An iconic Arkansas diner was destroyed by fire early Tuesday morning.
The Old South Restaurant in Russellville is a total loss, said Zach Summitt, co-owner.
Only the exterior walls remain.
"There's no repairing anything," he said. "If we decide to do anything right there, we'll have to take it down and build something there."
Summitt said he doesn't know what started the fire.
"I closed last night, so I got home late and messed around," he said Tuesday afternoon. "Was just about to go to sleep when I got the alarm."
Summitt spent the rest of the night watching the building burn. He said firefighters were unable to get inside to extinguish the blaze.
"They couldn't get close enough to it," he said. "It was too hot."
The Old South was a Russellville landmark. It was built in 1947 along U.S. 64, which was then a lonely strip of two-lane highway through pasture and farm land. Now the site is surrounded by city.
The Old South was a famous stop along the route from Little Rock to Fort Smith. It was the first place people saw when they approached Russellville from the east in the days before Arkansas had interstate highways.
Its neon signs advertising "K.C. Sizzling Steaks and Chops" and "Fried Chicken" beckoned weary travelers, politicians and insomniacs. For decades, the Old South was open 24 hours a day.
As the saying goes, the Old South served two presidents and a king -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley.
Well, two kings. B.B. King also ate there.
Zach Summitt said he and his sisters attended Arkansas Tech University, and he would eat at the Old South while he was in college.
He and his father, Dale Summitt, bought the restaurant nine years ago, just as the previous owners were about to give up on it.
"We kind of stepped in the day they were going to shut down," he said. "We kept it open. We started trying to bring it back to life. We were a lot busier than it used to be, that's for sure."
And bring it back to life they did, said Russellville Mayor Fred Teague.
"Here lately, it was packed from breakfast till close," he said. "It was just packed all the time. It had become literally one of the best restaurants in Russellville, one of the most popular restaurants in Russellville."
"It's a rare occasion to drive by the Old South and not see a slew of cars parked at odd angles, overflowing into the parking lot of The Atomic Squid, the head shop next door," Eli Cranor wrote in a 2019 article for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's style section.
Teague said he got to the Old South at 1:50 a.m. Tuesday and stayed until about 6 a.m. before leaving and coming back again later.
"That's the hardest thing I've had to do as mayor," he said. "I stood there with the owner and watched his restaurant burn."
Mayor Teague said a group of pastors met regularly at the Old South, but they arrived on Tuesday to find only ruins of the old restaurant. He said they had to go to Denny's instead.
Teague said he reached out to the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services to help streamline unemployment payments for Old South employees who are suddenly out of a job. He said a local organization, Russ Bus, is also helping.
The Old South Restaurant was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
It was "the only example of post-World War II modular Art Moderne architecture in Russellville," according to the nomination. "Its streamlined design, rounded windows, metal skin, neon lights, aluminum fixtures and padded booths typify its Art Moderne design."
The restaurant was constructed by William E. Stell, owner of the National Glass and Manufacturing Co. of Fort Smith.
Stell built the first Old South Restaurant in Fort Smith in the mid-1940s as a experiment, according to the National Register nomination. That building was demolished in the late 1970s. He then sold "packages" to people who wanted to open their own Old South Restaurants.
"Although it isn't known how many Old South Restaurant packages were sold, only one other was ever constructed in Arkansas," according to the National Register nomination. "In 1947, Mr. Woody Mays, owner of Woody's Classic Inn and Coffee Shop in Russellville, ordered an Old South Restaurant package. In true turnkey fashion, Mr. Stell had the diner set up and operational -- including the menu -- in six days."
The Old South stood there for 76 years, a beacon on a dark highway as Russellville grew around it and fire eventually engulfed it.