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Another landmark in Searcy Arkansas gets hit by progress. I hated to see this house going away.

Notice the title says the house is "going away." That is better than saying "being torn down."

I've always felt that this big old house located on the very edge of Highway 16 North (1105 N Maple Street) was a mystery house. It stood starkly and was empty of people, shrubs, fences or anything to make it look occupied. It was just there, a landmark. I always wanted to go inside and find out it's history and mystery.

It was always too close to the highway. Even when the highway was a little two-lane one.

Driving past it today, my old heart flipped again. It's going down! Someone is tearing it down! I hate that!!

105 N Maple

But what does that sign on the front say? It says that it is being moved! And saved! sign on 1105 N Maple

Steve Ghent is a builder in our town who loves history and saving historic homes. He will move it someplace where it will fit in and have a new life.

While being happy that it was to be restored and I didn't have to do the old "Another one bites the dust," I started looking at the construction.

Look at the boards! Real boards! Where's the wiring?

The house was built in 1937. Evidently it had absolutely no insulation in the walls.

Times are changing....have changed....will change more!! And even though I liked to see this old house, I wouldn't trade my super energy efficient house for this one. Green is the way to go!! 1105 N Maple Searcy AR

Posted by Barbara S. Duncan ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO Searcy AR on 09/26/2009 07:54 AM

Comments (39)

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39 Comments on Another landmark in Searcy Arkansas gets hit by progress. I hated to see this house going away.

SEP

Barbara, it would appear that house is "a few bricks short" too:) (I will be out of Dodge teaching all day today----have fun in the rain)

So are they moving it?

I sure hope so

your friend in Charlottesville Virginia!

You've pecked my curiosity (or however you spell it)....give us some more landmarks as to where the house is/was? Also who might have lived there? I'll get Don, Gene, Bill, Bob Collins onto it, too.

Anita Fuller

Charles, have fun!

Charles McDonald, they are moving it according to the poster. Whether the same brick will be put back on, I don't know.

Anita, remember where JP Saunders dad made do-nuts just past McRae Street and just before Kingwood Subd and before Holmes Rd. This house is across the street from the do-nut place. It used to stand out starkly because of nothing around it. Now the area has grown up and it is not as noticable. In fact, someone may have lived in it the last few years. As long as I have been in Searcy, however, around 42 years, no one lived there until recently. I don't know anything about its history so am depending on you 4 to do that. The before picture was taken from the courthouse info sheet so it makes it look less stark.

Come on, guys....help me out here. I can't place where Barbara is talking about. Don't remember the do-nut place....I left Searcy in 1960, never to return to live.

Anita Fuller

Godmother Barbara,

If he would just teach the class, instead of calling every two minutes to see if he lost his water bottle and where, then he would be less trouble. I am speaking of Mr Charles of course.

Nutsy

Anita, the house stands just north of Deener Creek before Holmes road on the west side of Ark 16. I was thrown off by the house number on Maple St. because my mental map ends at McRae St. (or about the 800 block of N. Maple). I can't remember who lived there during the 40's. Thought of the Cothrens (?) at first but believe they lived further north.

Bob Collins

Can't help. I don't even remember the house, much less who lived there. I don't think it was any of our high school friends or I would have probably known.

Nutsy, what was in the water bottle??????

Anita, Bob and Harold Gene, I came in approx. 1967 so you'd not been gone that long! The house actually "loomed" over the pastureland around it, so my memory goes. It was not lived in. It was one of those houses where you wonder if they stored hay in it. You wondered what was in it? Who owned it? You wished you could go in and explore. Court house records show that it sold in 1995 to Thomas Allen. Vaguely I remember it being on the market and my being glad to be able to go through it finally. Prior to that time it was the mystery house for me.

Here's another view. 1105 N Maple

Godmother Barbara,

Clown juice of course.

Nutsy, forgoing the photo for one of the clown

Nutsy, that is such a clear and flattering picture of Mr. Charles. He should pay you for your photography expertise too!

Something fishy

Oh! Hello Charles! I didn't recognize you without the nose and multi-colored hair!

SEP

Barbara,

So glad that the house is being moved and not torn down! Structures like this will never happen again and history like this is intriguing and precious.

Sara, you're so very right. Thanks for stopping by.

Sorry to be a little late with this. Here's a Google view to better understand the charm of this old home.

1105maple St Views

Bob Collins: Do you mean the Cottrells? As in Tommie Jean Cottrell? That's where I thought it might be, but I can remember their house, and it's still there I THINK. This is taxing my brain and memory. Thanks for trying.

Anita Fuller

Now that I see Don's pics. I'm thinking it WAS the Cottrell house. Tommie Jean was Perrin Jone's first wife.....But there are no Cottrells in my 1957 phone book. What happened to them, anyone know?

Anita Fuller

Bob and Anita, it is not where Cottrells lived. I remember that house too. This is before their house. And I'm thinking it is no longer there either. It is now a Sonic!

Don, I knew you'd come through and with three views. Thanks.

Anita, I did mean Cottrells, but I believe they lived in a brick house on the northwest corner of Holmes Rd and HWY 16. I faintly recall, that the County Judge at the time, Judge Bradberry (or Bradbury), lived along in there between Deener Creek and the "cut" at Backbone Ridge. Could this have been the Bradberry place?"

Tommie Jean had an older sister, but I couldn't find her name in my old HS albums.

Barbara, someone should do a video documentary of Steve Ghent's successful efforts in preserving these old buildings in Searcy. I think there is enough substance there to make a great story of interest to Arkansans. One person can make a difference!

Bob Collins

Bob, that sounds like a good idea. I faintly recall the possibility that he also moved that Cottrell house to somewhere downtown. I'll have to do some checking on it. I asked Rodger's mother about that house and she mentioned "Plants." Does that ring a bell? Her memory is just about gone and she may have had the houses mixed up....but then again she lived all her life around Holmes Road.

I don't understand the moving process, Barbara. Why did they remove all the siding and doors to move it? The homes I have seen that were moved had been transported intact.

Elizabeth, they had to take off the brick. I would assume they took the doors off to keep them from flapping in the breezes as they hurry it down the highway? LOL Sorry.....I'm being silly but I don't know. They may even intend to replace with better doors.

Doesn't ring a bell. There was at least one Plant family in Searcy in the 40s and 50s. But I can't associate them with that area. Jim Berry Plant, a good friend of my father, was in your earlier posting of the volunteer fire dept.

Considering Mr. Ghent's interest in history he might be the best source of the background of this home.

Or Kenneth Billings, whose family owned the place on top of "the cut", may recall some history of house and it's property. I believe that there is still a Billings living there.

Bob Collins

Bob: Tommie's older sister was Laura Margaret Cottrell. I know because she was my 6th grade teacher. This was when we were in these quanset hut buildings down by the gym. Margaret Alice Redus was the other 6th grade teacher.

I don't think that was the Plant house. Floyd Bradbury initially lived on McRae Street, close to where W.L. Mason lived. Later he married Virginia Tucker and moved somewhere out beyond the cut....but not on the main street, sorta out in the country.

Good idea to query the Ghent man, the person moving all these houses.

Anita Fuller

I remember Miss Redus. She beat my butt with a paddle my dad made for her when he and her father worked at Robbins-Sanford. I probably deserved it. :)

Check your magic phone book again using the spelling Cautrell. That's how Tommie is identified in my 1950 and 1951 albums.

SHS51, Anita, and Bob,

I think I'll stop by the courthouse tomorrow and look at their older ownership records. Perhaps we can solve the question that way. The old ones are not on line.

SEP

Bob: thanks for the spelling lesson. I keep telling my husband, "Bobby Scott" that if I could spell, I could work my crossword puzzles much better. I used to be a good speller, NOT ANY MORE. O.K. Mrs. Jeff Cautrell, RFD 5, l495-J.

Barbara: why not ask Jim Baugh? His brother was married to Tommie Jean Cautrell first time around.

But going to the court house sounds like a good idea, too.

Anita Fuller

Anita, mystery solved. Jim Baugh says Joe Coward's granddaddy lived there. He says you'll know Joe Coward. The court house says the same thing and lists a Raymond Coward % Edwin Coward 103 S Pecan St on old time records. The tax bill was sent to Edwin.

Jim Baugh agrees with me that the house sat empty and forlorn for years but before that he played on the front porch with some friend of his. He also reports that someone bought it, tried to restore it and was not very successful.

Great work detective Barbara.

Thanks for checking, Anita. Now I know who y'all mean when you refer to "Jim Baugh". I've been thinking that "Baugh" was Jim's last name. Now I know you mean Jim Baugh Jones.

Thanks, SHS 51. Do we know your identity? We'd love to recognize you?

Thank goodness this mystery is solved and I can get on with my Monday morning housework. Thanks to all who worked it out. Now to some more trivia: Yes, I know or rather knew Joe Coward....he was a couple of years behind me in school, sadly Joe died several years ago. His Dad, Ed Coward, was a State Trooper - a very large man who always "scared" me when I would see him in his uniform: gun holster and leather strap around his chest.

To Bob Collins: Of course you know Jim Baugh, or as my dear friend JoAnn Hubbell used to call him , "Jim Ball Jones"....I actually think she thought Ball was his middle name, rather than the family name Baugh.

To Barbara: You're slipping, kid. Bob Collins, SHS 51, is one of your ActiveRainer friends and fan of the blog. You'll have to give him a big ACTIVE RAIN apology.

Anita, you are good! We figured out a hard one. Jim Baugh is a pretty good source and I had verified it at the court house earlier.

I am slow. Bob usually signs his name with a little tiny SHS 51 under it. When there is just a SHS 51 I think it is someone other than him. Thanks for straightening me out.