The sound of construction projects could be heard as I parked my car on the town square at Wilson in Mississippi County on a recent afternoon. It's a sound that hadn't been heard here for decades.
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism employees, architects, designers and local officials had gathered last year for the groundbreaking of the new home of the Hampson Archeological Museum State Park. It marks the first new construction on the town square in 57 years. At the time of the 2015 ceremony, Mayor Becton Bell told reporters that the Wilson square "defines our city. It's the first thing everyone notices when they come to town. Hopefully it's going to bring a lot of tourism to the town and, in turn, help all of our businesses. ... Things aren't always looking up for the Delta. For Wilson, they are right now."
That's an understatement. Thanks to the passion of businessman Gaylon Lawrence Jr., Wilson is being transformed into the shining jewel of the Delta. What once was the company town for one of the largest cotton plantations in the world has become the headquarters for The Lawrence Group, an entity with real estate, bank and other holdings.
After graduating from Mississippi State University, Lawrence went to work for his father in the family holding company. For almost 15 years, he oversaw the company's farming asset management division. Lawrence now owns banks in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee. In 2010, The Lawrence Group purchased the assets of Lee Wilson & Co., including almost all of the commercial property in Wilson. Lawrence moved from Nashville to Memphis at the time of the purchase, explaining to Nashville Business Journal: "Along with our other interests up and down the Mississippi Delta, I just needed to be closer. It was a little bit of the situation in reverse when I first moved to Nashville in 2003."
"Business colleagues and partners describe Lawrence as intelligent and savvy, able to quickly sift through and vet potential ventures," Scott Harrison wrote in the Nashville Business Journal. "He looks like the consummate businessman: Tall, well-dressed in a navy pinstriped suit and red tie, hair parted to the left. A smile pops up on his face with regularity as he describes his business plans in a measured cadence, accented by his Southern drawl."
In northeast Arkansas, Lawrence follows in the footsteps of the Wilson family, long titans in Arkansas business and political circles. R.E. Lee Wilson established a sawmill at what's now Wilson in 1886 and then cleared the thousands of surrounding acres of virgin bottomland hardwood trees. A company store was soon added along with company-owned homes. As the timber was cut and drainage ditches were dug, the land surrounding the town was converted to cotton fields. When R.E. Lee Wilson Jr. and his bride returned from their Great Britain honeymoon, they vowed to construct not only their home but also the commercial buildings at Wilson in the Tudor style. The company began selling the homes it owned to residents in 1945. Cindy Grisham writes in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture: "The average price of a home in Wilson at the time was about $4,000. R.E. Lee Wilson III, who by this time was in charge of the operations, believed that individual ownership of homes made the residents happier and more involved in the success of the community."
The deal with The Lawrence Group was finalized in December 2010 at an estimated price of $150 million. Lawrence at first considered keeping the 40,000 acres of farmland that came with the purchase while divesting himself of the commercial property at Wilson. He became fascinated with the history of the town, though, and decided instead to pour millions of dollars into Wilson in an effort to transform it into a model community for the Delta.
Lawrence wants Wilson to be a center for education, culture and the arts. Part of that effort was the creation of The Delta School, a private institution centered around a former Wilson family mansion. Soon after buying Lee Wilson & Co., Lawrence brought in John Faulkner, who had taught Lawrence's children at the private Ensworth School in Nashville, to help oversee the transformation. A community garden was created under the direction of a former Oxford, Miss., organic farmer named Leslie Wolverton. Wilson now hosts everything from car shows to concerts.
The rebirth of the town square centered around attracting chef Joe Cartwright from Memphis to reopen the Wilson Café. The idea was that a quality restaurant would help people become accustomed to stopping once more in Wilson.
The Hampson Museum will give those traveling through Northeast Arkansas another reason to visit the square. The museum houses a collection of artifacts from a Mississippian period village that existed in the area from about 1400 to 1650. Dr. James K. Hampson, who died in 1956, began collecting artifacts in the 1930s. He constructed a museum in 1946 on his family's Nodena Plantation to house them. The collection was donated to the state following his death. The current state museum was dedicated in 1961 and renovated in 1978, but it's tiny and outmoded. The folks at The Lawrence Group decided that a new facility, which will cost more than $4 million to build, was key to their vision for Wilson. Those who know Gaylon Lawrence Jr. expect there will be much more to come in the years ahead.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate community relations for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 12/14/2016