During the past several months, remodeling and renovation projects have been going on in downtown Pea Ridge, involving two of the oldest buildings in town. First, the small building which once housed the Kelly and Dona Armstrong Cafe, and the beginnings of Taylor's Cafe, was reconstructed and remodeled to serve as a business office. Now, a similar renovation and remodeling operation is going on with the next-door building which most recently housed the Pea Ridge Outlet Store. The histories of these two buildings reach back 100 years and more in our town. Both hail from the days when all the store buildings in Pea Ridge were like these two -- wood frame structures, usually painted white, with large, tall signboard fronts at roof level, with the signboards usually carrying the name of the business in large letters. Both of these buildings were of an 1800s design, and both of them may actually have been built before 1900.
Those of us who grew up around Pea Ridge in the 1940s and 1950s recall these two buildings as being owned by Kelly and Dona Armstrong. The Armstrongs lived on a small in-town farm property across the street from the two store buildings. During the 1930s and 1940s, Kelly and Dona operated their Grocery and Feed Store in the building which has been our Outlet Store. The front portion of the building served as the grocery store, and the back part as the feed store. A side door on the east provided access for loading cattle feed and chicken feed into farm vehicles. Also, an alley reached across behind the other buildings along that section of the main street, connecting at its far end with the street we now call North Curtis.
In about 1948, Kelly and Dona retired from their grocery and feed business, and Dona opened up her cafe in the other building. Then, after the 1950 relocation and paving of Arkansas Highway 94 from Rogers, which created the portion of Curtis Avenue south of Patton Street, Kelly and Dona bought a new house on that new section of highway. Their new house still stands today, across from the Pea Ridge Post Office. I think Billy Hall's father built that house. After a few years in the cafe business, the Armstrongs fully retired, and Roy and Vada Taylor opened the first version of Taylor's Cafe in the small Armstrong Cafe building. In about 1956, the Taylors relocated their cafe to its more famous location next to Webb's Feed and Seed, where our mayor's office and courtroom have been situated for some years now.
After the Armstrongs left the grocery and feed business, several short-term owners followed in their footsteps in the grocery business. Then, about 1954 the Richardson family came to Pea Ridge and established Richardson's Grocery. Richardson's Grocery became a Pea Ridge fixture, operating on the site for many, many years. To many 1950s Pea Ridgers, even today, the building is the Richardson's Grocery building, no matter what current business may be operating in it. If you start a new business there, just tell the older people you are in the old Richardson's Grocery, and they'll know exactly where you are!
Actually the smaller building, which once served as the Armstrong Cafe, didn't start out on the site which it now occupies. It was first built across the street and at the east end of the block from its current location. In that location, it housed the earlier Foster's Grocery. In or before 1928, when the first red brick buildings were being built at the main intersection, the old Foster's Grocery building was moved out into the street, then rolled westward down the street, and again shifted northward into its present site. I would love to have been around when that moving operation was done. The story I have heard is that the building was raised off its foundation, and lowered onto rolling logs. Then several horses were hitched up to move the structure, rolling it on the logs. When it reached the middle of the street, the logs were moved so that they would roll down the street, again being pulled by the multi-horse team. Then a similar switch was done to move the building into its current position. So, what was the front of the store in the old location became the back of the building in its new location.
The quadrant of our town where these two buildings are located has always been a significant part of original Pea Ridge, and I'm thinking it is probably where the little village initially began in the 1840s. Today, our two store buildings have as neighbors the Pea Ridge Upholstery Shop and a materials storage building. Earlier, the Pea Ridge Day filling station, built in 1930, occupied the east end of the block, and the C.H. Mount Grocery and Feed Store, built about 1948, occupied the site of today's upholstery shop. Still earlier, the Harve Ricketts Blacksmith Shop was situated on the site of today's upholstery shop, and a cooperage, or barrell-making business, was located where Dona's Cafe later came to be.
I'm quite happy to see these historic Pea Ridge buildings now being refashioned to serve innovative new purposes. We always feel a loss when a business closes and leaves the historic downtown area. So it is great to see new enterprises coming in, bringing renewal to downtown Pea Ridge.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 01/13/2016