In an industrial pocket of Little Rock between Hanger Hill Historic District and Heifer Village, an imposing, 2½-story antebellum home peeks out from behind the bare, gnarled branches of a 50-foot-tall oak.
The historic William E. Woodruff House -- named for its first owner, the founder of the Arkansas Gazette -- is in a state of disrepair.
Its many windows are boarded up; the roof leaks; there's termite damage. Ivy clings to its pale yellow bricks, and, before Aug. 8, the grass surrounding the home was shin-high.
After almost a decade of sitting vacant, the Quapaw Quarter Association purchased the 162-year-old Woodruff House in December for $107,000, with the goal of fixing it up just enough to sell to someone who could completely restore it. On Aug. 8, a group of volunteers started that effort by doing yardwork, which clears the way for contractors to begin work.
The head of the Quapaw Quarter Association said she believes the sale and restoration of the home would stimulate a "huge boom" for the neighborhood, an area of the city that is slowly being revitalized.
"It's a matter of time before it comes back," Executive Director Rhea Roberts said. "It's only a couple blocks from Lost Forty [Brewing] and Rock Town [Distillery]. There's the Clinton Presidential Center to the north and Heifer International, and just south of it is Hanger Hill, a district on the National Register of Historic Places.
"There are things going on. It's just a matter of time before that little pocket picks up like the rest of it."
The Quapaw Quarter Association will arrange more volunteer work days throughout the fall to get the property ready for bigger fixes, Roberts said.
The 7,000-square-foot, Greek Revival home at 1017 E. Eighth St. was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
According to National Park Service documents, it was built in 1853 for Woodruff, who became politically influential in the state after founding the Arkansas Gazette -- the first newspaper published west of the Mississippi River -- in 1819.
Over the years, the use of the home shifted from that of a single-family residence.
The Union Army used Woodruff's 10-room home as a hospital for federal troops for a period during the Civil War. Woodruff, who was a colonel in the Confederate States Army, reoccupied his home after the war.
Woodruff died in 1885, and in 1924, the house became the Cottage Home for Girls, serving as a residence for young women who worked in the city.
Sometime later, it was converted into apartments. It was abandoned in 2006 and stayed dormant, surrounded on most sides by vacant lots.
John Greer, with Witsell Evans Rasco Architects, surveyed the house in 2008 after the city condemned it because of illegal activity there, he said.
In his written assessment, Greer cited fire and smoke damage in the southwest corner of the home. "Treasure hunters" had pillaged original fireplace mantels, as well as hardware from cabinets and doors.
Modern additions that could reduce the historical value of the home -- such as drywall, paneling, drop ceilings and kitchens -- were constructed to split the house into 12 apartments, Greer said. Authentic wood floors were buried under layers of linoleum and carpet.
But its bones were good.
"We were brought in to get a good survey of what kind of history remains in the house -- if there was really anything to work with," Greer said. "What we found is that it's got good bones. It's got something we can work with, something we can tell the story with. From that point on, we tried to stay involved and be its champion. We're going to fight. As preservationists, it's what we do. We're not going to let something like that slip through our fingers."
Greer and others at Witsell Evans Rasco Architects will finish another study by the end of August that will provide recommendations on how the house should be used: as a single-family residence or apartment building, for offices, or as a small part of a larger development. The $8,000 study was paid for by the Quapaw Quarter Association and a $4,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Roberts said.
Little Rock is in negotiations with a contractor that will remove anything from the interior that was added in the past few decades, Greer said. Workers also will fix collapsing bricks on the east and south sides of the house, and repair termite damage and a leaking roof.
The construction budget is $50,000 -- funded through a grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to the city.
The city became the owner of the house's facade after it and the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program granted $99,500 to the Quapaw Quarter Association to purchase the home.
Those involved with the project will continue searching for more grant money to put into the property, Roberts said.
She said it is still uncertain when the home will be stabilized enough to sell or who might be interested in buying and renovating it.
As long as it's stable and maintained, though, it doesn't matter how long it stays empty, Greer said.
"If it doesn't happen in a year or two years, it's OK, because we've stabilized the home, and it's not going to fall down," he said. "Luckily, everybody recognized the importance of the house before it was too late.
"It's important to the history of Little Rock and central Arkansas, and it's worthy of saving if we can find the right person to do it."
Sunday Digest on 08/23/2015