RUSSELLVILLE — The Pope County Historic Foundation is inviting people to visit homes of yesteryear during the organization’s 2015 Tour of Homes.
The event will occur from 2-6 p.m. Sunday in Russellville and Pottsville.
It’s the first such event in years, said Benita Drew, who conducts tours at the Potts Inn Museum in Pottsville, which is also part of this year’s tour.
“They held one in the mid-1990s, but not since, so we are hoping to start it up as a yearly event, as long as we can find participating homeowners,” Drew said. “We’re pretty excited about it.”
Featured will be the turn-of-the-century Belle Helene Bess House at 214 E. Fifth St. in Russellville, and the Potts Inn Museum, circa 1850, and Falls & Sinclair Store, both on East Ash Street in Pottsville.
Tours of the Belle Helene Bess House will be from 2-4 p.m., followed by the Pottsville properties from 4-6 p.m., with refreshments served at the museum.
The Belle Helene Bess House is owned by Todd Sweeden, who owns Sweeden Florist in Russellville. He said he named the home for his mother, who died in 2011. She was born and grew up in Pottsville, he said.
Sweeden is the fourth owner of the house and has owned it for approximately four years.
Built by Judge Robert Barrett Wilson, construction on the two-story Greek Revival mansion started in 1901 and was finished in 1903, Sweeden said. The home was originally called Wilsonia, after the Wilson family, he said.
“It’s considered in history books one of the finest homes in Pope County,” Sweeden said. “It had hardwood floors, but they were covered with carpeting, which was not even in the White House.”
After Wilson and his wife died, the home was purchased by Lear and Virginia Kemp.
“They owned it less than a year,” Sweeden said.
The home was then bought by Dr. Robert Thurlby, who owned it “a little over 40 years,” Sweeden said.
The 5,500-square-foot, 14-room home has retained much of its original character, Sweeden said.
“It has the massive, iconic
wood columns on the front porch, and it has gas lights, and it has a sweeping, two-story wrapping veranda,” he said. The house also features a widow’s walk and is “full” of antiques, Sweeden said.
Potts Inn Museum was the home of Kirkbride Potts, and it includes a doll museum, which features representations of Arkansas and U.S. first ladies in their inaugural ballgowns. Potts built the two-story antebellum home in the 1850s for his wife, Pamelia Logan, and their family, which included 11 children. After its completion, the home served as a stop for the stagecoach line between Memphis and Fort Smith.
Falls & Sinclair Store is a former general store. Drew said proceeds from the tour will be used to renovate the old mercantile.
“Right now, it’s an empty building,” she said. “We need to do some work on it.”
Reservations are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Call (479) 858-9272 or email pottsinn@gmail.com for more information.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.