Old Rogers buildings featured in new book
Posted on Thursday, February 1, 2007
ROGERS - James Hales waited a long time to write his book. A builder by trade, he always loved history, especially historic buildings. He knows that every building has its own story.
"When I look at an old building, I wonder who built it, whose dreams were realized and whose hopes and fortunes were lost during the life of the structure," he wrote recently.
He came to Rogers with his wife, Pat, and their three children in 1983 and fell in love with the area, especially downtown Rogers. He knew every building there had a story, and he felt a responsibility to preserve those stories, but he had a business to run and children to raise.
In 2005, he found he had the time. He was semi-retired from his construction business, and each of his children had graduated from the University of Arkansas. He began to work on his book," Rogers, Arkansas: 1881-2006."
The hardest part was narrowing down his stories. He started with 50 interesting buildings, but then he expanded to 65, then 100. He knows there are even more historic buildings, but the book was getting too big. The leftover data, which is filed away at his home, could be the basis for another book.
For each of the buildings included, Hales kept a folder full of information. He spent hours at the library looking though microfilm of old newspapers, picking out the news stories about downtown and also the advertisements. Using the newspaper ads and stacks of old city directories, he compiled lists of businesses that inhabited each building.
Some buildings were fairly easy. The Stroud building on Walnut Street housed the same business from 1898 to 1993, when Stroud's department store finally closed. Upstairs was the home of many small businesses, but the most famous was probably Mathews & Clarke, Architects. A. O. Clark designed many of the buildings in Rogers and around Benton County. The Benchmark Group, an engineering firm, now leases the entire building that still bears the name Stroud.
Hales' book recounts recent history as well. In many cases, an old photo is paired with a contemporary photo, and the present-day business is listed near its predecessors.
Getting good photos of each building was a challenge, Hales said. As often as possible, when taking modern photos, he tried to duplicate the original photo, but the traffic and parked cars made that difficult. Many of his pictures were taken very early in the morning before downtown businesses opened. He took his best pictures on overcast days when the shadows weren't as noticeable. He also spent several Sunday mornings prowling the streets with his camera.
The building now known as Vinson Square has two pages in his book. It was built by James Burnham in 1896 and became known as "the largest and best business house in Rogers. "Among the tenants were a hardware store, a furniture store and, in the early 1900 s, the city post office. The building was also the home of the First National Bank in 1905. The fireproof vault that was moved into the building at that time remains.
Until recently, the upstairs was occupied by the Crumpet Tea Room, but at one time, the space may have been a bordello, Hales reports. He never found any records of a bordello, but many people have repeated the rumor. The building was directly across from the train station, so it was probably a logical place for that kind of business.
A few buildings outside the Historic District are included. The first Wal-Mart and many area churches made the cut. After he completed the book, Hales discovered even more buildings, including the Office of Human Concern on Spruce Street, which may be the oldest structure in what is now Rogers. There are also many homes with interesting stories.
Not all of the business owners know anything about their predecessors, Hales said, and some of them don't care. But he believes they will care someday, and when they do, his book will be waiting with the answers.
"I won't recover my money," Hales said about his self-published book," but I didn't go into it for the money. "In fact, he donated many copies to the Rogers Historical Museum. If those sell, the museum will keep the profits.
The book is also available at Townzen Barber Shop, the Daisy Airgun Museum, Wesner's Grill, Borders in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade and on eBay. Hales hopes to sell copies at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and looks forward to a book signing there some day.
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