Searcy, AR

Reviewing some delightful pictures that I took last year of our famous "oldest documented church in Arkansas" I found another example of what I had never heard of until a few days ago when I put up a blog about a house in West Point Arkansas that was built in 1883 and had this stuff on the top of the roof which was defined by a reader as cresting.

This oldest church is called Smyrna Church and is located just before Center Hill on Highway 36 West. Suzy Ribeiro defined the trim on roofs in a comment.

The spindly metal trim on rooftops is for... here's your answer... absolutely NOTHING! It's actually called roof CRESTING. It is usually fabricated out of wrought-iron, but, the cresting on this home looks like it is made from thin sheet aluminum or steel. Roof cresting doesn't serve much of a purpose other than to look pretty. Cresting was an architectural hallmark of the Second Empire style, imported from France in the 1860's. It is more common on ornate Victorian and Mansard style residential properties. Many properties lost their original cresting as the material deteriorated, owners removed the cresting instead of upkeeping or restoring it because it was only for decorative purposes. In some regions, lightning rods and snowguards were matched. Even some properties had balconettes or metal window boxes attached for decorative purposes too.

So look at this little church built in 1857 and recently restored by White County Historical Society and the Searcy Art Council.

Now take a look at the close-up of the steeple and see the "cresting."

And going down below the steeple to the entry door we found some more cresting. It all looks the same as the cresting that was on the house in West Point.

I found it very interesting. This history stuff can just go on and on!

I chided Ms Anita Hart Fuller when she said she used to borrow the family car and drive it with the odometer disconnected and the parents never knew what she'd done.

I said, "Anita, there was no such thing done way back then! What kid would know how to disconnect a speed-ometer?"

She has sent me proof. She found it in the funny papers so it must be true. Take a look at this and picture Ms Anita upside down in the floor board of a vehicle disconnecting the odometer!!

This picture showed up in our Multiple Listing Service. It grabs your attention, doesn't it?

The information given indicates that it was built in 1883! The house also overlooks the river in a small town near Searcy. Sleuths love puzzles so I will not tell where it is right now. Here's another photo. Price is $97,500 if you want me to sell it to you.

We toured it and as we were leaving we noticed the top of the roof. So, Sleuths, you tell me what these things on this roof are for. Decoration? Lightning rods? I'm puzzled.

The blog that I wrote earlier about the houses being older as the trees gets bigger proved to be true again. I thought I was brilliant when I figured out that as the trees grow, the houses around the trees become older. Look at our subdivisions. When they started out, most were treeless, but when the subdivisions age, trees tend to take over.

So look what brought me to a screeching halt as I drove to work.

The detail of the house which was once beautiful can now be seen if you can peep over the gigantic tree that has been downed. Looks as if the tree had a hole in the middle. I dug down into my files and came up with this old picture of this blue house as it looked when listed in the early 80's.

And here is the court house view showing an obviously aged and possibly diseased tree.

We will see what happens next.

White County folks are in love with the mansion in Judsonia that survived the 1952 tornado that did such massive damage and caused so many deaths. Several blogs have been done with the latest one being OMG! It's for sale!

We got to tour the mansion because it was on the tour of homes. Here's a view of it from the side as we walked up to it.

We got to see the size of the columns at the front.

We could see the front from down under.

And we could view from the top porch looking down.

And then we could go see what was in the once wonderful yard. How about this huge fireplace. Do you think it was an outdoor kitchen, an early version of what folks are doing now with those $20,000 outdoor kitchens.

And this next picture takes you back SO far.....to carriage houses! At least that is what I'm calling this building.

And while we are dreaming of old by-gone days, imagine this little cement pond in the back yard. It probably was surrounded by a lovely garden with flowering plants and the concrete bench was for sitting and reading and watching the goldfish.