At a city council meeting in February, the City of Fayetteville endorsed a petition to join the proposed Spout Spring Historic District once it is officially established. The 200-acre preservation area would span from Spring Street in the north, Olive and Wood Avenues to the east, 15th Street to the south and College Avenue on the west. The nonprofit NWA Black Heritage has been working with the city's planning commission to create the district in an effort to preserve one of the oldest predominately Black neighborhoods in the city. Britin Bostick is a long range planner for the City of Fayetteville and spoke with Ozark at Large's Daniel Caruth last week about the next steps for Spout Spring.
The following is an edited version of that conversation:
Daniel Caruth: And so what is I guess just from the perspective of people in the city, people who live in that that district? What has been the input? What are you guys seeing as far as involvement or, I guess, backing for this to become a historic black district?
Britin Bostick: Well, I understand that there have been 144 signatures on the petition so far. That's not all of the signatures that would be needed, I believe. So there's still some signature gathering to do. I have heard some concerns from people who worry about not being allowed to demolish structures that they currently own that are not in good shape.
I've heard questions about what do you do when buildings are not historic, but they're included in a historic district? It's a great question. And I've heard questions from people concern that they may not be allowed to make additions to the structures that they have. And these are mostly houses that the people are telling me ever, maybe people own rental property, and they want to be able to lease out that property successfully. But they may be planning improvements or changes to those properties. And they're concerned about the impact that this might have.
DC: I know this is kind of an a long standing, you know, push to get this turned into a district. It's been we've had gone through a lot of different iterations of this project. So how did we get to this point? What makes this one different? How did we get to here?
BB: I think that urgency is always a really important component when you're considering Do you want more rules, because what's the consequence of not taking that step? Now, I like to kind of look back on waves of historic district creation. And there was a really big push in the 1980s. Nationally, preservation got really big in the 80s. And a lot of districts got created. During that time period, I think I've seen one of the earliest historic districts in the state of Arkansas was actually in the late 1970s. So these have been around in Arkansas for almost 50 years.
We just haven't had it here in Fayetteville, the early 2000s was also a big time to create historic districts. Oftentimes, they're in response to the loss of historic structures, and people saying we can't afford to lose more. And that's the point that we're at here. Fayetteville is growing really rapidly. Property in in the proposed bout spring area is very close to the downtown, it's close to a lot of amenities. It's very attractive. And I think that urgency is there are people seeing that there's not a lot of time left for us to save and preserve the historic character and save the remaining historic structures that are there. Yeah. And I think especially this area is something, especially if you're new to Fayetteville, you probably don't know that this exists in the history that exists here.
DC: So could you share some of maybe even what you've learned about like being involved in this process about why this, this specific district is important, and worth preserving, worth saving?
BB: If you think about what people need to build a town, they need water. And we're not situated on a river. We're situated on springs and creeks and streams. And so the way that people got water was through spring fed water resources and spout spring is a spring with that important water resource. And so it's important, not only for that reason, but this was the core of the African American community or the black community in Fayetteville post enslavement in particular. This is where people were able to build homes. This is where people were able to gather, prominent historic sites include the St. James Missionary Baptist Church, its original location, the St. James United Methodist Church and its location, which is it the church is still there, the Lincoln School, which is not there anymore, it was demolished for the willow heights, public housing development was again, part of that central core of the black community. And it's not to say that that's the only place that people lived, but it was certainly a center of if community and we're, it's where people were allowed to be. You have to remember that we are talking about a time when people didn't have access to financing. They didn't have access to the same building materials, the same career opportunities. What was created there through resilience was really special and continues to be really special.
What is kind of interesting too, is that a lot of people know this, but there's some detail that people may not know. Fayetteville was Arkansas first public school district following the Civil War. And a lot of people may have heard of the Henderson school, named for E. Henderson, a man who I think was the first teacher at the school. But the way that that school came about is kind of interesting. So Lafayette Gregg, sold land to the American Missionary Association, around 1870, where there is currently a private home on Olive Street, but at one point in time, it was the African American school. And so if you look at the deed records, it talks about establishing a school for people of all races. And that's so interesting, because we know it as the Black school exclusively. And so something happened there that isn't captured in the deed of the American Missionary Association kind of transitioning the purpose to exclusively a Black school. And so when that site moved in the 1930s, a woman by the name of Mamie Walker, traded the Fayetteville school district who had acquired it from the Missionary Association, she traded the school district for the Olive Street property for a property that she owned that was much closer to both of the Black churches. And that land trade in the 1930s resulted in the Lincoln school being built. And I have some maps that call it the Henderson school. And so I've gone through this with our Commissions and said, you know, here's the sequence of events, here's what the documents show, and maybe that matches people's memories or experiences. And maybe it doesn't.
So we're going through the process of understanding who were the people associated with these important sites that we know and recognize today? And then what is the history of those sites? And we're understanding what some of those complexities are today. But it was it was kind of funny, it feels like you're being a little bit of a detective, sometimes when you're kind of researching back. And I'm sure there's someone who can just answer the question for us, right. But we don't have that person in the commission at the moment. And so if anybody does have information, we would be so happy to hear it. Because otherwise we're we're playing detective and may not have all the information immediately. And we'll have to keep looking.
DC: Yeah, well, speaking of that research, you guys recently got a grant to help preserve some of that documentation. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
BB: I am so excited. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program has been extraordinarily generous. As of this year, we've received over $100,000 in funding through their certified local government program. So it's important that we do have a historic district in Fayetteville because it makes us eligible to work with the state in partnership through their certified local government program. And basically, in exchange for doing historic preservation work and having a historic district, which like I said, is right now, the white hangar at Drake field, we have access to funding that comes down through the National Park Service. And it's distributed to the states and then the state preservation offices, distribute it to communities and we apply for grants every year. This year, we are awarded $40,000. In total, we're going to continue our work in the University Heights and Haskell heights neighborhoods. We started with the historic context statement with them last year, and we're doing some additional work with them. That will be supported through this grant. But we're also awarded $20,000 to support a historic context statement for the spouse spring neighborhood. And that gives us the opportunity to move forward on the important background research that our historic district Commission needs to do so that they can write a report on the proposed district. It's a very formal document has to be submitted to the state preservation office, and it has to be submitted to the Fayetteville Planning Commission for comment. In order to generate that report, we need research and this will help us to engage a consultant, somebody who's experienced and practiced in this type of research work.
DC: So, going forward, I know the petition is out now. They're getting signatures on that. What are the next steps in order to making this a reality? What are some things maybe people need to know if they want to have a say or an input into this?
BB: We only have about 16 months to do the historic context statement. According to the grant timeline, they start on March 15 of the year that you're awarded, and you have to be complete by the end of August the following year. By the time we get through some of the upfront paperwork with the state and get a few things lined out, we realistically have between 14 and 16 months to get the project complete. So by next summer, you can I expect that we would have that complete. If we can get it done a little earlier. I'm sure we'll try but next summer, and once the petition signatures are finished, the next step in the process, once that's filed with the city, is for the Historic District Commission, which we'll hear referred to as HDC. They are responsible for creating a report on the proposed district, there is not a time limit or a subscribe timeline for how long that takes. But what is important to know is once they have completed that report, the timeline gets a lot shorter, they have to submit that report to the state preservation office and to the planning commission. Both of those organizations have 60 days to respond with comments. And then after that the historic district commission will hold a public hearing and public hearing means public notice happens. This is not going to be a secret, we're going to try to make sure as many people as possible, know that there's a meeting, and then the council ultimately has to make the decision on the historic district.
Dc: You know, it seems like a lot of work to put to put something like this together. There's a lot of hoops, a lot of regulations that you're having to jump through. Why is it important to have a district like this?
BB: When I think about our sense of identity as a community, it tends to be rooted in the old places, it tends to be rooted in the things that people get to experience for a long time. And we have families and Fayetteville who have been here since they'll was established. We have families who have been here since emancipation. And when we protect the places that signify that experience, good and bad, we have a way of accessing and kind of have a tangible connection to who we are as a community. Knowing where you come from is a very grounding experience. Knowing your story and knowing your community story are very valuable things because if we know where we come from, it helps to make us more confident in where we're headed. And as much as historic preservation is often seen as just a bunch of regulations, there's so much more to it than that, which is why I do this work. Because I understand the opportunity it provides us to connect to the story of us in a very tangible way. And when we lose, literally lose sight of where we come from, you don't have that experience that I find so valuable and important for community. So as much as there are there do tend to be roles that come with it. And I don't want to downplay that at all. I think the intention that's being expressed here and the intention I generally hear expressed when people are looking to do something like this, is that they don't want to lose those important physical ties to the past and that important cultural identity that those places represent.
The nonprofit NWA Black Heritage, which is spearheading the preservation efforts, is collecting signatures from community members now. The groups says they hope to hand in the petition by May of 2024.
