Preserve Arkansas lists Putman Hill, East Mountain Cemetery
At its annual meeting Sept. 12, 2025, Preserve Arkansas announced six endangered places across the state, including two at Fayetteville:
- East Mountain Cemetery
- Duncan/Hill Neighborhood
East Mountain Cemetery
East Mountain Cemetery is on the southwestern flank of Mount Sequoyah, immediately east of the Walker and Sutton family plots.
Mount Sequoyah was known as East Mountain during the city’s first century.
“Some of the region’s earliest white settlers are buried there, along with Fayetteville’s early Black residents, many of whom were enslaved by, or worked for, the Walker family after the Civil War,” Preserve Arkansas said in a press release. “The cemetery is in need of comprehensive mapping and marker and fencing restoration.”
The Northwest Arkansas Black Heritage association has begun the arduous process of researching the cemetery, which has had burials from at least as early as 1838. At least 118 burial sites have been identified so far.
Putman Hill
The neighborhood comprising Duncan and Hill streets, which run from Center Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard, overlaying Putman Hill, is undergoing significant changes, with one- and two-story homes and two-story apartments being bulldozed and replaced by massive buildings covering full city blocks and rising from four to seven stories tall.
“Sadly, many historic buildings have already been demolished to make way for student housing complexes, threatening to erase the human scale buildings and character of the neighborhood,” Preserve Arkansas said.
Elsewhere in the state, Preserve Arkansas also cited the following properties as endangered:
- The 1890 Faucette Building in North Little Rock
- The former 154th Observation Squadron Headquarters, Arkansas Air National Guard, Little Rock
- The Dr. William P. Passmore House, Hot Springs
- The Syrene Missionary Baptist Church and Cemetery, Pickens.