Arkansas Listings in the National Register of Historic Places: The Courthouses of Architect Clyde A. Ferrell

Arkansas Listings in the National Register of Historic Places: The Courthouses of ArchitectClyde A. FerrellAuthor(s): Zackery A. CothrenSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Spring, 2006), pp. 61-66Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40028073 .

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Arkansas Listings in the National

Register of Historic Places

The Courthouses of Architect Clyde A. Ferrell

Zackery A. Cothren

Arkansas has been blessed with more than its fair share of gifted architects. A. O. Clarke, E. Fay Jones, and Charles Thompson are just a few of the more widely known. But other less celebrated, yet extremely tal- ented, architects have also had a great impact on Arkansas 's built environment. Clyde A. Ferrell is one of them.

Ferrell was born March 10, 1879, in Augusta, Arkansas. As a child he moved to Little Rock, where he entered the public school system and graduated from Peabody High School in June 1897. In his application to the Arkansas State Board of Architects, Ferrell left the higher education section blank, indicating that he never received formal training as an architect. However, his work experience provided him with more than suf- ficient instruction. Before opening his own practice, Ferrell worked for thirteen years as a draftsman for prominent Little Rock architect Frank Gibb. Gibb designed ten of Arkansas's county courthouses and a multi- tude of other buildings, including the Joseph Taylor Robinson House in Little Rock. Working for Gibb certainly allowed Ferrell to participate in projects far exceeding the scope of anything in which he would have been involved as a student.

The largest body of Ferrell 's documented work consists of various types of public buildings. Ferrell seems to have specialized in the design of school buildings. Seven of them have been documented by the Arkan- sas Historic Preservation Program, and three were subsequently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Arkansas City High School (listed October 10, 1984), Portia School (listed December 13, 1978), and Washington High School (listed June 20, 1972). While

Zackery A. Cothren is preservation outreach coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Pro-

gram.

THE ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY VOL. LXV, NO. 1, SPRING 2006



62 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Ferrell's buildings are some of the most attractive historic school facili- ties in the state and are exemplary models of school design, they typi- cally follow a standardized plan. Most Ferrell schools are easily distinguished by a projecting central bay topped with a classically in- spired pediment. Other common features include brick quoins at the building's corners and diamond-shaped limestone inlays dividing the first-story and second-story windows.

Arkansas City High School, Desha County. Courtesy Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

Unquestionably, though, the most significant structures Ferrell designed are three county courthouses, each of which is unique in the state. In 191 1, Cleburne County chose plans prepared by Ferrell for the design of its new courthouse in Heber Springs. Construction was not yet under- way when the quorum court reversed itself and halted the project. Con- struction remained on hold until late 1913, when the court levied a special one-mill tax to pay for the building. The county moved the exist- ing wood-frame courthouse to a nearby lot in order to build the new one on the already established square and, in 1914, hired Ferrell to supervise construction.

Completed in 1915, the courthouse cost nearly $65,000. Ferrell had produced a beautiful example of the Colonial Revival style that was and remains the architectural gem of the county. The brick-constructed building is covered with a flat roof featuring an octagonal dome that is the courthouse's most distinguishing feature. The building's symmetrical facade is dominated by a two-story portico that extends from a recessed



NATIONAL REGISTER 63

center bay and is supported by four massive Doric columns. The rear of the building is identical in design to the front, with the building's side el- evations being much more restrained.

The Cleburne County Courthouse, Heber Springs. Courtesy Arkansas His- toric Preservation Program.

Ferrell did an excellent job with his first courthouse commission. The building continues to serve as Cleburne County's courthouse and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 12, 1976, with the nomination calling it "one of the more architecturally significant courthouses in Arkansas."

In 1922, Ferrell received his next commission to build a courthouse, this time in Mountain View. Ferrell chose the Craftsman style for the Stone County Courthouse. Although Craftsman was probably the most commonly used style for residential buildings designed during the 1920s, the Stone County Courthouse holds the distinction of being the only one of Arkansas 's more than seventy historic courthouses to feature the pop- ular style. County officials chose contractor C. M. Leird to execute Fer- rell's design, and local stonemason Bill Laroe, whose work is represented throughout Mountain View's well-known square, was the chief mason on the project.

The symmetrically arranged two-and-one-half-story courthouse uti- lizes locally quarried stone and serves as the focal point of downtown Mountain View. The building is sheltered beneath a myriad of hipped




The Stone County Courthouse, Mountain View. Courtesy Arkansas His- toric Preservation Program. roofs with exposed rafter ends. Additional roof detailing is found in the form of a centrally located dormer flanked by stone chimneys. The main elevation features an inset bay centered around a recessed entry located beneath a hipped-roof portico resting upon stone columns. The building's east and west wings project forward from the main fagade, forming the sides of the building. Both sides feature centrally located projections that provide side entrances.

The exceptional design of the Stone County Courthouse demonstrates Ferrell's adaptability in using local materials. Ferrell was able to achieve a building that blends well into its surrounding environment yet is clearly distinguished as the area's most important structure. The Stone County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1985.

In 1923, only one year after the completion of the Stone County Courthouse, Ferrell was hired to design the Montgomery County Court- house in Mount Ida. Mount Ida, like Mountain View, serves as the county seat of a rather rural, mountainous county, though in this case the Oua- chitas rather than the Ozarks. The building replaced a wood- frame structure that had occupied the site for nearly fifty years. For this design, Ferrell chose the Neoclassical style. The choice was not unusual, as the style was commonly used in the construction of government buildings. However, the execution of the design in rough fieldstone is a rarity and,



NATIONAL REGISTER 65

as with the Stone County Courthouse, demonstrates Ferrell's ability to utilize local materials.

The Ferrell-designed courthouse features a unique blending of classical and rustic features. The courthouse is two stories and topped with a low-pitched, hipped roof. The front is symmetrically arranged in a typi- cal classical layout with a pediment atop two large stone pilasters. The building's primary entrance is through double doors crowned by a deco- rative glass transom. Ferrell located a pair of double-hung windows di- rectly above the entryway with additional windows flanking the pilasters on each level. The sides of the building are identical, with five symmetrically placed windows on both the upper and lower story. While the building's front and sides remain virtually unaltered, a large one-story addition was added to the back in the early 1980s.

The Montgomery County Courthouse, Mount Ida. Courtesy Arkansas His- toric Preservation Program.

Despite the 1980s addition, the building retains its place as the most impressive governmental building in Montgomery County. The blending of rustic fieldstone with classical design elements makes it unique among courthouses in Arkansas. The Montgomery County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 27, 1976.




After completing the Montgomery County Courthouse, Ferrell con- tinued to work in Arkansas and did at least one project in Texas. On his 1939 application to be officially registered as an architect in Arkansas, Ferrell included among his completed projects fire stations for the city of Little Rock, but there is no indication of how many or their exact loca- tions. Ferrell also listed the Pulaski County Board of Education as a past client.

As building slowed to a crawl during the Great Depression, Ferrell found architecture-related work through government relief programs. Despite his experience and the fact that various New Deal agencies spon- sored many construction projects, there is no indication that Ferrell ever actually designed buildings for those programs. Instead, Ferrell worked as a draftsman in the Historic Survey section of the Civil Works Admin- istration, producing detailed architectural drawings of some of the state's most significant historic buildings, including the Old State House. Fer- rell was subsequently employed by the Public Works Administration from September 1935 until October 1939 as a building inspector, working to ensure that projects conformed to government standards.

Little is known of FerrelPs career or life after the 1930s, but by 1939 he was living in Booneville and had an office in the Masonic building there. There is undoubtedly a large body of Ferrell's work that has not yet been explored or documented as being his.

For more information on Clyde A. Ferrell and Arkansas 's other gifted architects, please visit the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program website at www.arkansaspreservation.org.



Documents

Arkansas Listings in the National Register of Historic Places: The Courthouses of Architect Clyde A. Ferrell