COLUMNISTS

Broadway’s 555 Building

I recently saw an old postcard depicting the long-gone 555 Building on Broadway in Little Rock. The card described the structure as “the largest service station in the world.” But to refer to the 555 Building as a service station is like referring to the Vatican as a church. How many service stations are four stories high and contain a restaurant and night club on the top floor?

555 Inc. was the product of a remarkable businessman named Roy Edward Stueber. Born in 1891 in Ohio, Stueber was brought to Little Rock in 1907 when his parents came south and established the Arkansas Corrugated Metal Culvert Co., later known as Dixie Culvert. He graduated from the old Little Rock High School.

An outgoing youngster with a ready smile, Stueber had a natural knack for dealing with the public. One of his early jobs was selling Victrolas for Hauck Music Co. of Little Rock. In 1917 Stueber decided to strike out on his own, opening 555 Tire and Service Co. with a loan from his father.

In 1917 Little Rock, like America as a whole, was adjusting to the transition from horse drawn vehicles to the automobile. As Stueber’s close friend and biographer Frank Burke wrote: “Automobiles were multiplying like rabbits, and [Stueber] conceived the idea of starting a road service for stranded motorists.” Stueber asked for a phone number that was easily recalled, and he was given the number 555-which was promptly adopted as the name for the new business.

Service in the Army during World War I interrupted Stueber’s work, but he managed to hold on to his new business. With little competition, 555 flourished in the post-war years and soon outgrew its original building. Stueber was able to buy the buildings on the east side of Broadway between Second and Third streets, where he erected a state-of-the-art service station.

Broadway was a good choice since the street was also the route of U.S. highways 67 and 70, meaning that just about everyone who traveled through Little Rock passed by the 555 building. Stueber later built several neighborhood service stations in Little Rock as well as in North Little Rock, Newport, and Stuttgart.

Given his inherent optimism and business acumen, Stueber soon expanded his business to include a comprehensive automobile parts operation with 16 departments and 150 employees. He also rented auto storage space on the second and third floors. The top floor was reserved for a most unusual feature, the Rainbow Garden night club.

Stueber recognized that Little Rock needed an upscale “dance pavilion or night club,” and the entire fourth floor of the 555 building was developed into a club capable of seating 500 people. Frank Burke recalled that “Rainbow Garden thrived for many years. It was one of the largest and most beautiful dance halls in the country.” Big-name orchestras, including those of Cab Calloway and Ted Weems, regularly performed at the Rainbow Garden, attracting people from across the state.

Stueber was an incredible promoter, never missing an opportunity to advertise his business. For example, during the 1920 dance craze known as the Charleston, the Rainbow Garden sponsored a contest to find the “champion Charleston couple of Arkansas.” Stueber also staged Miss Little Rock competitions and paid to send the winner to Atlantic City for the Miss America pageant.

To draw attention to the 555 Building, Stueber placed an old Ford roadster atop the building,and later replaced it with an airplane.

One of Stueber’s most successful publicity stunts involved paying his employees in silver dollars for thewhole month of April 1934 during the depths of the Great Depression. “Let’s swap dollars, Little Rock!” Stueber’s newspaper advertisements proclaimed: “You trade with us. We’ll trade with you. Let’s keep our money at home as much as possible and help restore prosperity to the best city in the United States.”

As time passed, Stueber extended his business into wholesale operations. He began marketing electric refrigerators and washing machines, later adding even more household items. 555 was the exclusive distributor of the popular battery-powered Atwater Kent radios. Stueber developed an intense interest in radios and created his own station-WLBN, the first radio station in Little Rock. The station later adopted the call letters KLRA. During the Depression, Stueber sold KLRA to the Arkansas Gazette Co.

Stueber died unexpectedly in January 1954 at the age of 62. He was survived by his widow, Henrietta Wolters Stueber, a daughter, Myonne Scheid, and two granddaughters. In 1962 the 555 building was sold to the National Investors Life Insurance Co. of Little Rock, and mostly demolished. The ornate chandelier from the Rainbow Garden was given to the Woman’s City Club on Scott Street, where it hangs today.

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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in Pulaski County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.

Editorial, Pages 81 on 10/27/2013

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