Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks

Although Arkansas’ architecture pretty much mirrored that of middle America, things have always been a little different in the Ozark hills.

In his novel “The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks,” Donald Harington of Fayetteville explained some of those differences. We took Harington’s book, along with input from Cyrus Sutherland, Albert Skiles and Ralph S. Wilcox, to come up with a brief survey of Arkansas Ozarks architecture. We stuck to residences for this story.

Sutherland is a former professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas. He is currently writing a book on Arkansas architecture for The Society of Architectural Historians based in Chicago. The organization is doing 58 volumes that cover all 50 states (some states get two volumes, but Arkansas gets one).

Skiles is a Fayetteville architect who has been instrumental in the renovation of several historic buildings in the area, including the Bunch grocery store in Kingston (Madison County).

Wilcox is a National Register and Survey coordinator who wrote an article titled “A Reference Guide to the Architectural Styles of Arkansas” for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. We borrowed parts of his guide for this report.

While we tried to categorize the buildings according to the architecture they most closely resembled, many area buildings are a hodgepodge of styles that can only be described as vernacular. Old Main on the UA campus is a prime example, Skiles said. Old Main was a copy of a building at the University of Illinois. It is primarily Italianate but also incorporates many other styles.

“They’re eclectic,” Skiles said. “You can’t call them any one style. They’re fanciful.”

1. Log house (from the earliest settlements to 1890) — The very symbol of pioneer moxie, log houses in Arkansas usually consisted of one or 1.5 floors (with a sleeping loft), although there were two-story log homes. The floor plan was rectangular with rooms or units called “pens.”

Types of log houses included single pen, dogtrot (two rooms separated by an open breezeway) and double pen (two rooms without a breezeway). They were often expanded with frame additions as milled lumber became available and were sometimes covered with clapboard to update their look.

The Latta house at Prairie Grove Battlefield Park was built around 1834 near Evansville (12 miles southwest of Prairie Grove) in southwest Washington County. It was dismantled and moved to the park in 1958. The four-room, 1.5-story house had a two-room sleeping loft.

As Washington County’s first postmaster, John Latta ran the county’s first post office from his office in this house from 1835 to 1838. It was also a stop on the stagecoach route from Fayetteville and Cane Hill south to Van Buren.

In “TAO TAO” (the way Harington abbreviates “The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks”), the author explains that early log cabins in the Ozarks were made of rounded logs. Later models, like the Latta house, were built with logs that were hewn flat on the sides. According to Harington’s book, the round-log version denotes a cabin, while the hewn-log structures were houses.

But, as Harington wrote, at that time in the Ozarks, “there were no two dwellings exactly alike.” Some had dirt floors. Others had puncheons (split logs laid with the flat side up). And others, like the Latta house, had regular wooden floors. Early log houses didn’t have windows because it was difficult to cut them in the logs, glass wasn’t readily available and the house wouldn’t insulate as well.

2. Dogtrot (late 1800s to early 1900s) — Although the dogtrot design was used in log houses, it was also incorporated in other wood-frame structures into the early 1900s. The log example in this photo was also dismantled and moved to Prairie Grove Battlefield Park.

“The central hall generally was not closed,” Sutherland said. “It was open at both ends. The dog could take shelter there. Eventually, the central hall could be enclosed with two lights [windows]. I think they were just very common, two rooms and a story and a half [including a sleeping loft].”

One room could be used as the kitchen, where cooking was done in the fireplace until cast iron stoves became popular in the 1850s. Food could be consumed in the room across from the hallway, away from the heat of the kitchen.

In “TAO TAO,” Harington wrote that scholars had traced the dogtrot design back to medieval Sweden, where it was called a “pair cottage.”

3. Federal style — Some of the oldest homes in Northwest Arkansas have a similar appearance that doesn’t allow for easy classification. Like Old Main, they, too, were a mixture of different styles of architecture.

We are going to put them in this category because, while having other characteristics, they appear Federal more than anything else. The Federal style was an imitation of British houses built in the 17th and 18th centuries, Skiles said.

The Walker Stone house (1836) at 207 Center St. and Lafayette Gregg house (1871) on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Gregg streets, both in Fayetteville, are examples of this type of vernacular architecture.

The Walker Stone house is symmetrical with eight rooms — two upstairs and two downstairs on each side of the house. It is now home to the National Center for Appropriate Technology and two law offices.

The Gregg house was built on a double lot that’s divided by a stream.

“It’s beautifully done,” Sutherland said of the Gregg house. “The basement is a series of arches in both directions that does a splendid job of supporting the structure.”

For decades, the kitchen was in a separate building from the main house. Houses were built that way in the 19th century to keep the main house cool and to minimize damage in the event of a fire. The Gregg family recently had the kitchen connected to the main building.

The main building of the Gregg house has two floors of residential quality. The central hall was converted into a living room, Sutherland said.

4. Greek Revival (1820 to 1875) — Greek Revival architecture (also known as Classical) reflected the nation’s move away from all things British after the War of 1812. Greek Revival architecture features gabled or hipped roofs, usually low in pitch. The cornice line of the roof is emphasized with a wide band of trim. Most examples have some kind of columns, the front door is usually surrounded by a narrow band of small windows (referred to as “lights” in the architecture world) and a rectangular line of transom lights above. Greek Revival buildings can be built out of a wide variety of materials, including wood, brick or stone.

The Tebbetts house (1853) in Fayetteville (also known as Headquarters House) is a good example of Greek Revival architecture, although it also has some Federal characteristics. The building served as headquarters for the Confederate army, and later the Union army, during the Civil War.

5. Queen Anne (1870 to 1910) — The John Edmiston house in Canehill (late 1890s) in the photo below is a wonderful example of Queen Anne architecture, as are many homes in Eureka Springs.

Built during the Victorian era, characteristics of Queen Anne architecture include irregularly shaped buildings, walls have multiple projections (which can include bay windows, towers, turrets and balconies), decorative trim such as brackets and patterned shingles and an asymmetrical fa?ade.

Queen Anne structures usually have one-story porches that are partial or full-width along the front fa?ade and also extend along one or both side walls.

6. I-House (mid 19th century), also known in the South as a plantation house — These houses are usually two rooms wide and one room deep. They are usually two-story houses. The Nathan Combs house (1868) at 3254 E. Black Oak Road south of Fayetteville is a good example of an I-House. Supposedly, these houses got their name because so many were built in Indiana. Skiles has drafted plans for the renovation of the Combs house, but the work has yet to begin.

7. Craftsman (1900 to 1945) — This category describes many of the small houses built in Northwest Arkansas in the first half of the 20th century.

Craftsman houses were small cottages on small lots within walking distance of downtown.

“It’s the first circle of houses built around a town before the 1950s,” Skiles said.

With the 1950s, lot sizes increased and ranch-style houses became popular as people moved farther into the suburbs.

One of the most popular types of Craftsman houses in Northwest Arkansas was the bungalow. Named for a type of house in India, the bungalow is actually an all-American design.

Bungalows often feature porch supports with a base of brick or stone, but then with a square wooden column tapering to the roof, Sutherland said.

8. Ranch-style house (1932 to present) — One story, wood frame or brick usually with three bedrooms, ranch-style houses were utilitarian in design. Theoretically, they reflected the no-nonsense attitude of the American West.

Ranch-style houses had roots in other 20th century architectural styles: prairie school, bungalow, cottage and Spanish.

They have a low-pitched gable roof, deep-set eaves and a long, low, rambling layout with attached garage.

“Ranch means when the garage took over as a huge proportion of the house,” Skiles said.

The first ranch-style house was built in San Diego. In the 1950s and ’60s, it was the most prominent design of homes built in the U.S.

9. Fay Jones style (1960 to 2004) — Northwest Arkansas is fortunate to have several houses designed by Fayetteville’s E. Fay Jones, who won the American Institute of Architects Gold Award in 1990.

The Butterfly House in Fayetteville is a good example of Jones’ work. Built in 1961, the 4,115-SF one-story house at 1100 Rockwood Trail was really “two houses under one roof,” Sutherland said.

“The roof came down at one point to the ground,” Sutherland said. “It was divided. Inside, there was a house at this end and a house at that end. But it was one continuous space.”

The Butterfly House has three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and a two-car garage.

Lindsey & Associates Inc. of Fayetteville currently has it on the market for $799,000.

10. McMansions and Garage Mahals (1980s to present) — As Americans became more affluent, they wanted larger, more attractive houses than the basic ranch-style design. These houses, which have been dubbed “McMansions” because of their size and similarities across the country, often incorporate a variety of different styles but may be built according to a theme: Mediterranean, French country, faux Tudor or neo-Colonial.

Many of the new designs make the garage even more conspicuous than it was on ranch-style houses, causing them to be dubbed “Garage Mahals” by some architects.