The Museum of Automobiles on Petit Jean Mountain, a Jewish cemetery in what is now Helena-West Helena and a Catholic shrine in the Ozarks are among 16 properties being considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
The State Review Board of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program will meet in Little Rock on April 3 to decide which of the properties will be nominated, according to a news release.
The Museum of Automobiles is a 1964 building designed by noted Arkansas architects Dietrich Neyland and Robert Millett, according to the draft nomination prepared by Ralph S. Wilcox, the National Register and survey coordinator with the state preservation program.
The building was constructed by Winthrop Rockefeller, who was Arkansas' governor from 1967 to 1971.
"The beginning of the automobile collection that would be housed in the Museum of Automobiles began in 1961 when Rockefeller purchased a collection of automobiles from the James Melton Autorama in Hypoluxo, Fla., a museum that Melton had opened in 1953," Wilcox wrote.
Rockefeller needed a place to house and display his car collection, so he had the "striking modern building" designed and built near his farm on Petit Jean Mountain, wrote Wilcox.
The building is an "early and unusual example of a tensile structure, especially in Arkansas," according to the nomination.
The idea of a tensile structure has been used for millennia and is best expressed as a tent with a ridge pole and guy ropes, Wilcox wrote.
But it took a while for that type of design to be incorporated into 20th-century structures.
The Museum of Automobiles was built on a continuous cast-concrete foundation, wrote Wilcox. It has walls built out of cast-concrete panels and cast-concrete columns.
"The four corner columns, from which the tensile cables stretch, are connected by cast-concrete beams that form a compression ring," according to the nomination. "The roof of the building is clad with a membrane and copper sheets, and slopes towards the building's center following the drape of the tensile cable system. ... The main floor interior is one big open space where the cars are displayed. The tensile cable system allowed for the space to be uninterrupted by columns."
The building, which is owned by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, is about 9 miles southwest of Morrilton and 3 miles southeast of Winrock Farms.
Temple Beth El Cemetery, established in 1875, is the second cemetery of Helena's Jewish community, according to the draft nomination.
Helena and West Helena merged in the fall of 2005 to form Helena-West Helena.
At the end of 2016, the 2.5-acre cemetery contained 390 gravestones and memorials. The earliest known burial was in 1862, and the burials continue to the present day, with only a small proportion of modern-day burials, according to the nomination.
"Among the gravestones, there are approximately 23 World War I and World War II veterans, and one veteran from the Vietnam era," according to the nomination. "Also, a Holocaust survivor is buried within the cemetery."
By 1860, Arkansas had about 200 Jewish merchants, but the state's Jewish population greatly increased after the Civil War, according to the cemetery's draft nomination.
By the late 1860s, Helena had at least 65 Jewish residents, according to the nomination. They formed a Jewish congregation in 1867 that would eventually become known as Temple Beth El, translated as "House of God."
The Jewish population of Helena continued to grow, peaking in 1927 at about 400 residents, according to the nomination.
"Over the years as the population of Phillips County declined, the Jewish community declined in number as well," according to the document. "In 1967, Helena had 68 Jewish families and 109 adult members of the Temple Beth El congregation."
By 2006, with the town's Jewish population reduced to a handful, and most of them over the age of 90, the congregation decided to close the Temple after 139 years of continuous use.
"After being deconsecrated, the building was donated to the state to serve as a community auditorium," according to the nomination. "For a few years, the remaining members of the congregation met for services in members' homes.
"In 2017, at the age of 101, the last remaining member of the historic Jewish community died. After 160 years, Helena has no Jewish residents."
On the other side of the state, Catholics in the Boston Mountain section of the Ozarks had little access to church services in the mid-20th century.
After an effort by local women to organize a parish, the Diocese of Little Rock formed Our Lady of the Ozarks and parishioners established a small mission near Winslow in Crawford County, according to the draft nomination.
"In 1944, the parish began building the current native stone church and established a Marian statue on the front lawn," according to the nomination. "Over a two-year period, the parish added more statues to the grounds and finished the original plans for the church."
Bishop Alfred Morris officially dedicated the shrine in August 1946.
"Since its inception as the first Marian shrine in Arkansas, Our Lady of the Ozarks has remained a prominent shrine and has served as an annual destination for Catholic pilgrims in Arkansas," according to the nomination.
Other Arkansas properties being considered for nomination to the National Register are:
• National Old Line Insurance Co. Building in Little Rock, a 1953-1954 and 1965 International-style office building.
• Arkansas Territorial Restoration Historic District in Little Rock, a district significant as an early historic preservation project in the state.
• Empire Life Insurance Co. of America Building in Little Rock, a notable example of the International style designed by Wittenberg, Delony and Davidson, and built in 1959-1960.
• Morris House in Lonoke, a large-scale Mid-Century Modern house built in 1963 and designed by architect Fred Perkins.
• Central Avenue Historic District additional documentation in Hot Springs, an update to the National Register nomination for the historic district.
• Mount Olive Cemetery near Mount Vernon in White County, an 1890s African-American cemetery that is still used for burials today.
• Norwood House in Russellville, a 1917 house with Prairie and Craftsman-style characteristics.
• Former U.S. post office and federal courthouse in Jonesboro, a 1913 building designed in the Renaissance style.
• R.A. Pickens II House in Pickens, Desha County, a Colonial Revival-style house built around 1940.
• Yadkin Church near Ravenden Springs in Randolph County, a one-room church built around 1894 that is one of the last vestiges of the Yadkin community.
• Muxen Building near Winslow, a 1940s building built to serve as a craft school for residents.
• Ben Johnson II Homestead District in Fayetteville, an early 20th-century fruit farm.
• Ellis Building in Fayetteville, a circa 1923 automobile sales and service building.
Metro on 03/21/2019