Here let us look at that portion of the downtown business area. Block 3 starts roughly at the alley east of City Hall and goes westward to Curtis Ave. There it turns south and goes to the corner of the Sisco Funeral Home lot, then back east to where it would join the alley if the alley had been cut through to McIntosh St., and, finally, back north to Pickens St.

The lots facing what we know as Pickens Rd. started at the east end, going west, Lot 1, 2, 3 and 4: Lot 4 is at the intersection of Pickens and Curtis, while City Hall occupies parts of Lots 1 and 2.

As the block heads back east off of Curtis Ave., Sisco Funeral home starts on Lot 5, followed by the other lots, 6, 7 and 8.

These lots were not all kept as full lots; hence today it would seem as if there were more than four lots facing Pickens Rd., but as deed records indicate, sometimes only part of a lot was sold to someone.

However, on Mar. 31, 1891, Stephen D. Wood and Martha, his wife, gave a Warranty Deed for an acre that evidently included all four lots there across from school property. The acre went to M. D. L. Gore and James E. Lilley. Gore and Lilley paid $700 for the property.

Then, a year passed, and on Apr. 13, 1892 for $452, James E. Lilley, bought out that tract from Gore, his co-partner in ownership

The next month, on May 30, 1892, J. E. Lilley, 'a widower,' sold Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Block 3 of the property to "J. M. Putman and company." In other words, Putman bought all of the lots facing Pickens Rd. from the alley back to Curtis Ave.

On Nov. 22 that year, J. R. Wheat purchased Lot 4. This still left Lots 1, 2 and 3 back toward the alley. No doubt, other transactions took place involving these tracts, and by the time the city purchased what now is City Hall, they got parts of Lots I and 2.

Long before that the double building had been erected. A daughter of C. T. Tetrick is Dorothy Burgin of Siloam Springs, with whom this writer spoke while pursuing this story. She pointed out that she was young in the years her father ran his businesses there. However, she had understood that her father and Dr. L. 0. Greene owned the building together. This apparently is borne out in the Quit Claim in which Dr. Greene financed the construction of the second floor.

For some years, the town enjoyed the availability of a series of cafes operating in the building. Although the names of several of these proprietors were learned, it was not possible to learn what order they operated there.

Winnie Shadley Patterson of Rogers said that her parents, Charles and Irene Shadley leased it from Charlie Tetrick, she thought. They remodeled it and opened a cafe May 4, 1944. Her father had been a chef in the Navy, she said, and had always dreamed of having a cafe of his own. However, he only lived a few weeks, dying in July, 1944. Winnie thought part of the work load that helped bring about his heart attack was in having to carry water for the cafe from across the street at the school's pump.

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Editor's note: This article is third 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.