White House Cafe in Searcy Arkansas. It's been a long time since it was here.

Ok, Barbara, we need to stir up all the Searcy people.  The White House Cafe sounds familiar to me, but I cannot place where it was.  Who knows????

It was at  Grand and East Race, I believe. On the south east corner.

I meant the southwest corner.

I remember the White House Cafe but don't remember ever going in there to eat.  Guess it was too far away from my West Arch St. house.

Didn't it FACE Grand Ave, rather than Race?  Or am I getting it confused with the White House Grocery, which was next to it, wasn't it?  One faced Race and the other faced Grand as I recall.  Help me out, Harold Gene.

In my '57 phone book:  White House Grocery and Market, E. Race and Grand Ave.  Phone 23.

                                   White House Cafe, 8ll E. Race, phone 904.

I don't remember which faced which way.  However, didn't the owner go to our church (First Methodist)?  I can almost recall their names.  I don't remember ever eating there either.

I spent a lot of time on that corner when I was a kid, but it was long after the heyday of the White House Cafe! My dad owned Sports Warehouse which, along with the bus station, occupied part of Lamar Vinson's building.  After school at Ahlf Jr. High I would walk down Race Street, pop my head in to say "hi" to Mrs. Vinson, grab a cold bottle of Mellow Yellow from the machine out front, and then settle in for a couple of hours amidst the Nikes and Reeboks. 

The phone book had it right.  The front entrance faced Race Street.  The food I ate there was good.  My mother worked in the kitchen when the Turner's operated it.  She also drove the lunch wagon around to the factories for awhile.  My sister worked there as a waitress.  I had to call my sister to be sure if I remembered right.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know when that restaurant was started, but was in the 1970's when I ate there.  When I was a kid, very seldom did we get to eat out.  Perhaps a burger at Tom's place across the street from the high school 2 or 3 times a year or at the Cofffee Cup diner.

This is such a HUGE find for me. My grandparents at one time owned the White House Cafe in Searcy, Arkansas. There was a HUGE oak tree outside, with a bench seat, where my Father proposed marriage to my mother, in 1966. My grandparents were, Ivon and Cecil Harrison. I dont know how long they owned the cafe, only that they had 5 children that helped run it at the time. My grandfather was a Methodist minister for alot of the little Methodist churches on the outskirts of Searcy and also went on to work with Albert Yarnell, as a salesman for Yarnells ice cream. Albert was also a close friend and neighbor in the Copper Springs area, and my grandmother went on to work at the White County hospital as a manager in the cafeteria. I have recently been very interested in my families history, and have heard so many stories of the times that my parents were at the cafe! So glad that someone took pictures. THANK YOU!!!

I remember Charles Bridgeman's parents had the cafe at one time, so I checked w/Charles & his mother (Wanda Hart). My research plus some personal memory shows that Edsel & Wanda Bridgeman (Charles' parents) owned the cafe from 1952-54 and lived upstairs. They later bought the little white house behind the cafe (shown in bottom photo after cafe & grocery torn down) Bridgeman bought cafe from a fella named Jeff Wilkerson (Wilkerson later had a barber shop down Market St, about a block further east). Bridgemans sold the cafe business to a Ms. French, who was connected with Harding College in some manner. Back in the 1940's, Buel & Virginia Croom (parents of Arkansas' First Lady, Ginger Beebe & her sister) owned & operated the cafe and lived upstairs. There was one upstairs apartment that ran the length of both businesses. I ate at the cafe a few times in late 50's & early '60's and enjoyed - mostly "blue plate special" type food & reasonably priced for the times. Had those little individual juke boxes on the tables with the titles on flip pages. There was a horseshoe shaped bar w/stool in the front & cash register was inside the bar. Also had tables and booths scattered around. I grew up down the street a couple blocks away and shopped at the White House Gricery some. It was a separate business but it and the cafe were under one roof - the grocery was owned and operated by Ed Ramey and his wife for most of my growing up days in Searcy (late 40's - early 60's). Not sure exactly when he closed the grocery. Times sho-hava changed!