Category: Buildings

Headquarters House

January 19, 2026

Also known as the Tebbetts House, this frame home with Greek revival design was built in 1853 by Matilda and Jonas March Tebbetts as their family home in Fayetteville. Its design was the same as the William Baxter House, which stood across Dickson Street at about the location of the present-day Washington County Courthouse. Jonas … More Headquarters House

‘Schmidt’s Barn’

January 17, 2026

The first fieldhouse at the University of Arkansas became known as “Schmidt’s Barn” for the athletic director and coach Francis Schmidt. The structure had originally been created for an automotive sales showroom in Fayetteville. The famed cowboy humorist Will Rogers spoke at the fieldhouse twice, joking on the second occasion that he was glad to … More ‘Schmidt’s Barn’

Root Auditorium

January 16, 2026

In 1942, the old University of Arkansas field house, known colloquially as “Schmidt’s Barn,” was disassembled and rebuilt on the west side of the first Fayetteville High School, which was on School Avenue at the time. The Fayetteville School Board named the auditorium for F.S. Root, the retiring superintendent of the Fayetteville School District from … More Root Auditorium

Ridge House

January 15, 2026

The Ridge House was built about 1836 and is the oldest known building still standing in Fayetteville. Sarah Bird Northrup Ridge, widow of John Ridge, a Cherokee leader who was slain during intertribal conflict, purchased the house in 1840 and moved her family out of the Indian Territory to Fayetteville. Sarah Ridge helped organize the … More Ridge House

Quarles House

January 14, 2026

The Quarles House, a boarding house, was operated at the northwest corner of East Avenue and Meadow Street. Initially referred to as the “Quarles Hotel,” the house began providing boarding options with provisions for stabling horses on site. An early advertisement in the Fayetteville Weekly Democrat, said: This house is pleasantly located, being convenient to … More Quarles House

Phillips Grocery

January 12, 2026

Lucian “Luke” and Katherine Phillips opened a small grocery at the northwest corner of Mission Boulevard and Gunter Street. The store included a meat counter, under which was a box for dog bones. Susan Harris Couch recalled her dog ‘Chaser’ would sit outside the front door and wait for an unsuspecting patron to open the … More Phillips Grocery

Mrs. Young Building

January 7, 2026

The Mrs. Young Building on the Fayetteville Square was built and first owned by Mrs. Sarah Jessie Young. She moved to Fayetteville in 1877 with her husband, a traveling dentist. They divorced in 1883, and she began work as a studio photographer, among the earliest in Fayetteville. In 1887, she contracted to construct a building … More Mrs. Young Building

Knights of Pythias Lodge

January 2, 2026

The African American chapter of the Knights of Pythias met as a lodge on the second floor of a shop at the northeast corner of College Avenue and Center Street. This lodge space may have also been used by other Black social and fraternal societies.