Special offer
Home > Blogs > Barbara S. Duncan > Barbara Duncan's blog
bookmark_border

There oughta be a law! Post a sign before tearing down a historic house in Searcy AR!

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

You're just driving down the road minding your own business when ZAP! 

What's that over there? 

A vacant lot.

With fresh dirt. 

With men standing around clearing.

And you realize another house has been eliminated!  They didn't have the courtesy to tell you to get out the camera and take a last photo just for memories for the future!

That has just happened to me.  I liked these three houses on West Race Street.  I called them Searcy Arkansas row houses because they were in a row with seemingly the very same style and floor plan.  There are lots of houses in Searcy built like these.

One is gone!  Overnight!  Gone! 

So I went to the Google man and he and I went walking down the 400 block for a final farewell.  See how they are so similar.  Each has a bay windown and a front porch.  And you can guess which one is missing if you'd like.

Race Street house now history

Race Street row houses

 And for historical value, here's the court house view.

House now gone

Show All Comments
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

O.K.   I"m going to have to wait for Don to wake up this morning and get cranked up.   The Flippen Eye clinic is where Hope Henderson's Beauty Shop was.....I think.  I have spent many a painful morning in Hope's, getting a "permanent wave"....hooked up to that machine that looks like something from outer space.  You've Blogged the picture of the little girl sitting under it, all hooked up.   I am, once more, saddened that another historic-ky house has been razed.

May 13, 2010 02:15 AM
#7
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Anita, Hope's Beauty Shop was in one of them.  I think it was the one on the corner and I had my hair cut there a few times.  She was a beauty operator, however, and I started going to barbers, who are better trained in cutting hair.  I got only one of those perms in my life and I believe I published that picture, didn't I?  The houses all looked very much alike and the corner one now has a chiropracter operating there.  Well, maybe not operating, but manipulating?  That sounds more appropriate.  Manipulating?  That implies something bad doesn't it?  So that's the wrong term.  Find me a better descriptive term, Anita.

May 13, 2010 02:50 AM
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

I think adjustment might be the better word for what the chiropracter does!!!

If they start to bulldoze Hope's Beauty Shop...let me know, IF you know in time.  I shall come and lay my body across the porch or somewhere....

Hope moved to Utah years ago, after retiring from the beauty shop business....she and Mother were good friends, and I've found many letters and cards she sent mother after she moved.  mother NEVER threw anything that came to her via the mail, away.  Now it's my "job".

May 13, 2010 04:19 AM
#9
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Anita, you're a genius.  That's the exact word I needed.  Someday the written word may be very valuable so hold onto those letters!  Why don't you reread and see if there's any good history to blog.  Her building has parking so perhaps it will last a while longer.

May 13, 2010 04:27 AM
Anonymous
Angela Shaw

I noticed the vacant lot yesterday morning.  I almost came to a complete stop in the middle of West Race (which is not a good idea with all of the going to school/work traffic at that time of day!).  I, too, thought of them as "row" houses since they were so similar in design.  I'd love to be able to go back in time and visit these homes in the days that off-street parking was not a necessity on West Race.

May 13, 2010 05:31 AM
#11
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Angela, you did the very same thing that I did.  I hated seeing that house go because of the three being so similar.  But thinking back to a time when folks probably didn't have a car and could walk downtown in one minute was interesting.  Did you know that some little towns, specifically Letona, make the city limits folks get their mail at the post office?  I learned that last year and was astounded!

May 13, 2010 07:30 AM
Anonymous
Bob C, SHS 51

Anita, these three homes are in the 400 block of West Race Street. Joe Scarbrough lived in the middle house in the 40s and early 50s. His father ran a neon sign business and used the garage for part of his business.

 

May 13, 2010 02:57 PM
#13
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Bob, my husband said the same thing.  Scarbrough lived in the middle house and was a sign painter.  In fact, I think we may have a blog with that sign business way back in our history.

May 13, 2010 03:21 PM
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

 I am afraid that, without hiring Nutsy to do a full investigation, I have no clue who lived where.

May 13, 2010 03:48 PM
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

Godmother,

consider that law now fully inforced at your request. Godson

May 13, 2010 03:51 PM
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

Godmother,

consider that law now fully inforced at your request. Godson

May 13, 2010 03:51 PM
Anonymous
SHS-51

Barbara that blog was about Kyle Searcy's (unknown to me) sign business. http://activerain.com/blogsview/744109/Sign-shop-in-Searcy-Arkansas-with-signs-old-timers-will-recognize

Scarbrough's main business, I believe, was neon signs.

May 13, 2010 10:29 PM
#18
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

You are both wrong about the name:  it was Scarsdale....not Scarbrough.  Scarsdale Neon Sign Shop, 402 W. Race,  phone 793. 

May 14, 2010 01:28 AM
#19
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Godson Nutsy, you look SO handsome in that outfit.  Never wear a fruit suit again!  You are the picture of authority in that red outfit.  If you put one on your boss just like it, you'd be a swell team!  And thans for enforcing my new law!

Steven, you sound more like Nutsy every day.

May 14, 2010 01:38 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Bob, SHS-51, thanks for finding that picture and giving us the link.  I liked the picture then and still do.

Anita, thanks to you for getting the name right.

May 14, 2010 01:39 AM
Anonymous
SHS 51

Mea Culpa! If I weren't so lazy I could have checked spelling in one of the yearbooks.

May 14, 2010 04:21 AM
#22
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Here you go with a stitch in time.

Houses in a Row

Greetings from Dallas, Texas

May 14, 2010 11:59 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Bob, spelling is not a big issue here!  It's just Anita worrying about it.  LOL

Don Thompson, I KNEW YOU COULD DO THAT!  Now we can see them perfectly.  Thank you immensely!!  So what are you doing in Texas??

May 14, 2010 01:00 PM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

We Came to see a granddaughter pitch in a softball game.

May 14, 2010 01:16 PM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, I can understand that.  Watching a granddaughter pitch is better than any professional game.

May 14, 2010 01:39 PM
Back to Top

What's the reason you're reporting this blog entry?

Are you sure you want to report this blog entry as spam?