Sam Houston, Wyatt Earp draw Fred Williams to historic building renovation

feature story and photos by Marla Cantrell
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Ad man Fred Williams drives across three cattle guards, one low-water bridge and a herd of cows just to get to his home south of Van Buren. But a big part of his heart, along with a lot of his money, stays on Main Street, where he’s spent decades buying and restoring historic buildings.

Ask him why he does it and you’ll get a simple answer.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Williams said.

It’s also lucrative. Without releasing specific numbers, Williams said he recently turned a 19% return on a property he held for less than a year. He’d put his profit margin up against your retirement fund any day of the week.

“Ask somebody what happened to his 401K,” Williams said. “I don’t know anyone who can tell you. The money had to go somewhere. But where? What hole is it in? I don’t have any idea. But I can drive down Main Street and go, ‘There’s 610 Main Street. I own that building. This is what it’s worth today.  This is what I had to pay to get it to this point.’”

Williams, who can trace his family to Van Buren as far back as 1870, said an old friend set him on the right path years ago when he told him to invest in something he understood.

“I understand real estate. I understand old buildings,” Williams said.

He bought his first storefront on Main Street in 1989, restored it and put it up for sale. The cycle continued and Williams now owns two properties on Main Street. He’s in the market for more.

The draw of downtown is three-fold. Nostalgia plays a part. Every childhood parade he ever rode in or watched march by happened on Main Street. It was also the place to be seen when he was a student. Williams graduated from Van Buren High School in 1970.

Williams/Crawford and Associates, the agency he owns with his partner, Kevin Crawford, also provides advertising for the Van Buren Advertising and Promotions Commission. Williams said the advertising agency — based in historic downtown Fort Smith — generates $25 million in revenue every year, serving clients in 20 states.

And finally, Williams, who has a degree in history and an avid interest in architecture, is mesmerized by the famous and infamous characters who made their mark in the once rough-and-tumble river town.

“Albert Pike, a general in the Civil War taught school just outside Van Buren. His schoolhouse is on the courthouse lawn,” Williams said. “He drank mint juleps with John Drennen at the end of that street. Sam Houston, the father of Texas, had a wood yard at the end of that street. Wyatt Earp was arrested for stealing horses twice on that street.”

Over the years Williams’ has gotten the hang of the restoration process and has composed a crew of local craftsmen to see his vision through. Because the downtown area is on the National Registry of Historic Places, there are tough guidelines to follow. Williams does research — looking at old photos from a time when Main Street was in its glory, finding the design of an entryway in the grainy photograph, the ornate trim work on a window, the ornate iron work on a balcony.

He said the city won’t allow any wiggle room for remodelers looking to cut corners. That’s one reason he considers downtown such a great place to do business. Location doesn’t hurt either. Van Buren is just off Interstate 40 and a within driving distance for those in Benton and Washington Counties who come to explore the antique shops or ride the excursion train which operates out of the old depot for much of the year.

“It’s 30 minutes from the Bobby Hopper Tunnel to downtown Van Buren,” Williams said. “And that’s driving the speed limit.”

He believes the reopening of the Wildcat Marina at the end of Main Street will bring even more traffic this summer. And he thinks the economy, which has long been a point of concern for those in the tourism trade, will loosen up, and when it does, downtown Van Buren will be a gold mine for investors.

He and business partner Crawford recently sold the old Anheuser-Busch building in the 600 block of Main Street to the sons of Williams’ former classmates. He still calls them “the boys,” though they’re well into adulthood. The two opened Toby’s Restaurant, which is next door to the antique mall Williams also restored.

Maryl Koeth, director of the Van Buren Advertising and Promotions Commission, said every new business in every restored building ups the ante for downtown.

“The health and prosperity of a community’s downtown area speaks volumes about the overall economic condition of a town and the attitudes of the town’s residents,” Koeth said. “Our historic downtown is not only important for tourism and tourism development, but business recruitment for the entire city. Corporations looking to locate in a community consider the condition of the downtown areas in the site selection process.”

Williams has a more poetic way to describe his relationship with the historic storefronts.

“You know that Beatles’ number? ‘Take a sad song and make it better.’ That’s what I do with those buildings,” Williams said. “I make them better. … It’s just the right thing to do.”