About Searcy's Old Searcy Arkansas

I found this old newspaper clipping with the title of "The Way We Were."

It should say the way some people were.....what a house! Notice the kids in the windows upstairs and more on the front steps. One thing about blogging is the way it makes you more conscious of your surroundings, your town, the past, and the things that are here today and will probably be gone tomorrow.

This house is not one that I remember. It was replaced by the West Side Church of Christ. Now I wish I knew what it looked like when it was torn down. Was it dilapidated? Was it just a coveted location? If anyone has a better picture of it, let's see it.

Looking through an old Historical Society book I found this house and just knew where it was located. The nice curved porch support was unique. So I decided to do a before and after shot.I drove by the house here just knowing I'd located the right house. I snapped my photo and hurried back to the office. This is a finely maintained older home located near Harding University and I drive by it all the time.

WRONG!

The houses are not at all alike.

So while in a little surrounding town I saw that unique curved porch support again and snapped another picture thinking it could be it. WRONG!

Yep, wrong again.

So I'm asking whether my Searcy readers can tell me if this Green Booth house is still in existence or was it perhaps torn down for a parking lot.

The search is on! I have some super sleuths as friends out there!

The Sears Roebuck catalogs would say that payments were as low as $20 per month. The "Puritan" 7 rooms and bath monthly payments as low as $40. The "Newark" 6 rooms and bath monthly payments as low as $55.

Notice those ads said and "bath." That means one, folks. Families considered a bath a luxury. Now we feel we need one each. These ads were also before "Truth in Advertising" because they didn't say for how many years and at what interest rate!

The houses were ordered from the catalog and erected, I assume, on site. Even I'm too young to remember ordering houses from Sears.

Here's a suspected Sears house in Searcy Arkansas. The reproduction catalog had one just like it.

Here's one that is definite. It may be on the Historical Register. It's hard to believe these large homes came in from a mail order catalog.

I confess that I enjoy driving down the streets of Searcy AR and seeing these homes that are great reminders of the past.

Merchants Grocer Co. and Peoples Bank were located on the east side of Courthouse Square in Searcy. The bank was chartered July 6, 1889 with a capital stock of $30,000 and folded during the depression, September 30, 1931, according to the Historical Society records.

Here's another fantastic view of old buildings that were once on the square of Searcy Arkansas. This picture came from the Historical Society's web page with the quote above. The East side of the square is now home to First Security Bank. Notice the dirt streets and the fence around the court house.

The architecture of these buildings is so pleasing that I wish they'd been saved.

Did you hear the latest news? The church at fill-in-the-street has bought the two houses that are on their street and will be tearing down the old houses for a parking lot!

Good news for the seller if he got a good price.

Good news for the church if they get a good deal.

SOMETIMES BAD NEWS FOR THE HISTORY OF SEARCY.

We have one builder, however, who loves history, old things and old houses and chooses to restore the houses and treasure the collectibles. He will buy the old houses, move them to another location and restore them so that we still have a bit of history.

Here's an example of one that he is working on right now. It was moved perhaps 3 blocks to a vacant lot and it will look lovely when he finishes. His name is Steve Ghent as you can see from the sign on the house. He was in our office yesterday and I asked if he minded if I bragged about him.

He bought one of my historical listings and has maintained it as it "used to be." He rents it out but tells renters not to touch a thing!! Make no changes!! The large lot had room for two more houses so he saved two other old houses and restored them in order to maintain the character of the block. He could have built new houses but he is emphatic about loving the past. If you consider all things involved it would be EASIER to build a new house.

Here's my salute to Steve Ghent, Searcy builder and great friend of history.