990s state and federal grants funds supported installation of improved handiapped-aessibility for sidewalks with wrought iron fening that oordinates with the repliated fening that one surrounded the ourt square. Fortunately, a majority of the original a. 1900s Lesmeister-designed strutures remain suffiiently intat to usher in a new era for the histori ommerial distrit of Poahontas. With the 1875 Italianate Courthouse, restored under an Arkansas Histori Preservation Program Courthouse Restoration Grant, still dominating the ourthouse square and anhoring the histori ommerial distrit, Poahontas is revitalizing its downtown with a heritage tourism fous. 41 Shults, AHPP. 42 Gary L. Buxton. "Poahontas." Enylopedia of Arkansas.

41 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 8 Page

42 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No ()()18 National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY Arkansas History Commission. Misellaneous Newspapers - Poahontas Weekly Advertiser, Issue: May 20, Arkansas Histori Preservation Program. National Register of Histori Plaes Listings - Randolph County. Beshoar, Barron B. Hipporates in a Red Vest: The Biography of a Frontier Dotor. Palo Alto, California: Amerian West Publishing Company, Gary L. Buxton. "Poahontas." Enylopedia of Arkansas. Ci, William G. Probate Reords; Lawrene County Loose Probate files. Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas. Carroll, Bill, Histori Poahontas. Unpublished researh; n.d. Carter, Clarene Edwin. Territorial Papers of the United States, Volume XV, Louisiana - Missouri Territory Washington: United States Government Printing Offie, Dalton, Lawrene. History of Randolph County. Little Rok: Demorat Printing and Lithographing Company, Gazaway, Gary. Personal interview on the musi history of Poahontas, Gill, John Purifoy, and Margem Jakson Gill. On the Courthouse Square. Private publiation, The Goodspeed Bibliographial and Historial Memoirs of Northeastern Arkansas. Chiago, Nashville, and St. Louis: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, MAlester, Virginia and Lee MAlester. A Field Guide to Amerian Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, rrow, J. E. "Shaeffer's Eddy Aess and Arheologial Site." Site signage: Poahontas, Randolph ounty, Arkansas. Olvey, Robert. Martin Family Reords (Sanborn Maps, Histori Photographs).

43 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No National Park Servie ational Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Page 2 Randolph County, Arkansas: History and Families, 1835, Vol. 1. Paduah, Kentuky: Turner Publishing, Reynolds, John. The Pioneer History of Illinois, 2nd Edition. Chiago: Fergus Printing Company, Shroeder, Walter A. Opening the Ozarks: A Historial Geography of Missouri 's Ste. Genevieve Distrit Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, Shults, Steve, and Joe Martin. Randolph County, Arkansas: A Pitorial History. Morley, MO: Alaim Press, Stokard, S. W. the History of Lawrene, Jakson, Independene, and Stone Counties of the third Judiial trit. Little Rok: Arkansas Demorat Company, Summary- Civil War history in summary of The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Offiial Reords of the Union and Confederate Armies; The Goodspeed Bibliographial and Historial Memoirs of Northeastern Arkansas; Beshoar, Barron B., Hipporates in a Red Vest: The Biography of a Frontier Dotor; Dalton, Lawrene, History of Randolph County. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Offiial Reords of the Union and Coefederate Armies. 130 Volumes, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Offie

44 NPS FORM A OMB Approv~ No ational Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number 10 Page ---- VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION The boundaries of the enompass the town square, whih inludes buildings faing Bettis Street on the east, Broadway on the south, Marr Street on the west, and Everrett Street on the north); one blok east of Bettis to Highway 67; aross highway 67, north of the ity park and west of the river; one blok south of Broadway to inlude the new County Couthouse; two bloks west of Marr Street to inlude two bloks of Van Bibber Street; one blok west of Van Bibber Street to Thomasville Road; and one blok north of Everett to inlude buildings faing Pyburn Street between Van Bibber and Vane Streets. The distrit inludes the following bloks on Poahontas's plat map: 2-4, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22, 30-35, 47-49, and the north half of bloks 11and20. BOUNDARY JUSTIFICATION The boundary is drawn to enompass the onentrated olletion of extant histori ommerial properties in downtown Poahontas. The distrit inludes the buildings at the enter of publi life for Poahontas's residents during the late nineteenth entury and first half of the 20th entury. UTM REFERENCES CONTINUED E N E N E N E N E N E N E N le N E N E N E N E N E N

45 NPS FORM A (S-86) OMB Approval No National Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Photos Page Poahontas, Woodruff County, Arkansas Photos by: Thomason and Assoiates Date: August 2008 Loation of Negatives: Arkansas SHPO, Little Rok Photo No. 1: 100 Blok East Everett Street, view to northeast Photo No. 2: 100 Blok Bettis Street, view to southeast Photo No. 3: Southeast omer of Broadway and Bettis, view to southeast Photo No. 4: 100 Blok North Marr Street, view to northwest Photo No. 5: Old Randolph County Courthouse, view to southeast Photo No. 6: 100 Blok West Everett Street, view to north-northwest Photo No. 7: WPA Post Offie, Van Bibber Street, view to north-northwest Photo No. 8: New Randolph County Courthouse, Broadway, view to south Photo No. 9: 100 blok of Broadway, view to southwest Photo No. 10: 100 blok Pyburn Street, view to northeast Photo No. 11: 200 blok Pyburn Street, view to southwest Photo No. 12: Poahontas-Friso Depot, MDonald Street, view to southwest

46 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No ational Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page Figures: Figure 1: Looking southeast - In this a photograph the Poahontas Conert Band plays at the east side of the 1875 Courthouse with the 1850s St. Charles Hotel loated on Bettis Street in the bakground. :-.. r_.- "'..; ;

47 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No ational Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page 2 Figure 2: Looking south - Broadway Street, south side of the ourthouse square a. 1875, providing a glimpse of the antebellum ommerial distrit of Poahontas. Figure 3: Looking northwest brik Italianate Randolph County Courthouse with original vault on right. ~~t ~vu~:.; 0 P~~:wno~ ;, Ark. - ~ '

48 NPS FORM A OMB Approval No ational Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page 3 Figure 4:The Joseph Shmidt and Company brik kiln was established in Poahontas in Most of the extant histori ommerial buildings in Poahontas were onstruted of brik from this kiln. Figure 5: Looking south-a ira 1900 Randolph County Bank Building on the omer of Broadway and Bettis.

49 NPS FORM A (~) OMB Approval No ational Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page 4 Figure 6: Lookirig west - A ira 1905 photograph of Poahontas showing the dominane of the 1875 Italianate Courthouse, several of the extant ommerial buildings, newly installed Friso railroad and its non-extant first depot and Bigger Hotel, two-story white struture on the left. Figure 7 Looking northwest - This ira 1915 view of the west side of the Poahontas ourt square shows ommerial brik strutures with a faux seond floor faade and featuring various brik patterns and ornate iron grillwork. Designed by arhitet Henry Lesmeister, raftsmen Spinnenweber and Peters onstruted all the buildings on the west and north side of the square along with some of those on the east and south sides as well. The Sanitary Barber Shop is marked by a barber pole. "i"j,

50 NPS FORM A (~) OMB Approval No National Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page 5 Figure 8: Interior of the Sanitary Barber Shop in the late 1920s. Figure 9: Looking west s view of Everett Street, north side of the ourt square.

51 NPS FORM A OMS Approval No National Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page 6 Figure 10. Looking northwest - the U. S. Post Offie Building onstruted by the WP A as it was nearing ompletion. Presently it houses the Star Herald newspaper offies. The building was listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes in Figure 11: The H. Louis Freund mural ommissioned installed on the interior of the 1937 U. S. Post Offie Building. :. i ' ~.._._ '.. ;ft:t';'~t;;r;:~;-. ~--:;::~~-::::-::7:~~ ~,..~,...,,.,., f i - ~~_:; ~i; p.~~:..'$, 1 ~~, :~

52 NPS FORM 10-90().A (S-86) OMB Approval No ational Park Servie National Register of Histori Plaes Setion number Histori Photos Page 7 Figure 12: 1940 Art Deo - Modeme style Randolph County Courthouse at Broadway and N. Marr Streets. This histori photograph shows the state seal of Arkansas loated above the main entrane. It was listed on the National Register of Histori Plaes in 1996.

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59 40J8 ~ i : "r;~ F.1 _ ~~ '. ~ h ::, ~1 :...? J Q J i_.. ~ :. :. ~ '\"' ( l_ '., ; ' l. 'i l'--1 ~. t ' ) \-- \.....') I (oz, ';Zv,.;f:. '.;.,.. ) IS C?6L:.. -; =~ 1 '' edited. and published by the Geologial Survey Control by USGS and USC&GS Topography by photogrammetri methods from aerial photographs taken 1965 and planetable surveys J 966 Polyoni proiet1on North Amerian datum 10,000-foot grid based on Arkansas oordinate system, north zone 1000-meter Universal Transverse Merator grid tiks, zone 15, shown 1n blue Red tint indiates area in whih only landmark buildings are shown To plae on the predited North Amerian Datum 1983 move the projetion lines 4 meters south and 11 meters east as shown by dashed orner tiks Revisions shown in purple om pi led from aerial photographs taken Map edited This information not field heked Purple tint indiates extension of urban area WALNUT RIDGE: 13 Ml. ~ CUC.»r,.~ NEWPORT 51 Ml. + +., /'MAP SALES ~ * $ AND \ MN ~- SERVICES.!GN L "' 1100 Lebenon Rd. ~ ,," '~ N~.W.,T11m10 $' 3,,,. "'~.. ~ MILS..._._,,..,. 22 MILS UTM GRID AND 1981 MAGNETIC NORTH DECLINATION AT CENTER OF SHEET I <== FOf