The place "where the best milk grows" will soon be reopening; however, it won't be serving up ice cold milk this time around.
The family-owned Humphreys' Dairy closed in 2005 after 94 years serving Hot Springs and surrounding areas, just two years before Luther Lewis, CEO of Five Rivers Medical Center in Pocahontas, and his wife celebrated their daughter's wedding at Garvan Woodland Gardens.
"We're originally from El Dorado and have been visiting Hot Springs since the mid-1990s," Lewis told The Sentinel-Record. "When our daughter got married at Garvan Gardens in 2007, it was beautiful, but afterward she was talking about how she just wished there was a venue somewhere for these types of events where people could reserve the place and have the reception well into the evening."
With this idea in mind, the family started looking in and around Hot Springs for a place they could renovate and offer families to reserve for their events and gatherings that would give them the chance to enjoy their time together "until midnight if they wanted to."
"We own a few lake houses in the area that people can rent out for the weekend, but nothing big enough for an event, just for a family gathering or weekend trip," he said. "So we started looking close to Garvan Gardens and never really did find anything until about two years later when driving past Humphreys' Dairy."
Lewis and his family purchased the farmhouse, barn and dairy building along with 14 acres and began the process of getting the landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
"It was important to us to preserve this place that people around Hot Springs love so much," he said. "So we started the process of getting it on the register and that took almost two years to complete."
Humphreys' Dairy was placed on the national register in 2012, but with this distinction comes many requirements for handling renovations.
"When you're renovating a place on the register, there are some pretty strict guidelines on what you can do with it," he said. "The exterior has to stay as close to original as possible. All of the windows had to stay in place and the roof had to look as much like the original as we could get it. But on the interior, you've got a little bit more flexibility."
The house, which Lewis has contracted Cotnam Construction to restore, was a 1920s-style farmhouse divided by a large hallway and dining room, and later had four apartments upstairs. In the restoration, Lewis said they have updated the air conditioning and heating units and are converting the upstairs rooms.
"Each of those apartments had a kitchenette, but we've taken all of those out and added four bathrooms upstairs," he said. "Things like that, we're allowed to change even on the national register just as long as the basic traffic flow of the home stays the same."
Lewis said when the home reopens, it will have six bathrooms and at least five bedrooms.
"And the kitchen downstairs is getting an upgrade, but we're keeping the old, stone fireplaces on each side of the home," he said.
The entire process he said has been a fun experience for his family and having the blessing of the Humphreys family has made it worth it.
"My wife and I try to make it down to Hot Springs fairly often on the weekends to see the progress and we've got a lot of really good feedback from the Humphreys," he said. "They have so many artifacts and old pieces from the dairy that are really amazing to see and they've offered to loan a few pieces to us to use in the home. It's been a great process and we're hoping in another 60 to 90 days the house will be completely reopened."
The next step after reopening the farmhouse will be to start on reception areas, but Lewis said they are unsure of whether they will start with the barn or dairy building.
"Our dream is for people to rent out the entire facility for their events, their weddings, their family reunions, and enjoy it -- without getting rowdy, of course," he said. "It will be a great place for these types of special occasions and we've already got some of the best neighbors there. We'll return the favor with a beautiful place the community can enjoy."
Local on 07/27/2014