2 Little Rock school buildings put on ‘endangered’ list

Fates iffy, says nonprofit; 7 other state sites added

Richard Butler (left) and Emmett McNeil talk Friday about Wabbaseka United Methodist Church in Jefferson County. The church is on Preserve Arkansas’ 2017 Most Endangered Places list.
Richard Butler (left) and Emmett McNeil talk Friday about Wabbaseka United Methodist Church in Jefferson County. The church is on Preserve Arkansas’ 2017 Most Endangered Places list.

Two Little Rock schools set for closure joined cemeteries, black historic districts, churches and other sites across the state as part of this year’s “endangered eight” added to Preserve Arkansas’ Most Endangered Places list.

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Woodruff Early Childhood Center in Little Rock is shown in this file photo.

The Little Rock School District’s soon-to-be-vacant Franklin Elementary School and Woodruff Early Childhood Education Center were added to the list because of their “uncertain” futures. The district has been accepting proposals on how to repurpose them after their closure later this year.

Preserve Arkansas Executive Director Rachel Patton said her organization wanted to be another voice added to the growing community concern over how the buildings will be used and how having them sit vacant would negatively affect the communities they are in.

“Historic preservation is not just about saving old buildings. It’s also about ensuring the health of neighborhoods in which these old buildings live and work,” Patton said.

“The closure of these schools potentially will have a negative impact on the historic buildings themselves, especially if they are allowed to sit vacant. Their closure will constitute the loss of a vital neighborhood asset,” Patton said.

“There is extensive community support to retain and continue to use each of these schools,” she said. “Ideally, they can be retained as schools. But if that’s not possible, Preserve Arkansas would like the buildings to be adaptively reused in a way that benefits their neighborhoods and respects the historic nature of the structures.”

The Little Rock School District plans to close three schools after this school year and will change another elementary school into an alternative learning program as part of a plan to make up for budget shortfalls that will come with the loss of desegregation funding.

The district is taking proposals from the community for the repurposing of Franklin and Woodruff until June 16. Some proposals have included converting the schools into apartments, a community health center, a charter school or a new home for the Watershed Human and Community Development Agency.

A spokesman for the Little Rock School District said Superintendent Michael Poor was unavailable for comment Friday on the schools’ inclusion on the Most Endangered Places list.

Preserve Arkansas started the list in 1999. With the addition of the eight properties this year, it has now added 126 places to the list.

Inclusion on the list carries no power for rehabilitation tax credits but is meant as a way to raise awareness about the importance of the historic places and generate support for saving the structures.

Through last year, at least 33 of the 118 properties that were on the list had been “saved.” Another 14 had been “partially saved,” according to the organization.

At least 18 had been demolished, 50 were still listed as endangered and another three had an unknown status as of Friday.

That’s an almost 40 percent rehabilitation rate of the properties put on the list through 2016.

Amara Yancey, Preserve Arkansas’ administrative assistant, said inclusion on the list serves as a “jumping point” for concerned property owners or residents to get the properties listed on the state or national historic registers and gaining additional support and finances to restore properties.

The Little Rock schools made up one entry on the 2017 Most Endangered Places list. The other seven listings are:

Cemeteries, burial grounds and graveyards, statewide.

For every known burial place, there are five that have been lost or forgotten, said Preserve Arkansas board of directors Chairman Jodi Barnes.

“Marked and unmarked graves are threatened by residential and commercial development, agricultural production, natural forces such as weathering and uncontrolled vegetation, and the effects of pollution, vandalism and theft,” Barnes said.

There is limited state funding for the preservation of historic cemeteries, but Preserve Arkansas is calling on local and regional governments and nonprofits to be more involved in the conservation of burial grounds.

Citizens’ Electric Co. light and power plant, ice house and cold storage building, Eureka Springs, Carroll County.

Built in 1893 to house coalfired boilers, this building was changed into an ice-making facility in 1900 and became a wholesale bottler and shipper of Ozarka spring water in 1904. While most of its walls still stand, there is no roof and trees grow inside. Much of the original ice-making equipment remains. It is located in the Eureka Springs Historic District and has been for sale for years.

Old Galatia Church, near Norfork, Baxter County.

In 1886, 10 acres were donated for a church and cemetery. The original Galatia Church was destroyed by a fire in 1900, and the present structure was built in its place. It has not been in regular use for years. Its interior is in good shape, but its exterior needs some repair.

“There is love for this old church and a desire to see it survive, but to ensure this will take funding and a vision of what the Old Galatia Church can become,” a Preserve Arkansas news release said.

Home Ice Co., Jonesboro, Craighead County.

This building was constructed in 1907, and its uses have changed over the years. A Spanish Colonial Revival-style addition on the front facade was added in 1920. It became an ice plant and cold storage facility just before the Great Depression.

The building’s longtime owner, Sam Rosse, died in 2012 and the building has deteriorated ever since. The city condemned it in 2015, but the Rosse family has appealed that decision. The building has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, but a decision has not been made yet on its inclusion.

Pankey community, Little Rock, Pulaski County.

This community includes 160 acres along Cantrell Road. Josephine Pankey bought the land in 1907 as a safe haven for Little Rock’s black community. She helped black people get loans and become land owners there. The city annexed the land in 1979.

“Today, Pankey has been negatively impacted by highway widening, encroaching development, and youth flight and the consequent aging of its population,” Arkansas Preservation Alliance employee Paul Porter said. “Many of its houses are dilapidated, and empty lots are overgrown. But that is not to say that Pankey is out — just down.”

Pleasant Street Historic District, Hot Springs, Garland County.

This downtown area was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. It includes 93 buildings and represents the most intact area of Hot Spring’s historic black community. It’s the largest black historic district in the state. Construction began in the 1900s and continued through the 1950s.

“While landmarks such as Visitor’s Chapel AME Church, the Woodmen of the Union Building, and the John Lee Webb House are being preserved, many buildings in the district suffer from deferred maintenance issues and deterioration,” the Preserve Arkansas news release said.

Several buildings have been condemned and demolished. One was declared a total loss after a fire this month.

Wabbaseka United Methodist Church, Wabbaseka, Jefferson County.

This church was organized in 1891, but the current Classical Revival-style structure was built in 1925. Its interior retains the original plaster walls, woodwork, pews and pressed-tin ceiling. The exterior is almost entirely original. The church was listed in the National Historic Register in 2002.

“One might say that the most direct way to save a church is to put people in its pews, but absent this, creative thinking is needed to ensure its survival,” the news release said.

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