Doctor's office was downtown

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Most folks recalled the office of Dr. L. O. Greene upstairs, and a four-room apartment up there, too. According to deed records, Dr. Greene built the upstairs portion of the structure, or at least of one of the parts of the double building. On Nov. 29, 1915, he got a Quit Claim Deed from F.J. Stewart and Maida M., his wife; F. A. Price and Mina, his wife; and C. T. Tetrick and Nolie, his wife. It said that this was for "all of the walls and structures of whatsoever character now being and existing above the joists on which is laid the floor of the 2nd story of the building ..." It mentioned the exterior wall of concrete and said, "... in reliance of which L. O. Greene has expended considerable sum of money in constructing the second story of said building."

It seems likely that the building work was done by W. J. Rogers, Sr. His son, W. J., Jr. of Rogers, discussed it with this writer. W. J., Jr. was only a year old when the family moved from Pea Ridge to Rogers in 1918. His older brothers, however, had helped their father in the making of concrete blocks and the erection of some of the buildings in that block. All of his brothers now are deceased, but W. J., Jr. did hear one of them, Carl W. Rogers, not long before his death, tell a friend that he knew for certain that their father built "the drug store and the hardware." Both of these still exist but in use as other businesses. W. J., Jr. thinks that Carl would have been too young at that time to have done much of the work and that it probably was two older brothers, Everett and Prather, who helped their father in the construction work.

It is well documented in the 1911 board minutes of the Bank of Pea Ridge that W. J. Rogers, Sr. erected the first home of the bank in that same business block. The board accepted his bid of $650 to "build a cement building 20 by 40 feet with 12-foot ceiling, all complete except the front." That same building now houses the Pea Ridge Community Library. Incidentally, Rogers' bid also included him providing a warranty deed to the lot.

The 80 acres out of which came the lots on which City Hall stands date back to the Patent Deed signed by U. S. President Franklin Pierce March 1, 1854, to George H. Foster.

Between that time and March 18, 1890, plats for the original Town of Pea Ridge had been drawn. So it was that on that date, George R. Foster and Elizabeth, his wife, gave a Warranty Deed to Stephen D. Wood for Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Block 3 that lay within the original 80 acres.

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Editor's note: This article is second in a series on the history of the building which served as City Hall from 1970 to 2016. It was written by Billie Jines, former editor of The TIMES of Northeast Benton County.

Editorial on 10/04/2017