Pratt Place Inn Aims For Memorable Stays

Dr. Julian Archer and his wife Jane have traveled the world and stayed in its finest accommodations from Santa Fe to France. They organized top-flight tours of Europe through their own travel company and their clients came to expect the very best wherever they went.

“That’s what we wanted to create in Northwest Arkansas,” Archer said. “And we have achieved it. That may sound like bragging, but we marvel that we had a vision, and that vision came out better than we could ever expect it to be.”

That vision was realized after more than three years of planning, permitting and construction on the Archers’ 140-acre property on Markham Hill in Fayetteville now home to the Pratt Place Inn.

Their $4 million project nestled between the University of Arkansas and I-540 is shooting for the state’s only 4-star rating from companies such as Zagat’s and AAA.

“We expect to have a very high ranking in both those guides,” Archer said.

The land, which has been in the Archers’ family since 1900, has been passed down through generations that include Julian Waterman, the founder of the University of Arkansas law school, and an aunt, Joy Pratt, who married Hogan Markham, the namesake of Markham Hill.

Archer’s mother, Evangeline, married Waterman, who passed away in 1943. She eventually remarried, and her husband Laird Archer adopted her son. Both Evangeline and Joy were graduates of the UA.

“We couldn’t acquire an acre of the land today,” Archer said. “We have it thanks to what other generations have done. We had a vision to preserve it for our children. Land doesn’t generate income, but from the point of view of the taxing authorities, it is valuable.”

Archer, 70, a professor of history at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, could have sold the land for a fortune during the Northwest Arkansas building boom, but was determined to keep the legacy of the family’s land intact.

“Anyone who has 140 acres there, anyone in his right mind would sell it and retire to Florida to play golf,” Archer said. “Our decision has been to preserve it, not only the land, but my grandparents’ and parents’ houses as well.”

The project was a massive renovation. The 5,000-SF main house was still heated with wood three years ago and becoming an inn instead of a bed and breakfast meant a litany of compliance with commercial regulations and a tough navigation of the Fayetteville planning bureaucracy.

The main structure was lifted and moved to allow a 6,500-SF basement to be dug.

The basement includes conference space for 49, a workout room and a wine cellar for a future 60-seat restaurant. Archer said the restaurant will open once Pratt Place develops its reputation.

In total, there is 19,000 SF at Pratt Place including his parents’ restored English cottage. The seven rooms will run from $275 to $595 per night and the cottage is also available.

Furnishings such as 14th century French armoires came from all over the world, and Jane Archer served as the on-site project manager and interior designer after Julian returned to Drake following a one-year leave. The Archers were their own general contractor and sketched out designs with the help of their children that were later finalized by Albert Skiles and Wes Burgess of Crafton Tull & Associates.

“It’s our creation from beginning to end,” Archer said. “Our goal was to make this is a memory you’ll have with you forever, to create something unique and distinctive. We want people to leave and say, ‘I remember this wonderful place in Fayetteville, Arkansas.’”