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For Searcy Sleuths....where was this house? 1310 W Arch and it still stands.

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

The Searcy Sleuths love a challenge.  They can find anything.  One of them ropes Mr. Google and forces him to go up and down streets of any town to find the treasure.

So I have great pictures of a house in Searcy that dates way back.  It is actually sort of historic and I have learned a lot about it in the last week or two.

But let's begin with the old pictures of it.

 Old house picture Searcy AR

Three in front

Side of house

These are wonderful old pictures.  The third picture shows where a porch used to be and it had a dug well.  Look at those beautiful flowers....and the lady!

 So, go, Sleuths, and find it!

 

Show All Comments
Anonymous
a former Searcian

My guess is, the house is located at the Northeast corner of Arch and Olive.

Feb 21, 2013 08:18 PM
#1
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

My reputation is being tarnished by these older houses you've been finding, Barbara.  I guess if my friends and classmates didn't live in a certain house, then I didn't pay that much attention.  I have alerted Don, though, so we should know WHERE it is, pretty soon.

Having said that, I LOVE it and if it's for sale and in any kind of good condition, consider it sold.  Love the sunporch or sunroom on the back.

Feb 21, 2013 11:52 PM
#2
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I'm guessing it isn't far...the lay of the street and the little steps down to it look like some I have seen here in Searcy...but I LOVE the pictures...the boys with their paper bags...is that what they are...and Is that Bridial Wreath bloooming beside the house...that must have been popular cause I remember seeing pictures of my grandparents and they would stand by the side of the house for pictures too...I like the wood trim on the front porch...of course, the porch swing...and the fan for a running rosebush...nice...look at all those windows!...Houses used to have lots more windows than they do now...I love wooden windows...but look at those screens...I remember those old screens that fastened on the outside...I didn't like them...it seemed like they were in constant need of repair...Well, looks like I'm not the only one about ready for spring...these pictures look like it is warm...a few more days and I'll be ready for some warm...Did I miss it or did you mention a year on these pictures?...just wondering...I thought of Leave It to Beaver...smiles...my husband had a newspaper route when he was a young lad too...looking forward to more pics...

 

Feb 21, 2013 11:52 PM
#3
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Nope, not where the former Searcian thinks according to Mr. Google Man.

There are some good clues though. It's location reeks of Arch St. with the elevation above street level and what looks like a sidewalk. In the old days, sidewalks only extended within a few blocks of the town square on only the major street blocks. Those paper boys are good clues if anyone recognizes them. I don't.

Anita, if this house turns out to be close to where you lived, you're going to kick yourself.

This house at W. Arch and N. Hickory is similar but the porch columns would have been replaced.

W. Arch and N. Hickory

Feb 22, 2013 12:02 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Former Searcian, good guess!

Anita, you always walked in the OTHER direction from your house.  This one may have been too country for you.

Don, you've got the google man harnessed but he roped the wrong house.

Feb 22, 2013 01:57 AM
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

Mary K. VanPatten James beat me, on White County As I Remember it.....but in defense of my memory:  the J.C. Hart house I remember, 1310 W. Arch, did not look like these this nice house in my day.   With my magnifying glass I can I.D. the paper boy on the right of the picture:  Jimmy Hart. 

Barbara, you are right...I tried to walk on the sidewalks and the sidewalk stopped at the Morris house, 910 W. Arch.....but it did continue across the street to the Dalton Woodson house, 1107 W. Arch.  After that it wouldn't "do" for a girl of my reputation to be walking in the street.

Feb 22, 2013 02:24 AM
#6
Anonymous
Harold Gene Sullivan

Anita IDed one of the paper boys.  I wonder if the other could be his brother, Charles, who was electrocuted working on high voltage wiring at the old football field. I think he was still in high school or had just graduated.  I don't remember what he looked like but do remember when it happened.

Feb 22, 2013 03:35 AM
#7
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Well the Google Man can't find a house that looks like the featured house. The one I show is the only similar house on W. Arch from the 900 block to the 1600 block.

Barbara, are you trying to trick the Google Man?

Feb 22, 2013 05:50 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Debbie, you write such vivid descriptions!  I didn't know the name of the flowers. Bridal Wreath?  That's a new name for a flower for me.  You must check out the picture of "now" that I'm about to put up.  Things change, change, change!!!

Anita, you KNOW why you walked on the sidewalk on the other side of the street.  You were watching Jody T.! I drove down the street today and you were right about sidewalks being where they are.  I'd never noticed that at all.  This house probably never had a sidewalk in front, at least not a paved one. 

Harold Gene, the other one is the brother, Charles, who was electrocuted.  The woman was Clotine Majors who was the mother of Virgil Lee Majors.  (per Bridget Hart who shared this picture.

Don, you may be getting rusty and the Google man may be tired of being hailed by you so often.  See picture of now in next comment.

Feb 22, 2013 07:01 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

1310 W Arch Searcy AR

All right, Sleuths, here is the house today.  It is at the corner of Arch and Olive and that is not a sidewalk in front but the street.  It was occupied by Tetie and Dick Hart and "in the 50's Tetie Hart remodeled the house and lowered the front porch.  There is a well under the back sun porch.  The sun porch was formerly the open back porch.  When we sold the house, it was the breakfast room, and probably still is.  In 1953 when Jim went to Korea and my baby and I didn't have a place to live, Tetie put a bathroom in upstairs in the west dormer of the half-story, and we lived with them for the rest of the year."  That quote was from Bridget Hart, who supplied the old pictures.  I took this picture this afternoon.

I find it interesting that the house gained asbestos siding and wrought iron porch posts probably during the remodel, plus the dormers when she opened up the upstairs.  Bridget said the staircase came from the Headlee house but she does not know which house that was.  Anyone know?

 

Feb 22, 2013 07:09 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

More info about the boys is that Charles Hart was electrocuted in 1947 at the high school football field, but lived until December when he died in a St. Louis hospital.  Tetie lived to see Dick pass away (her husband) in the 70's, then in 1997 Jim Hart (Bridget's husband) died and she had to see that.  Dick died of prostrate cancer.  Tetie died in Wynne in a nursing home.  This is also information from Bridget Hart.

Feb 22, 2013 07:14 AM
Anonymous
Bridget Hart

Looking at Barbara's blog was the most fun I've had in a long time!  I like the way she makes a mystery of the houses, and loved the guesses!!

I lived a year in Searcy from late October 1953 to December 1954 while my husband, Jimmy Hart, was in Korea, and the people were exceptionally good to me.  It's not only Searcy, the clean city, but Searcy, the friendly city.  Thanks for your hospitality! 

 

 

Feb 22, 2013 08:02 AM
#12
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Barbara, you did resort to trickery. That now house looks nothing like the one in the blog. The Google Man and I did see that house but I thought the look was not right. You need to tell us that houses have had remodelling done so it makes an even better mystery.

Any seconds to that?

Feb 22, 2013 08:27 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Bridget, thanks for the comment.  I'm so glad you had fun with the blog and I thank you for supplying the pictures.

Don, do you remember the blog way back when Harold Gene or several of you found two houses that were absolutely totally changed!  You found those so this one should have been easy in comparison.  Anita, who lived just a few blocks away should have known it.  This one was similar to her mother's house....remodeled and changed.  Bridget did say that her mother-in-law "lowered" the porch.  Notice that the porch is now practically on the ground whereas in the old one there were steps up.  I wish you could find that old blog with those two houses. 

Feb 22, 2013 10:05 AM
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I'm with Mr. Don on this one...nothing is the same...were are the steps to the street?  ...and the pretty windows? and the pretty trim on the porch?...but then I LOVE old houses...score one for Ms. B...this one would have never been guessed...not by me anyway...

 

Feb 22, 2013 01:42 PM
#15
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Debbie, it makes you wonder what we think beautiful now will be atrocious to the folks 20 years in the future.  What about all those granite counter tops that cost so much? 

Feb 23, 2013 09:03 PM
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

True...Oh, you might want to check with someone from the garden club about the name of the flowers...Bridal Wreath was what we called the long sticks that bloomed out with nothing but white all along the stems and would hang over like those and grow and spread out.  My mom loved them but she had the yellow ones and there were red ones...One they called a Burning Bush...of course, I have seen hedge in the last few years that I was unfamiliar with that had almost that many blooms...I'm not a green thumb person...and all my experiences were with folks that used local names rather than the official names.

But it doesn't change the fact...those are some pretty blooms and lots of them!

Feb 24, 2013 03:48 AM
#17
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Debbie, you sound like a flower person to me.  I have heard of a Burning Bush but not the Bridal Wreath.  You make them sound lovely.

Feb 28, 2013 08:34 PM
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