CONWAY — The American Legion building in downtown Conway has housed dances, meetings, potlucks and, during World War II, possibly German prisoners, the commander of Theodore Campbell Post No. 16 said, but the plan is to tear the building down.
Post Cmdr. Hughie Craig said upkeep on the old building, which was moved to Conway in 1948 from Camp Robinson in North Little Rock, has caused the veterans organization to turn the structure over to the owner of the property, who plans to tear down the building and put in a parking lot for the adjacent University of Central Arkansas apartments.
“Some people are real sad about it, but time moves on,” Craig said. “Since the upkeep was getting worse and worse, we decided to walk away from it” so the post could continue to function and have money to do so.
He said utilities for the building were $1,200 to $1,400 a year, and insurance premiums had jumped to $600.
The American Legion post has been paying the bills and making “a little money,” Craig said, from renting the building to groups, including a dance class, firefighters and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Craig said he was told by an older member of the American Legion that the building was constructed in the 1930s and used at Camp Robinson as a prison mess hall, “and German prisoners even ate meals here.”
The wood floors, interior doors, dishes and random donated garage-sale items were being sold from the building last week.
Craig said the goal is to be out of the building by Monday.
Steve Strange, CEO of American Management Corp. in downtown Conway, owns part of the land, as well as the building next door, which he leases to UCA for apartments.
“It’s not totally finalized, but the plan is to take that building down and put parking in there, and clean that up,” Strange said.
Currently, there are 25 parking spaces, but Strange said 40 are needed. He said he has talked with UCA General Counsel Tom Courtway about UCA’s plan to move offices into the first floor of the apartment building to make it a mixed-used development.
“I’ve committed to UCA to make that parking,” Strange added.
Courtway said the university did consider putting offices on the first floor of the two-story apartment building, however, “due to some questions with building codes, and in particular the need for fire sprinklers once any renovations are made, the building will continue to be used solely for student housing for the next year under a one-year lease. We will use the next year to evaluate future uses of the building and whether or not it would be suitable for a mixed-use facility.”
There’s a slight twist to Strange’s plan to tear down the American Legion Building. He doesn’t own it. The deed to the building and the land under it still belong to the heirs of Samuel Theodore Smith Sr., who donated the land in May 1948 to the American Legion. The deed states that when the American Legion no longer wanted to use the land “and all improvements,” the property would revert to the heirs.
Smith’s son, S.T. “Ros” Smith Jr. of Conway, said the land sold in 1974 after his father died.
Strange said, “I own the back (parcel of land) — the old plat is inconclusive.”
He said he bought it and the two-story building next door in the early ’90s.
Smith said he had forgotten that the American Legion Building belonged to his father’s heirs “over the years.”
Strange said Smith “is a dear friend,” and that they are working out the details.
Smith, whose two brothers are deceased, said his sisters-in-law will have to “sign off on” whatever arrangement he and Strange make.
Also, Bryan Patrick, director of planning for Conway, said Strange will have to get the parking-lot plan approved by the Old Conway Design Overlay District.
There is a guidebook with criteria for parking lots downtown, Patrick said. It includes “appropriate screening.”
“You’re trying to keep that urban streetscape, so you’re not walking down the street and have a big gaping hole there,” Patrick said.
The American Legion’s loss was the Faulkner County Museum’s gain.
Lynita Langley-Ware, director of the museum, said she received a phone call two years ago from an American Legion member asking if the museum would be interested in some of the items when the organization vacated the building. She said it would, but she never heard back about the matter until a few months ago.
In February, Langley-Ware said, the museum took framed documents off the walls, membership awards, “several flags, a burial flag, a few uniforms.”
“We’re very excited, because all of the pieces we got, at one time or another, belonged to somebody here in Faulkner County,” she said.
“We’ve been working since then to get it inventoried, identified and archivally packaged,” she added.
Craig said the American Legion will start meeting at Grace United Methodist Church on Hogan Lane in Conway. Although American Legion membership is about 100, only six to eight people attend the meetings, he said.
In addition to other ceremonies, the American Legion puts out flags on Memorial Day and holds a Veterans Day program.
“Nothing has changed with what we do — we just won’t have this building,” Craig said.