There’s a little bit of history saved in every county of the Natural State. The antique architecture that has been preserved in Arkansas is worth a visit, if not for a full photo shoot, then at least for a slow drive or walk past on your way to your next destination. Check out these examples of historic and beautiful Arkansas architecture.
30. Lakeport Plantation is a historic antebellum plantation house near Lake Village, Arkansas.
Built ca. 1859 in the Greek Revival style, the plantation boomed as cotton prices increased until the end of the Civil War.
29. The Capt. Charles C. Henderson House is a historic house at Henderson and 10th Street in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Built in 1906 and significantly altered in 1918-20, it is the largest and most elaborate house of that period on 10th Street.
In 1918-20 Henderson significantly modified the house, adding the boxy two-story Craftsman-style porch. The house is now on the campus of Henderson State University.
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28. Quigley's Castle is a historic house museum and garden at 274 Quigley Castle Road, off Arkansas Highway 23 south of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and is one of the most unusual houses in northwestern Arkansas.
The house was specifically deisgned by Quigley to accommodate a two-story space for tropical plants. Over the years Elise Quigley's gardens expanded to take over much of the property. In 1950 the family began charging admission to tour the home, a practice that continues today.
27. The Dr. John Wilson Martin House is a historic house at 200 Ash Street in Warren, Arkansas. In addition to being a well preserved specimen of an antebellum Greek Revival farmhouse, it is believed to be the oldest surviving residence in Warren.
Now housing the Bradley County Historical Museum, the construction date of this structure is uncertain but local tradition places its start in 1860, and its completion after the American Civil War.
26. The Rice House is a historic house at 501 NW "A" Street in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure with elaborate Eastlake (Queen Anne) styling.
Characteristics of the style include jigsaw-cut bracketing, spindled balustrades, and molded panels under the windows. At the time of its construction in 1890, it was considered one of Bentonville's grandest houses.
25. The Craig-Bryan House is a historic house at 307 West Central Avenue in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is an ecletic two-story brick house, with several gabled wings, and projecting bay window sections.
Its iron balconies were salvaged from the old Benton County Courthouse when it was demolished. The house was built in 1875 by James Toliver Craig, and owned by members of the Bryan family for seven decades.
24. The Elliott House is a historic house at 303 South Third Street in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is a large three-story brick house with Italianate style, built in 1887 for Harry Elliott, who made a fortune investing in silver mines in Silver City, New Mexico.
The house is distinctive for its use of brick on both the interior and exterior walls. The exterior features include seven porches, a widow's walk, and carved brackets in deeply overhanging eaves.
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23.The Freeman-Felker House is a historic house at 318 West Elm Street in Rogers, Arkansas. It is a large two-story wood frame structure designed by local architect A. O. Clark and built in 1903 for a banker.
The house has a pyramidal roof and a wraparound porch with Classical Revival detailing. A large gable projects slightly on the main facade, with a Palladian window at its center. The house includes a sunroom, added in the 1930s by its second owner, J. E. Felker, and also designed by Clark.
22. The German Builder's House is a historic house at 315 East Central Street in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. It is a two story brick I-house, with a side gable roof and a rear wood frame addition, giving it an overall T shape.
A porch with open veranda above spans most of the width of the main facade, with Queen Anne style turned posts and balusters, and a spindled frieze. The house was built c. 1880 by German masons from St. Louis who were working on a nearby school building.
21. The Bratt-Smiley House is a historic house at University Street and Broadway in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. It is a 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, with asymmetrical massing typical of the Queen Anne period. It has a wraparound porch supported by Tuscan columns, with an angled shingled gable pediment at the corner.
Above the porch on the southern facade is a clipped-gable projection with three sash windows, while on the west there is a projecting bay section beyond the end of the porch. Built c. 1900, it is a fine local example of transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival architecture.
20. The Alfrey-Brown House, also known as the Lawson House, is a historic house at 1001 South Washington Street in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. It is an imposing 2-1/2 story wood frame residence, with a hip roof pierced by large gable projections, and a porch that wraps around three sides.
Although the outside has the cleaner lines of the Colonial Revival, the building's interior is richly decorated with Queen Anne-style woodwork. The house was built in 1905 by Thomas Alfrey, a local builder, and was for many years home to a John Brown, a prominent local evangelist.
19. The Fred Bartell House is a historic house at 324 East Twin Springs Street in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Built c. 1900, it is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with asymmetrical massing typical of the Queen Anne style.
It has a low octagonal turret at the front left, and a porch, supported by Tuscan columns mounted on a lattice of concrete blocks that form a low balustrade. The house is clad in novelty siding.
18. The W.R. Bunckley House is a historic house at 509 East Parker Street in Hamburg, Arkansas. It is the earliest and best preserved example of a Folk Victorian house in the community. It was built in 1903 for W. R. Bunckley, an American Civil War veteran who had married the daughter of David Watson, a successful local businessman whose grand mansion still stands nearby.
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This 1.5 story wood frame house is a rambling, asymmetrical vernacular expression of Queen Anne styling. The principal focus of this styling on the outside is the wraparound porch, which features detailed turned and jigsaw woodwork. Interior decorations, including turned woodwork and stained glass, are also well preserved.
17. The Watson House is a historic house at 300 N. Cherry Street in Hamburg, Arkansas. The two story Colonial Revival brick house was built in 1918, and features verandas on its street-facing elevations. The verandas are supported by large Ionic columns that rise two full stories to support the roof, with the second floor veranda supported by cables suspended from above.
The large-proportioned house is one of the most prominent buildings in Hamburg. It was designed and built by W. C. Bunn for David Watson, owner of a successful local hardware store.
16. The Watson-Sawyer House is a historic house at 502 E. Parker St. in Hamburg, Arkansas. It was built in 1870 by E.D. Watson, an early settler of Ashley County, and is one of the finest houses in the county. The two story house was built entirely out of oak and features a two story pedimented front portico supported by fluted Doric columns.
The pediment is decorated with ribbon-like woodwork, which is repeated on the gable ends of main roof. Each floor on the front facade has a centrally-located door with sidelights, flanked by pairs of windows. The house continues to be home to Watson's descendants.
15. Headquarters House, located at 118 East Dickson Street, is a historic house within the Washington-Willow Historic District in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The most historically significant structure in the city, it was built in 1853 and used as a base of operations for both the Union and Confederate armies at different periods during the American Civil War.
The house was the point of contention during the Battle of Fayetteville, which took place at the nearby intersection of College Avenue and Dickson Street.
14. The John Edmiston House is a historic house on Main Street in Canehill, Arkansas. Built in 1896, this 2-1/2 story wood frame structure is the small community's architecturally most elaborate Victorian house.
The house has asymmetrical massing and a busy and varied roofline, with numerous projections, gables, and porches, all characteristic of the Queen Anne and Eastlake styles. The builder, John Edmiston, was a prominent local businessman and banker.
13. The Jackson House is a historic house at 1617 North Jordan Lane in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is a 2-1/2 story L-shaped brick building, three bays wide, with a cross gable roof and a single-story ell extending to the north. A single-story portico shelters the main entrance of the south-facing facade, supported by two square columns, with a balustrade above.
A small round window is located in the gable end of the main facade. The east elevation, which faces the street, has two segmented-arch windows on each level. The house was built in 1866 by Columbus Jackson, whose family lineage is said to include President Andrew Jackson.
12. The Johnson House and Mill is a group of historically significant structures at 3906 Johnson Mill Boulevard in Johnson, Arkansas. The house is a two-story brick building, fashioned from locally-manufactured bricks, and the mill is a large 2-1/2 story wood-frame structure with a gable roof and large waterwheel at one end.
The mill was built c. 1865-67 and the house in 1882, by Jacob Q. Johnson, the town's namesake. The mill building, which operated well into the 20th century, has been converted into a hotel.
11. The Walter Beauchamp House is a historic house at 492 Prospect Avenue in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Built in 1905, it is a "double decker" single-family house, unusual both for its setting on a spacious lot, and for the style, which is generally uncommon in Hot Springs.
Houses of this type are typically found on narrow lots in densely-built urban areas and have two units; this one is set on a larger lot similar to others in the neighborhood and has a single large unit. Walter Beauchamp, the builder, was a conductor on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.
10. The Garvin Cavaness House, now the Drew County Historical Museum, is a historic house at 404 South Main Street in Monticello, Arkansas. The house was built over a ten year period, 1906-1916, by Garvin Cavaness, descendant of early settlers of Drew County.
In the 1920s the house was divided into apartments, and some elements of its interior decoration were lost. The building was acquired by the Drew County Historical Society, which now uses the house and grounds as a museum facility.
9. The Wynne House is a historic house on 4th Street in Fordyce, Arkansas. The two story wood frame house was built in 1914, and is the city's best example of residential Classical Revival architecture.
The house is is Foursquare in plan, with a hip roof with large gable dormers projecting. A porch wraps around two sides, featuring elaborate spindled balusters and Ionic columns.
8. Frog Level is a historic house in rural Columbia County, Arkansas. Built in 1852-54 by William Frazier, an Irish immigrant, this two-story wood frame house is one of a handful of surviving antebellum plantation houses in southwestern Arkansas. It is located on the north side of County Road 148, a short way west of County Road 27S, west of Magnolia.
The house has two rooms on each floor, and a two-story temple portico extending across its front. This portico is supported by two sets of four columns, one set for each level of the porch. The house was given its name not long after its construction, due to the large number of frogs in the area.
7. The Bryan House is a historic house at 105 Fayetteville Street in Van Buren, Arkansas. Built in 1886, it is one of the city's finest Queen Anne Victorian houses, with asymmetrical massing, multiple gables and projecting bay sections, and elaborate exterior decoration.
The interior also has well-preserved woodwork, hardware and other decoration. The house was built by Lewis Bryan as a summer house, and is notable beyond its architecture as the local headquarters for Bryan's cousin William Jennings Bryan during his runs for President of the United States.
6. The Bell House is a historic house at 303 West Cherry Street in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It is a two story wood frame structure, built in 1895 by J. V. Bell, owner of one of Jonesboro's first bookstores. The house is an elaborately-decorated Queen Anne Victorian, with an asymmetrical arrangement of projecting bays, gables, and porches.
The front porch has a delicate spindle-work frieze, and is supported by turned columns. Different types of cut shingles give variety to the wall surfaces.
5. The Gann House is a historic house located at 224 S. Market St. in Benton, Arkansas. The Queen Anne house, which was built circa 1895, has been described as "one of the most outstanding structures remaining in Benton" due to its architecture. The home's design features a rounded turret, a porch supported by fluted columns, and leaded and stained glass windows.
Dr. Dewell Gann, Sr., and his family lived in the house; Gann, Sr., was a prominent local surgeon, while his son, Dewell Gann, Jr., served as chief of staff of St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock.
4. The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is located at 117 South Hervey Street (U.S. Route 278) in Hope, Arkansas. Built in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett, in this house the 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton spent the first four years of his life, having been born at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope on August 19, 1946.
The house was owned by his grandparents, Edith Grisham and James Eldridge Cassidy, and they cared for him when his mother, Virginia, was away working as an anesthetist in New Orleans.
3. The William Ayers House is a historic house at 820 North 12th Street in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with asymmetrical massing and a variety of dormers, gables, porches, and exterior wall finishes typical of the Queen Anne style.
Detailing includes vergeboard in gable ends, wall sections with decorative cut shingles, and corbelled chimney tops. It is an outstanding example of the architectural style in the city.
2. The Hemingway-Pfeiffer House, also known as the Pfeiffer House and Carriage House, is a historic house museum at 10th and Cherry Streets in Piggott, Arkansas. It is where novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote portions of his novel, A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway was married to Pauline Pfeiffer, the daughter of the owners of the house, Paul and Mary Pfeiffer.
The house is now the home of Arkansas State University's Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center. The mission statement of the center is to "contribute to the regional, national and global understanding of the 1920s and 1930s eras by focusing on the internationally connected Pfeiffer family, of Piggott, Arkansas, and their son-in-law Ernest Hemingway."
1. The Old State House is a historic building in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is the oldest surviving state capitol building west of the Mississippi River. It is known best as the site of President Bill Clinton's election night celebration in 1992.
The building continues to serve as a museum with exhibits related to Arkansas history and culture. Permanent collections include Civil War battle flags, the inaugural gowns of governors' wives, Arkansas art pottery, and African-American quilts. Special exhibits are staged periodically as well.
Even if you’ve lived in these Arkansas all your life you may not have known the history behind the homes and buildings around you! Travel around the Natural State and see how many historic homes you can find!
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