English Tudor style in Searcy Arkansas. One of my favorite houses.

This beautiful house was built in 1929. 

Oh, drats, Barbara, I thought you were going to tell me that this home was for sale, and I was disappointed that it's not. Well, I suppose the law firm is happy that it's not, but I wanted to see what homes like this actually sell for in Searcy. That's a gorgeous piece of real estate.

More photos of the home supplied by Sherry, whose parents lived there for many years. 

Sherry says her mother was the first to use icicle decorations for Christmas in Searcy AR.

Barbara - O love these tudor homes and I especially like homes built around the same era. You just cannot replicate the quality of construction in the older homes.

Carol, I agree.  But new ones are so comfortable!  All the bedrooms on this one were upstairs and that hurts the sale of houses in our area.

Sherry, thanks for correcting me on the construction date of this house.  It is REALLY getting old.  But it is still lovely.

This was my grandparents house. I still absolutely love it and it is one of my all time favorite homes.

Hard to believe the movers and shakers of Searcy haven't bulldozed this house...as it's so close to the business section of town.  I LOVE it, too....thanks for blogging it and thanks to Sherry for supplying more pictures....I have a wonderful story about the original owners - "Bony" and Lillian Robbins, asleep in their bed one early morning.  It MAY be too long for the blog but if you will twist my arm, Barbara, I'll try and tell it succinctly.

Thank you to all owners, past and present, for preserving the house.  Please don't let anything happen to it.  Can't imagine growing up in such a lovely home.

Anita Fuller

Jessica, thanks for your comment.  If you have a story to tell about your grandparents, feel free.  I remember your stately grandmother well.  She'd walk down the street and all eyes would turn.  She was queenly.  As her health declined in order for her to get to her massive master suite upstairs, she had to have an elevator on the stairs.  I can imagine how tall and proudly she'd sit in that elevator lift to get upstairs.  She loved her house! 

Anita, your arm is being twisted.........get it done!!

I know what Anita is planning to tell and it involves Mady Armstrong. Great story!

O.K.  here goes.....but to other Active Rainers, you really have to know this lady to fully appreciate the story.  I need Don to retreive the story when I told it on SearcyYesterday blog some years ago.

Searcy's town "character" was Madie Armstrong.  She walked everywhere...even kept a pedometer on her leg (or wherever you put those things) and one time was featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not.  She had walked enough miles to go around the globe but had never been out of White County. 

One very early morning she was out walking and passed by the home of Bony and Lillian Robbins, the house featured today.  Their window was raised, just the screen....I think they were sleeping at the foot of the bed as so many of us did in the summer in the south.  Madie knew both of them well.  The garden hose was hooked up to the outside faucet just under the window.  Madie turned the hose on to spray, and sprayed water in their faces, thru the window, admonishing them to "Get Up"....

This is a true story, related to me by Dr. John Stotts, in the presence of one of Bony's sons, Jim Robbins.  You asked for it, Barbara.

Anita Fuller

Anita, that's a funny story.  Madie must have been a true character.  It also brings back memories of old times when everyone in town could roam the streets and not be worried about being run over, maimed, killed or admonished.  (Well, perhaps they would be admonished but only out of love.)  All houses were hot, too, with no central air conditioning at the time so "sleepin' at the foot of the bed" meant more than just a  Little Jimmy Dickens song! 

How could Madie have seen them, though, if they were upstairs in the big bedroom.  I'll bet they were on a sleeping porch!

Here are some comments from the late Tom Pry's Searcyyesteryear Journal.

Anita Hart Fuller

I wish I had a personal memory of Madie Armstrong - although at the time I was growing up and wearing shorts around town, I was darn glad I didn't. I THINK I have a memory of her standing outside the Rialto before the show started, "hopefully" to catch some girls entering in shorts. I do have a couple of "stories" about her, don't know if they are true but they are fun to think about. First: she wore a pedometer around her leg, and was written up in Ripley's Believe It or Not as having walked the number of miles to make it around the world but never left White County.

Second: she was crossing the street in Searcy - and was hit by a car, knocking her down and breaking an arm. With the broken arm "dangling" she shook her fist with the "good" arm at the poor motorist who had hit her, and walked on.

Margaret Owen Allen

I remember Mady because, when my sister and I would play house in the yard, she would come by and grab all the rags we washed our dishes with and said she needed them worse than we did. We readily agreed, because we held our breath the whole time she was in our presence. But, did you know she was invited into some of the nicest homes in town once a week to enjoy a good meal? God takes care of all of us.

Ramona Palmer Riddle

Do I ever remember Mady Armstrong! She lived on Vine close the Rodgers home, in a house grown over with vines and stuff. It was rumored that she built the house with dimes she had saved. We always ran as fast as we could when we passed her house. She always threatened to cut your shorts off if she saw you. Carried that big ole knife in her boot or whatever. She was a scary one for sure. Her name has come up in conversation several times lately.

Harold Gene Sullivan

I remember Mady Armstrong well. In fact, within the last few days I had been thinking about her. It must have been the same Davenport story that jogged both us. One year, when the county fair was still held on the grounds where the gym was built and Birdseye went in, so it must have been in the late-40’s, I remember her chasing the high school band majorettes all over because she though the skirts were too short. Also, she lived on Vine or Academy just east of Main. It was all grown up around it, looking just like one would expect of such a character. Her house was always a favorite to hit on Halloween night.

Footnote

MADY CLEVELAND ARMSTRONG was born 18 October 1892 in Chepultepec, Blount Co., Alabama

She died 14 June 1962 and is buried at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens, Searcy.

Don, such stories!!  They were new to me because I didn't grow up in Searcy.  She must have truly been a character around town.  Thanks for supplying them.

Barbara this is so funny every small town must have one of those ladys....Madison where I grew up had two ...one in the village and one in the township....and they are who I thought of reading about Mady.....peace zane

Zane, I agree that probably every small town had a few characters like this.  Even since I've been living here, I've recognized several "special" folks who walked the town, or rode bikes but felt free to roam everywhere. 

My parents, Ivan and Frances Quattlebaum, bought this house in 197l.  Although I did not live there with them and my brother, Steve It was home to all of us.  There is a little 28 inch door off the carport that goes into the kitchen; everyone used that UNLOCKED door.  The house was just like grand central station to family and friends.  I am so glad that it is still there and I can look a it and remember all the fun times we had there.  They were there until 2001. 

I remember Madie very well, but I've never heard that story.  That is so funny.

Sherry, thanks for the input.  Everyone in Searcy loves that house.  It brings back so many memories. 

Thanks for the sweet comments about my mother, Frances Q., She would dress every day in her high heel shoes and walk the 3 short blocks from the house to her Music Store downtown.

She loved the house and downtown Searcy as well.

Sherry Person

Once when the kids in the neighborhood on Arch Street, had been playing baseball. Mady came down the sidewalk and told me I looked like a crane standing there in my shorts.  I was terrified of her, but I was holding the baseball bat.  I wasn't going to let her cut my shorts off.  She just went on down the street.  Fifty +  years later my legs don't look like a crane anymore. More like a honeysuckle turkey.

Marcia

Wow Barbara, what started out as a post about a really attractive English Tudor Style home turned into a fascinating little story. I just love the way your posts sometimes take on a life of their own.

Sherry, your mother had "presence!"  Thanks for comments.

Marcia, that's a funny comment.  Mady must have been famous!

Suesan, thank you for the compliment!

Godmother Barbara,

My great, great, great grandpa from the old country lived in a forest near there. He was a robber baron. His name was Robin-seed but they cut it down to plain Robin.

Nutsy

I lived in the home with my parents and younger brother, Steve.  It was a wonderful home and Mother always had it decorated perfectly.  We all spent lots of time there together.

I remember, strangers would ring the doorbell and ask if they could just come in and look at the house.  I let them right in and gave them a tour,  sometimes even before the beds were made which just horrified Mother when she found out.

I am so glad the house was bought by someone who wanted to preserve it.  There were so many beautiful homes in Searcy when I was a child.  I'm sorry so few of them are left.

Nancy Q. Davis

I lived 2 blocks east of Duncan's car lot and rode my bicycle to town and back to the movies etc.

Mady  had a pack of mean dogs that would chase me on my  bike.

I would have to put my feet up on the fender to keep them from biting me as I rode by her house on Vine Street.

Leon Person

Nutsy!  You need to copy Mr. Robin's outfit.  It looks great.  You'd never catch him in some lemon or pizza outfit!!!

Nancy, notice something odd about your comment??  Your mother wasn't worried about strangers in the house doing harm or damage.  All she worried about was the unmade beds.  Times have changed. Now she'd be telling you not to open the door or you might get kidnapped!  I loved your comment.

Leon, I am sitting here laughing at your having to coast past Mady's house with your feet and legs up on the fender!  Dogs could run free then!!  How times have changed as I mentioned to Nancy above.

This comment is from Carla A Hardin, a relative of Sherry's, who gave us permission to insert it.

Ok Sherry I will give you what I can remember long before you parent's purchased the house. This house holds more than just bricks and mortar - it held lots of good and sad times but mostly gave warmth and love back even when times were not so happy. To think that until the attorneys purchased the house only 2 families had owned and lived in it.

At one time it was on a street with many other homes and only a block away from the beginning of the thriving metropolis of Searcy which is unlike today as this part of town has become an extension of the business district of downtown Searcy. Many homes surrounding or near "the big house" are no longer standing  and many of the homes are now parking lots. That is my first thought - what a shame. The home Merle grew up in is now the church parking lot. At one time there were only 2 houses facing the street on this particular part of the block with one being "the big house" and next door was a white house with the little red house standing  just behind or to the side depending on how you look at it. As a child I thought the little red house was out of a story book and "the big house" was magnificent and took me back to old England or some storybook place. My vivid imagination just could go on and on with visions of wonderment surrounding the house.

Are you aware that Mamo Hall thought this was the most beautiful house in Searcy and always wanted to live there? To think she was able to achieve this dream thanks to your mom and dad. When I look at a picture it still has a very "welcoming" look to it. You can almost feel the warmth of its arms surrounding you and giving you comfort. I think of happy times with laughter and delight of one sharing with another. Even at a time of grief when Mamo Hall died and we all gathered at "the big house" to share and comfort one another - there was such love flowing throughout it. I was one of the cousin's that did not spend much time there but when I was able to be there I was always happy. Or maybe the family that resided there added to the feelings.

Mamo and your mother shared this story -- when the house finally belonged to the Quattlebaum's and before it became a home for them, the new occupants could not wait to move in. Your dad, Nancy and Steve took their bedrolls (not sure if it was sleeping bags or just quilts & bed covers) and went to spend the night in the house on the first night it was actually in the Quattlebaum name. No other furniture just the sleeping arrangements that they could haul over there. I guess they were lucky to have the electricity and running water turned on. I can remember your dad telling someone that he now owned the entire block. I am sure that made the farm boy feel like he had made it and he was proud of his accomplishment. But mostly I am sure he was so pleased and proud to provide your mom with such a grand home.

Your mother made the statement that she was so glad not to have to remodel the kitchen and almost danced with joy that the previous owner had a least completed that job. But there was one thing she was going to add no matter what the cost - central heating and air. If I remember correctly she had commercial size units installed because she was not going to be hot! The gazebo added even more charm - I think she was real proud of it as she went on and on to my mother about her gazebo. Whenever I see a picture of the house I can envision your mom gliding down the stairs so very regal and with majesty. Then I see your dad with a huge smile on his face and thinking of another "Ivan" story to share that you were not sure what was fact and what was fiction. I can still see Mamo fussing around busying herself and still trying to guide us (or can I say just plain ole boss us around)to do what she wanted us to do. All the Hall girls were a little bossy but your mom and Mamo were the ring leaders and had mastered the process.

What a wonderful place for the Quattlebaum grandchildren had to gather and be pampered (maybe a little spoiled) by their grandparents - special memories that are forever captured with the walls.

Mrs Barbara,

If I wore that Robin outfit in this day and age, do you not agree that I would stick out like a sore thumb and Mr Charles would say that I was dated and not together? I hate it when I am not taken seriously.

Nutsy

Am I remembering right, didn't that house belong to K.K. King at one time?

Nutsy, you worry about Mr. Charles?  And what he thinks of you???   Maybe that's good.  Fruit suits bad!!!

Harold Gene, I don't think anyone ever owned this but the Robbins family and the Quattlebaum family.  It's a two owner to the best of my knowledge.