LITTLE ROCK—Governor Asa Hutchinson announced today that the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, has awarded $2,842,862 in grants for projects in 54 Arkansas counties—including Cleburne County—through its County Courthouse Restoration Grant, Historic Preservation Restoration Grant, Certified Local Government Subgrant and Main Street Downtown Revitalization Grant programs.
Cleburne County received a $66,360 County Courthouse Restoration Grant for roof restoration at the 1914 courthouse in Heber Springs. The Heber Springs Downtown Network received a $1,000 Main Street Downtown Revitalization Grant.
Twenty counties shared $1,480,452 in County Courthouse Restoration Subgrants, which are financed through Real Estate Transfer Tax funds distributed by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council for rehabilitation of historic county courthouses across Arkansas. Funding requests totaled $4,980,466.
Other counties receiving courthouse grants were Arkansas, $17,344; Baxter, $50,715; Boone, $14,938; Calhoun, $52,500; Carroll, $19,000; Chicot, $55,237; Clark, $140,289; Franklin, $100,000; Garland, $106,500; Jackson, $61,650; Johnson, $71,570; Lafayette, $100,000; Little River, $71,356; Logan, $40,000; Mississippi, $70,000; Polk, $28,080; Union, $122,850; Woodruff, $182,063 and Yell, $110,000.
Main Street programs in Batesville, Dumas, El Dorado, Eureka Springs, Helena-West Helena, Osceola, Ozark, Paragould, Rogers, Russellville, Searcy, Siloam Springs, Texarkana, West Memphis, the Conway Downtown Partnership, Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Downtown Jonesboro Association and Little Rock’s South Main each received $15,000 grants through the program.
An additional $16,000 in Downtown Revitalization Grants was awarded to cities involved in Main Street’s Arkansas Downtown Network. Grants of $1,000 also were awarded to the programs in Clarksville, Forrest City, Fort Smith, Hardy, Arkadelphia, Malvern, Monticello, Morrilton, Newport, Paris, Pine Bluff, Pocahontas, Rector, Warren and Wynne.
Thirty-two projects shared $978,069 in Historic Preservation Restoration Grants (HPRG), which distribute funds raised through the Real Estate Transfer Tax to rehabilitate buildings listed on the Arkansas or National Registers of Historic Places and owned by local governments or not-for-profit organizations. Grant requests totaled $1,562,563.
HPRG recipients, the amount of their grants, and the properties to be restored, were American Legion Post #61, $11,260 to restore the roof, windows and doors at Estes-Williams American Legion Hut #61 at Yellville; Bradley County Chamber of Commerce, $59,602 to restore the roof at the Warren & Ouachita Valley Railway Station in Warren; Cato Historic Church and Cemetery, Inc., $7,942 to restore monuments at Frenchman’s Mountain Cemetery in Cato; Central Arkansas Sphynx Foundation, $13,992 for restoration work at the Bush-Dubisson House in Little Rock; City of Conway, $9,999 for monument restoration at Oak Grove Cemetery; City of Hope, $20,000 for restoration work at the Hope Girl Scout Little House; City of Little Rock, $50,000 for restoration work on the Herschell-Spillman Carousel; City of Mountain View, $87,128 for restoration work at the Mountain View Waterworks; City of Mulberry, $13,913 for second-floor restoration at the Bryant-Lasater House; City of North Little Rock, $40,500 for a master plan and restoration work on the U.S.S. Hoga and $18,348 for repointing at the Park Hill Water Company Historic District; City of Texarkana, $33,170 for restoration work at the Texarkana Municipal Building; Dana’s House, Inc., $50,391 for window restoration at the United Methodist Church in DeWitt; Eureka Springs Historical Museum, $18,800 for wood restoration at the Samuel Calif Building; First Lutheran Church, $127,000 for roof restoration at the Welch-Cherry House; First United Methodist Church, $28,930 for masonry restoration at the First United Methodist Church in Hamburg; Hill Family Living Trust, $10,000 for façade restoration on the building at 304 South Main Street in Rector; John and Julieanna Brandenberger, $10,000 for exterior restoration at the W.H. Vaughan Cottage in Little Rock; Legacy Initiatives, $56,712 to complete exterior restoration of the Hayes Hardware Building in De Queen; Little River County Training School Alumni Association, $28,000 for roof restoration at the Little River County Training School Home Ec Building in Ashdown; St. James Episcopal Church, $17,905 for roof restoration at the Cromer School in Eureka Springs; Logan County, $31,000 for exterior restoration of the Old Logan County Jail; Michael Berry, $10,000 to restore the roof configuration at 210 Fountain Avenue in Little Rock; Mount Holly Cemetery Association, $25,000 for wall restoration at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock; Mount Zion Baptist Church, $49,166 for roof restoration at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Brinkley; Nevada County Industrial Development and Charitable Foundation, $9,916 for restoration work at Moscow Cemetery at Prescott; Norman Historic Preservation Program, Inc., $20,000 to make Norman High School accessible to handicapped; Old Bethel Cemetery Association, Inc., $7,980 for survey and monument restoration at Bethel Cemetery at Black Rock; P.H.O.E.B.E., $52,000 for roof restoration at the John Lee Webb House in Hot Springs; Shady Grove Delmar Historical Property Association, $36,333 for restoration work at the Shady Grove Church and School; Evergreen Cemetery Association, $9,999 for monument restoration at Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville, and West Central Arkansas Economic Development Services, Inc., $13,083 for masonry restoration at the building at 1000 Central Avenue in Hot Springs.
Fifteen recipients shared $98,341 in grants through the AHPP’s Certified Local Government program, which is open to Arkansas cities and counties that contain a historic district commission and a historic district protected by a local ordinance, as well as to cities and counties that are seeking to join the CLG program. These grants provide training opportunities to local historic district commissions and can fund other local preservation projects. At least 10 percent of the AHPP’s annual appropriation from the federal Historic Preservation Fund goes to CLG cities as grants for local projects. Grant requests totaled $205,220.
CLG grant recipients were Conway, which received $6,914 for training; Dumas, which received $3,100 for training; El Dorado, which received $5,799 for training and administrative support; Eureka Springs, which received $5,170 for training; Fort Smith, which received $3,854 for training; Fayetteville, which received $9,030 for training, a survey and National Register nomination of the Meadow Street Historic District, work on the Story Maps website and preservation awards plaques; Helena/West Helena, which received $6,481 for training, administrative support and supplies; Hot Springs, which received $1,600 for bronze plaques recognizing the American Planning Association’s designation of Central Avenue as one of America’s “Great Streets”; Little Rock, $10,600 for training and a study on post-World War II residential development in the city; Morrilton, $6,600 for training; North Little Rock, $8,000 for administrative assistance and signage for two of the city’s traditionally African American neighborhoods; Rogers, $9,415 for training, administrative assistance and historic district commission guidebooks; Russellville, $5,200 for training and sign toppers in the Russellville Downtown Historic District; Texarkana, $10,002 for training and continuing work on a website, and Van Buren, $6,576 for training.
There currently are 20 Arkansas cities in the CLG program: Little Rock, North Little Rock, Fort Smith, Van Buren, Hot Springs, Eureka Springs, Helena-West Helena, Conway, Pine Bluff, Morrilton, Texarkana, Rogers, Russellville, El Dorado, Fayetteville, Batesville, Benton, Dumas, Osceola and Blytheville. Several others are working to become part of the CLG program.
Eighteen Main Street Arkansas programs shared $270,000 in Downtown Revitalization Grants, which are funded through the state Real Estate Transfer Tax and are available to accredited Main Street programs for building rehabilitations, parks, streetscape improvements and other design-related projects that will have major long-term impacts in the local Main Street area.
For more information on the AHPP’s grant programs, write the agency at 323 Center St., Suite 1500, Little Rock, AR 72201, call the agency at (501) 324-9880[TDD 501-324-9811], send e-mail to info@arkansaspreservation.org or visit www.arkansaspreservation.org.
The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is the agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources. Other agencies are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and the Historic Arkansas Museum.
From left: Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, David Smith.
