Welcome to FayettevilleHistory.com, a compendium of information about the history and culture of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The town was founded in 1828 on land that had previously been set aside for the western Cherokee Nation. Before the Cherokees, the land had been hunted by the Osage and Quapaw tribes. The town has continued to grow during the last 170 years into a city that today is routinely named among the best places in America to live, attend college, own a business or retire.
The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story, by Elliott West, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Arkansas, tells the story of the Nez Perces, who lived in the region of present-day Idaho and western Washington and Oregn.
See also the press release from the university.
Fayette Junction is the name of a small railroad switchyard on the south side of Fayetteville where the mainline of the Frisco Railway was intersected by the Fayetteville and Little Rock R.R., better known as the St. Paul Branch, which went east from Fayetteville deep into Madison County.
The main line of Frisco runs north-south parallel to Razorback Road. The St. Paul Branch went almost due east. Remnants of the junction still exist at the corner of Cato Springs and Vale Avenue, although the spur line to St. Paul has been long gone.
The section of Center Street between College Avenue and the Fayetteville square became known as "Smoky Row" during the 19th century, although the exact origin is unknown.
Up to three explanations have been offered over the years:
This latter choice seems more likely an effort to explain a name that already existed rather than a source for the name. Fog, after all, would have crept onto Meadow, Spring and Mountain streets as easily as Center Street. (Thanks to the comment below for spurring further reading.)
Originally called East Mountain, the largest mountain in Fayetteville was renamed Mount Sequoyah when the hilltop was given to the state Methodist Assembly for use as a religious retreat. It was named in honor of the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, Sequoyah, and opened for its first summer assembly in 1923. The center is surrounded by Skyline Drive.
Nearly 70 acres on the east side of the mountain was bought back by the city in 2003 to create a city park called Mount Sequoyah Woods.
The city's first water treatment plant and water reservoirs were built on the west face of the mountain between Summit Avenue and Oklahoma Way, high enough to provide water pressure to the top floors of Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus. The reservoirs were removed in 1998 and turned into a city park called Mount Sequoyah Gardens.
The rest of Mount Sequoyah extends northeast to Shadowridge Drive.
Roughly bounded by Louise Street on the north, College Avenue on the east, Lafayette Street on the south and Vandeventer on the west, this oval-shaped mount rises about 140 feet above the valley of Scull Creek and separates downtown Fayetteville from Wilson Park. The residential neighborhoods on Mount Nord were developed between 1905 and 1925, including the home of the Fulbright family and reconstruction of the Arkansas House, since razed, on the west end of the mountain, facing the University of Arkansas campus.
Washington Elementary School is on the eastern slope of the Mountain.
The Mount Nord Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, becoming Fayetteville's second historic district.
In 1872, Denton Stark opened the Stark Bank and convinced William McIlroy to invest $7,800 in the bank. Stark, a former Union officer, became overextended through bungled management and financial speculation, and he left town in a hurry.
McIlroy took over control of the bank, changed the name and built it into the city's financial mainstay. It was family owned until 1986, when it was sold to Jim Walton's Arvest Bank Group. The bank's name was officially changed to Arvest Bank in 2001.
An 1890 engraving of the University of Arkansas campus shows University Hall, now known as Old Main, at the center of campus. Other buildings include Buchanan Hall to the left, the original frame classrooms used while Old Main was being built, and the Agricultural Experiment Station beyond the north tower.
Old Main
The symbol of higher education in Arkansas, Old Main was the first permanent building to be erected on the Arkansas Industrial University campus. Its exterior was finished in 1875, just three years after the university opened for classes. It is the oldest building still standing on the campus and the only one built in the 19th century still standing.
Initially, it was simply referred to as “the University building,” but it was formally named University Hall in 1895. By the turn of the 20th century, the more sentimental name of Old Main had gained currency, and the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees officially changed the name to Old Main in 1991.
A firm at Helena, Arkansas, McKay and Helmle, was originally considered for designing a university hall, but trustees visited campuses in Illinois and Michigan, coming away set on having a main building like the one at Illinois Industrial University, designed by John Mills Van Osdel, a Chicago architect. Although the two buildings were nearly identical, the towers were swapped, with the taller bell tower to the right side of the building and the smaller clock tower moved to the left. Although the reason for the switch is unknown, two myths for why this switch occurred have attained:
Both of these stories appear to be legends. Don Schaeffer in his history of Old Main says the switch was made to make it easier for residents of downtown Fayetteville to see the clock tower, not that there was a clock to see. Because of expense, installation of a clockworks was put off.
The construction bid from Mayes and Oliver of Fayetteville was accepted, and Joseph Carter Corbin, the superintendent of public instruction for Arkansas and ex-officio president of the university board of trustees, signed the $123,885 contract for erection of University Hall. John McKay was made supervising architect, and two Fayetteville civic leaders, Lafayette Gregg and Stephen K. Stone, were added to the trustees’ building committee.
Materials for construction came mostly from local sources. Lumber was milled at Peter Van Winkle’s mill near the historic War Eagle Mill and hauled to Fayetteville by oxen. Bricks were made from clay deposits on the south side of Fayetteville and fired in the brickyard of John L. Kelton. Cut stone for the exterior trim came from northeast Washington and western Madison counties. And sandstone for the foundation and basement was quarried near the building.
During the early part of the 20th century, professors erected a large aerial between the towers of Old Main, barely visible in this picture, to receive radio signals.
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Old Main’s architectural style is known as Second Empire, and its mansard roof is perhaps the most obvious expression of that style. The east portico, however, is a classical design and is immortalized in the official seal of the university.
Although the building has needed repairs almost as soon as it was finished and has been remodeled almost as often as new academic programs were initiated at the university. By the early 1980s, though, the building was closed because of safety concerns. A fund-raising campaign was launched to renovate the structure, and it was rededicated in 1991.
In 2005, a clock was finally installed as part of the culmination of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, ending a timeless tradition. Today, Old Main is home to the dean’s offices of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences as well as several academic departments. Giffels Auditorium, refurbished to its original look, is on the second floor.
BIBILOGRAPHY
Schaefer, Don. “History of University of Arkansas Buildings (Unpublished manuscript, most recently updated April 29, 2003).
Facilities Management. Historic Buildings (University of Arkansas Facilities Management: 2003).
Rothrock, Thomas. “The University of Arkansas’s ‘Old Main,’” Arkansas Historical Quarterly (Arkansas Historical Association, Fayetteville) Spring 1971.
Headquarters House, 118 E. Dickson St., as it appeared about 1950. Today, it's owned by the Washington County Historical Society and used for historical programs.
Also known as the Tebbetts House, this frame home with Greek revival design was built in 1853 by Matilda and Jonas March Tebbetts as their family home in Fayetteville. Its design was the same as the William Baxter House, which stood across Dickson Street at about the location of the Washington County Courthouse.
Jonas Tebbetts was a lawyer and civic leader who owned land in Washington and Crawford counties. The Tebbettses sided with the Union when the state seceded, and Jonas Tebbetts was taken prisoner in early 1862 and held at Fort Smith for hanging. He was granted a reprieve and freedom not long after the general who had planned to have him hanged, Gen. Benjamin McCullough, was killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge. After release, the Tebbettses moved to St. Louis, Missouri, when conditions allowed for safe transit.
During the war, the house was used at various times as headquarters by both Union and Confederate forces. It was at the center of the Battle of Fayetteville on April 18, 1863, when Confederate forces attacked the Union army, with the heaviest fighting occurring on the grounds in front of the house. The front door of Headquarters House sustained damage from mini-balls, and that door was later moved to an interior doorway to better preserve it.
The house was designed and built by William Baxter with a central hall and matching wings to left and right. A brick smokehouse and hand-dug well still stand in the backyard. Since 1967, the house has served as headquarters for the Washington County Historical Society, which conducts tours and opens the house to visitors during its annual Ice Cream Social and commemorations of the Battle of Fayetteville.
Many of the pieces of furniture in the house are from the Tebbetts family or from the period in which the family lived in Fayetteville. It is perhaps the most beautiful antebellum home still standing in Fayetteville. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. In the 1980s, the law office of Archibald Yell was moved to the backyard of Headquarters House.
BIBILOGRAPHY
Leflar, Helen Finger and Carolyn Lewis Newbern. Yesterdays: A Walk through the Washington-Willow Historic District. (Washington County Historical Society, Fayetteville: 1983).
Lemke, Walter J. Some Old Fayetteville Homes (Fayetteville: 1951).
The museum opened to the public in 1986 with displays and exhibits about the history of aviation in Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas and vintage aircraft, both civilian and military, from across the 20th century. The museum is housed in the historic White Hangar at Drake Field, Fayetteville's municipal airport at 4290 S. School Ave.
Although the collection of aircraft rotate in and out because many of the aircraft are still flying, aircraft on display will always include biplanes, jets, helicopters and, most recently, the cockpit of a Douglas DC-3. The museum also sponsors an airfest each year, usually in June.
To become a member, the Arkansas Air Museum has an online form.
The city of Springdale established Shiloh Museum in 1965, initially with a large collection of archeological items from Native American cultures that were donated to the museum. Its mission has grown from preserving and displaying historical artifacts related to Springdale to include the a six-county area of the Ozarks. The museum today has the largest public collection of historic artifacts in Northwest Arkansas, including more than a half million photographs.
The museum property covers more than a city block with a 22,000-square-foot museum and several historic structures. It provides meeting space for numerous community organizations and historic presentations each month.
It is located at 118 W. Johnson Ave., Springdale. For membership information, go to the Shiloh Museum's online website.
Change is Good
