A 2017 fire that heavily damaged a house in the middle of the Pleasant Street National Historic District resulted in the discovery of a treasure trove of historic items that a local preservation group is working to restore.
"Who would have thought that a fire would uncover another missing link to the history and culture of African Americans in Hot Springs?" said Cheryl Batts, CEO and founder of People Helping Others Excel by Example, or P.H.O.E.B.E.
On May 6, 2017, the house at 134 Gulpha St. was engulfed in fire and initially thought to be a loss, Batts said, but the owner, who preferred not to be identified, immediately began efforts to rebuild and save the house, which was built in 1930.
In addition to the damage from the flames, the house was drenched with water from the efforts of the Hot Springs Fire Department to bring the fire under control. A worker walking through the house on the first floor "where the water had soaked through" stepped on a weak spot and "went down through the floor," Batts said.
Under the floor there was a storage area and the worker found a vintage trunk there and pulled it out. Initially the worker thought there wasn't much of interest in the trunk, but as he began pulling items out the owner realized "there was some important stuff in there," Batts said. "She knew she had a treasure but didn't know what kind of treasure."
The trunk contained books, photo albums, loose photos, documents, scrapbooks, postcards and letters, including a collection of letters sent by Sgt. Irvin Smith to his father, Sterling M. Smith Sr., a former resident of the house, while the son was serving in World War II. The letters detail some of the activities of Company D, 364th Engineers, during the war.
Other items included a scrapbook of clippings pasted in a 1937 Life magazine tracing the German invasions, she said. There were also menus from the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa where the elder Smith had worked in the 1930s, a sales receipt from Lauray's for "a watch someone bought," and even an empty gun holster. Among the numerous photos were some of John Lee Webb, first president of the National Baptist Laymen.
The Webb Community Center, 127 Pleasant St., which is located less than a block from the Gulpha Street house, was donated to the African American community by Webb in 1945. Webb's former home at 403 Pleasant St., just a few blocks away, is being restored into a community resource center and museum of local African American history, a project spearheaded by Batts and P.H.O.E.B.E.
The owner of the Gulpha house "didn't recognize any of the people in the pictures but she knew they went way, way back," Batts said. "She put the word out in the community because she wanted somebody to have them."
Word soon reached P.H.O.E.B.E. and Batts and Dan Troxel, an advisory board member in the group and antique dealer, met with the owner who showed them the items recovered. Batts said she "got near the end of one album and saw Mr. Webb and then it all made sense. I told her she had a treasure and no price could be put on it."
Batts said she was "so excited" when she recognized Webb and while she didn't know any of the other people in the photos, she saw several taken at Morehouse College, a historically black men's college in Atlanta. She said Webb was a philanthropist and "gave a lot of money" to Morehouse.
Webb was a builder and contractor and the Supreme Custodian of the Supreme Lodge of the Woodmen of the Union, an African American fraternal organization established in Mississippi around 1903 and later headquartered in Hot Springs. Batts said the Woodmen often met at Morehouse and also donated money to the school.
Since the Webb Center and Webb House were both in her neighborhood, Batts said the owner "wanted to give back."
She donated all the items to P.H.O.E.B.E., asking only if she could have some copies of some of the photos to put in her home and "I was fine with that," Batts said. "No problem."
Around the same time the group was processing the treasures from the Gulpha house, in January, another lucky discovery was made. Several trophies belonging to Webb were found at the Webb Center in a closet area under a stairway.
Batts said there was "no telling" how many years the trophies had been hidden there undiscovered. Several of the trophies were awarded to Webb from the Woodmen lodges, including one indicating Webb made the largest donation to have a memorial built for "colored soldiers returning from World War II" at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds.
"They are invaluable to the history and culture already established around Mr. Webb, his significance throughout the country and especially in the state of Arkansas," Batts said.
In August, P.H.O.E.B.E. applied for and received a $3,005 grant from the Black History Commission for their "Trunk & Trophies" project, to help preserve and conserve many of the items, especially the photos and trophies.
The items were taken to Bryan & Devan Conservation LLC in Little Rock, which is working to "document, repair and preserve the items for future generations," the company said in a news release.
Once the work has been completed on the trophies, they will be returned to the Webb Center and work will begin to find an appropriate display case for them, Batts said, noting she plans to help the center write a grant to fund it.
The photographs will be professionally reshot to get the best clarity, other documents will be researched with the information that is found on the document or in the trunk. That will be another grant, she said.
"It's a work in progress," she said, noting when she wrote the first grant request she told them it was only phase one of a three-part process and more money "would be needed down the road."
Batts said she was "very proud" of how all the different groups and individuals involved "have worked together" to make the "Trunk & Trophies" project happen. "This is so important to our history," she said.
Local on 12/09/2019