Walks Through History Downtown Mcgehee Begin at the Missouri Pacific Depot, 100 S
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1 Walks through History Downtown McGehee Begin at the Missouri Pacific Depot, 100 S. Railroad Street September 13, 2014 By: Rachel Silva Intro Good morning, my name is Rachel Silva, and I work for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Thank you for coming, and welcome to the “Walks through History” tour of downtown McGehee. First, I’d like to thank the Desha County Historical Society for co-sponsoring the tour and providing water and boxed lunches. And I need to recognize a short list of people for their help with the tour— Susan Gallion Jack May Gibbs and Anne Ferguson Bobbie Lehman Jane Lucky Carolyn Smith Roseanne Marin (sp?) For any architects in the audience, this tour is worth two hours of HSW continuing education credit through the American Institute of Architects. See me after the tour if you’re interested. 2 There are nine National Register-listed properties in McGehee, and we’ll see five of them today. Plus, we’ll talk about other historic buildings as well as significant structures that are no longer extant. Brief History of McGehee McGehee traces its origin to 1878, when the Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas Railway came through the present town site. Abner McGehee, son of early settler Benjamin McGehee, then owned about 240 acres of wooded land in the area and granted the right-of-way to the railroad. Abner McGehee also sold timber from his land to the railroad for crossties and the construction of bridges. In the late 1870s McGehee opened a commissary, sawmill, and cotton gin. A post office was established, and in 1879 McGehee became the first postmaster. In 1887 the Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas Railroad was acquired by Jay Gould and became a division of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad. Completed in 1906, the Memphis, Helena & Louisiana Railroad went northeast from McGehee through McArthur, Rohwer, Kelso, and Watson to Helena and Memphis. From McGehee, railroad transportation was available in four directions. You could go to Little Rock, Memphis, Tallulah, and Alexandria, LA. In 1904 Abner McGehee conveyed about fifty acres of land to the Iron Mountain Railroad for the construction of switch yards and railroad shops. Feeling certain that this would ensure the settlement’s importance along the railroad line, Abner McGehee surveyed and platted the town of McGehee. He named the east-west streets for trees (with the exception of one called North Street), and the north- south streets were numbered. More people moved into the area to be near the railroad, and in 1906 the town of McGehee was incorporated. In addition to the railroad, agriculture has always been important to McGehee’s economy. Cotton continues to be the main crop, but rice and soybeans are also grown. Individual Properties Missouri Pacific Depot (National Register-listed 6/11/1992)— 3 The current Mediterranean-style depot was built in 1910 to replace an earlier wood-frame depot on the same site. Like most depots constructed by the Iron Mountain/Missouri Pacific line during this time period, the McGehee Depot features red brick walls with cast-stone lintels and sills and a cast-stone belt course, widely overhanging eaves with triangular knee braces, a red tile roof, and a shaped parapet on the east side. [The Iron Mountain was a subsidiary of the Missouri Pacific Railway, and in 1917 the two merged to form the Missouri Pacific Railroad.] At one time, there were nine regular passenger trains through McGehee in a 24-hour period. One of those trains was known as the “Owl” because it made a round-trip to Warren at night. I’m guessing this is how McGehee High School got its mascot (the owl). Regular passenger service stopped about 1965. The depot is now a local history museum. Railway Eating House/Van Noy Eating House (NR-listed 1/24/2011)— The Railway Eating House, also called the Van Noy Eating House (and in railroad lingo, the “beanery”), was built in 1906 by the Iron Mountain Railroad to provide passengers with a convenient place for a good meal. Before dining cars were common, trains stopped on a regular basis for food. The most famous company to operate eating houses was the Fred Harvey Company, whose Harvey Houses fed railroad passengers throughout the American Southwest. In the early twentieth century, the Missouri Pacific Railway and its subsidiary, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, contracted with the Van Noy Railway Hotel and News Company out of Kansas City to operate hotels, eating houses, newsstands, and cigar stands along its route. The Van Noy Company provided services for Missouri Pacific until 1923. Eating houses were later operated directly by the railroad. Sometime between 1928 and 1944, a covered walkway was constructed to connect the depot and eating house. The railway eating house is now home to the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, which was dedicated on April 16, 2013. The museum interprets the experience of Japanese Americans at the Rohwer and Jerome relocation centers in southeast Arkansas during World War II. Walk south on Railroad Street about ½ block 4 Site of 2-story railroad office— The Iron Mountain Railroad established a division point at McGehee in 1905 and constructed a two-story, wood-frame building south of the present-day depot to house railroad offices. By 1912, the building was also occupied by the Western Union Telegraph office, and by 1928, it was the American Railway Express. The building remained at Railroad and Pine streets until the 1950s. Site of roundhouse— The Iron Mountain Railroad constructed a roundhouse and shops at McGehee in 1905 on land acquired from Abner McGehee the previous year. The 15-stall roundhouse with turntable, machine shops, car shed, platforms, storage rooms, paint shop, wash room, and two 35,000-gallon fuel tanks were located to the east of the main line tracks, opposite the depot and about even with Pine Street. At one time, the railroad shops employed 250 to 300 men who worked three 8-hour shifts. 12,000 freight cars came through the yards every day. The Missouri Pacific Railroad closed its shops at McGehee in 1954. YMCA (no longer extant)— About 1910 the Iron Mountain constructed a 2-story YMCA building on Railroad Street between Cedar and Beech. Dormitory rooms were located upstairs, and a restaurant and pool hall was downstairs. By providing a safe place to sleep and some clean entertainment, the railroad hoped to keep its employees out of saloons and brothels. Historically, commerce was centered along Railroad Street (sometimes called Main Street on old photos) on blocks near the depot. It wasn’t until about 1920 that a substantial number of commercial buildings were constructed on First Street. And, in the early years, Crooked Bayou, which runs north-south between First and Second streets, was much bigger. Footbridges were constructed over the bayou to allow access to the residential part of town, and boats were used to cross the stream in high water. 5 **Photo of businesses on Railroad Street between Pine and Orange (now Seamans), ca. 1915. **Photo of the railroad shops, looking southeast, ca. 1950. Walk north on Railroad Street to park Site of Greystone Hotel— The 2-story, Colonial Revival-style Greystone Hotel was built at the northwest corner of Railroad Street and Seamans Drive in 1911. Hotel rooms were located on the second floor, and the hotel lobby, restaurant, barber shop, and coffee shop shared the first floor with Wolff Brothers Department Store. Mr. and Mrs. Sam Wolff, a Jewish couple, owned and operated the department store. They also had stores in Dumas, Tillar, Lake Village, Natchez, MS, and Lake Providence and Winnsboro, LA. The Greystone Hotel building spanned the entire width of the block and had a second entrance on First Street. In the 1920s, a 2-story building was constructed just to the north of the Greystone and also housed hotel rooms upstairs and retail on the first floor (Safeway Grocery on the First Street side). In the early 1930s, a 1-story building was constructed to the north of the hotel annex and housed a cotton factor office and Ruskin’s 5 & 10. Sadly, these buildings were destroyed by fire on March 26, 1978. **Photo of the Greystone Hotel, ca. 1950. The 1912 Sanborn map shows the oldest part of the Greystone Hotel, then two wood-frame boarding houses, and then the 2-story brick and stone telephone exchange building. Interesting story—About 1900, Abner McGehee built a 2-story home on this block, a little bit north of the depot facing the railroad tracks. Prior to that, he lived in a house on the west side of Second Street, just north of the 1937 post office. But he wanted to be closer to his commissary business. In his new home, Mr. McGehee rented rooms to boarders, mostly men working for the railroad. His wife, Jennie Dickinson McGehee, served meals for their guests. The McGehee family moved to Little Rock in 1905 in order to give their children better educational opportunities. Coincidentally, they lived at 1315 Scott Street in Little 6 Rock, which is right next door to the house I toured last Friday. The old McGehee home later served as an annex for the Greystone Hotel and stood on this block until the 1920s, when it was demolished to make way for the 2-story brick addition to the Greystone. Another house, located between the McGehee home and the original Greystone, was a boarding house operated by a Mrs. McGraw (who later married Bob Finley). It was demolished sometime between 1915 and 1920.