The Rock Island Perry Depot on July 15, 2023 with a pristine roof and foundation, but the siding, windows and doors looked very ragged. A new round of work will improve its appearance. Photo: Michael Hibblen
A new round of construction to restore the Rock Island Railroad depot in Perry, Arkansas is finally getting underway. At the same time, an attorney has been recruited to handle the paperwork needed to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which will oversee subsequent work and eventually operate the city-owned depot when it becomes a community event space and museum telling the history of the area and the railroad.
$20,000 is being allocated for this latest phase of work that began on Monday, March 11 and is focused on the restoration of the original wood siding, and replacement where necessary with similar materials. We will also start fixing the original windows and doors to make the building’s exterior envelope weathertight.
“We’re hoping that a total restoration of the outside will be possible,” said Buford Suffridge, who is leading the project. He had served as president of the Perry County Historical and Genealogical Society until it was recently dissolved due to declining membership. It’s not known how long this phase of construction will last.
A westbound passenger train approaches the Perry depot in 1960. Photo: Rock Island photographer Ed Wojtas
Contractor Larry Cates and Perry Mayor Justin Crain have been purchasing needed supplies, offset by an in-kind donation of $500 worth of materials from Weiss Lumber in Perryville. A spike in the cost of building materials during the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the project timeline. While costs have been coming back down, the trade group Associated Builders and Contractors says materials are still about one-third more than before the pandemic began in 2020.
Last year, the Perry County Quorum Court helped jumpstart our efforts by approving a $20,000 donation from the county. Beyond that, about $7,000 remains from a grant and individual donations received over the years. That $7,000 is being set aside for upcoming legal expenses and fees, though hopefully a large chunk of that will eventually also go toward actual repairs to the depot.
All grants and donations have been going through the nonprofit Perry County Historical Museum, but we were advised that attaining a separate 501(c)(3) designation for the depot would be beneficial, especially as we pursue additional grants and donations.
This week, the contractor began building a ramp to one entrance which will be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act specifications. Steps will be added to other doors. To provide power to the site, an account has been opened with First Electric Cooperative. Last week, a line was run to a new pole at the depot, with the meter loop costing $600. Having a box on-site was necessary as workers had previously been running extension cables from a nearby city water pumping station.
Work was underway on March 12, 2024 to build a ramp leading to the door of one of two waiting rooms inside the Perry Depot. Segregated waiting rooms were mandated by Jim Crow laws. Photo: Buford Suffridge
We’re also discussing when to place the vintage semaphore train order signal back in position next to the projecting telegrapher’s booth. Cates first wants to complete other work before pouring a concrete foundation to set it in.
“I think we’ll have to wait until we see how much fill is going to be placed and where it’s going to be placed,” Suffridge said.
The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 8, 2021, a month after being nominated by the state. This designation will allow us to qualify for some grants.
The depot was built in 1918, replacing a smaller structure, and served a key role for the Rock Island as the midway point between Little Rock and Booneville. Being situated along a main line through the middle of the country, the passenger and freight station played an important role in transportation. After the bankrupt Rock Island was shut down in 1980, the depot continued to be used by the shortline Little Rock & Western Railway.
The campaign to save the depot was launched In 2017 after learning the Little Rock & Western planned to demolish it to make way for an expanded locomotive servicing shop. Since then, thanks to generous support, we were able to cover the cost of a house-moving company relocating the depot to an adjacent city-owned lot; we built a new cinder block foundation to place it on, and we added a new roof to protect the interior from any further deterioration. Much of the work was accomplished thanks to in-kind donations of labor and materials.
The depot has been getting regular treatment from a termite control company. No restoration work has been done to the interior, but an architect who went through the building with Suffridge and Preserve Arkansas Executive Director Rachel Patton in October 2020 found it to be structurally sound, which is attributed to it being constructed with old growth timber.
A crew from Combs Home Builders & House Movers placed steel beams under the depot, then used hydraulic jacks to lift it up. On Sept. 26, 2018, a truck pulled the structure from the spot it had sat on for 100 years. Photo: Michael Hibblen
A ticket window in the white waiting room of the depot on July 15, 2023. Much of the depot still features the faded blue and white paint scheme used by the Rock Island after filing for bankruptcy in the 1970s. Photo: Michael Hibblen
We recently completed a required title search of the property the depot sits on today. The land was sold to the city by the Rock Island for $500 in December 1970, according to a quitclaim deed. A water tank for steam engines once stood on the property. In 2018, the depot building itself was purchased by the city from the Little Rock & Western for a nominal $10.
A five-member board has been created to operate the nonprofit, made up of community leaders and myself — all very invested in this project and eager to one day see the depot again open to the public. The members are:
Michael Allison
Michael Hibblen
Jimmy Middleton
Tony Roark
Buford Suffridge
The pandemic not only caused the cost of needed materials to increase, concerns about the safety of people getting together halted plans for events we had hoped to hold in the summer of 2020. We have also been unsure about the best way to move forward in fundraising. According to several people we’ve spoken with, the creation of the nonprofit should give us a boost.
We are closing a GoFundMe account opened in 2018 that was initially intended only to cover the cost of moving the depot. A total of $10,390 was raised through 117 donations. Thanks to everyone who gave! There will eventually be new fundraising campaigns after the nonprofit is created, but for now, we’re wanting to see new work be completed.
“It’s evidence to the public that we’re serious about getting the depot restored,” Suffridge said.
Anyone who would like to donate now can send a check to the city, which has separate accounting for the depot. Be sure to clearly mark that the donation is for the depot project.
City of Perry P.O. Box 36 Perry, AR 72125
I’ll add subsequent updates as warranted. We look forward to eventually bringing this historic building back to life with a new purpose.
UPDATE — SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2024:
Before work begins on the siding, this past week Cates and his crew have been removing some of the interior of the depot that had been added over the years, so there won’t be challenges removing it later, after work to the exterior has been completed.
The condition of the flooring is similar to what was discovered when the roof was replaced in August 2020. There were multiple layers of shingling that had apparently been added on top of the original tin roof whenever leaks would develop.
“In one place there were five layers of flooring, and when they got down to the original [wooden] tongue and groove, some of it was in good condition. Apparently as termites damaged the floor, the railroad just put another layer over it,” Suffridge said.
In many ways, that seems similar to the overall approach by the Rock Island, which — given its precarious financial situation toward the end — deferred maintenance on equipment and track, doing the bare minimum to keep trains rolling.
Suffridge has been speaking with Cates regularly as decisions are being made about how to proceed. One of the two chimneys had sunk, Suffridge said, “and they were afraid to try to raise it, so they are building the floor to match.”
Buford Suffridge at the freight entrance to the depot on July 15, 2023. Photo: Michael Hibblen
He added, “Nothing is square, and in some places the wall is two inches off from top to bottom. It’s strictly a seat of your pants deal and we’re lucky to have someone who has experience in salvaging ill-built and damaged structures.”
With the latest discoveries, Patton with Preserve Arkansas wrote, “that is pretty typical in historic buildings — especially ones that weren’t necessarily well maintained over the years. There will probably be more surprises!”
The five of us who will be serving on the soon-to-be-created nonprofit’s board are planning an organizational meeting in about two weeks. I’ll continue posting updates and photos as the project progresses.
UPDATE — THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024:
It’s exciting to see work on the depot progressing. Cates and his workers have begun replacing areas of the siding that had rotted and were not salvageable. The new wood looks similar to the design of the previous siding.
As some of the interior is being cleared out, we’re learned more about the building, including what was original and what was added in later years as the needs of the depot changed or repairs were needed.
Workers replace parts of the siding of the depot on March 20, 2024. Photo: Buford Suffridge
The replacement siding has designs similar to the original siding. Photo: Buford Suffridge
It’s apparent a wall was added or replaced a previous wall on the west side of the depot office. There is also a spot where a tiny bathroom had been. Some of these walls don’t have vertical studs and were very cheaply put up, possibly by railroad workers who were instructed to do the work but didn’t know much about construction.
“It’s a work in progress,” Suffridge said. “We never know what we’re going to find when we take something off.”
Hidden inside one of the walls were empty vintage beer bottles covered in grime. Railroads used to be notorious for some employees drinking on the job.
Perry County has provided a dumpster for the discarded materials, which is being filled with wall paneling, layers of flooring and other items that were not original and of value to the project.
The wall at the controls for the semaphore signals had sunk, so the crew raised it back up to be level with the rest of the building. Inside that wall were many old wasp and dirt dauber nests. With the open at the top allowing insects to come and go, the depot, especially in later years when used only for storage by the Little Rock & Western Railway, likely had them constantly buzzing around.
Inside the center room with the projecting telegrapher’s booth. Photo: Buford Suffridge
Looking from the center room toward the freight room. Photo: Buford Suffridge
As you can see in these photos, new support beams are being built where needed. That includes much of the flooring.The depot had a subfloor of what appears to be untreated wood, with the original tongue and groove flooring on top of that. Much of it was heavily damaged by termites, especially the northeast corner of the building where the main waiting room was located.
With new floor beams in position, the contractor asked Suffridge whether to put any kind of floor down in areas where the original floor can’t be salvaged.
“We decided since he has things all leveled and no one will be inside, we’ll concentrate on the outside since it’s something people can see and decide on floor replacement later,” Suffridge said.
He noted that fortunately, the old beadboard flooring used in most areas of the depot is still available. The contractor also told him all of the windows can still be opened and will be reglazed.
What was the white waiting room for the depot. Photo: Buford Suffridge
So far, this latest round of work has already cost about $5,000 — a quarter of what we’re allocating. The materials to hopefully replace the entire outside of the depot have already been purchased. You can learn more about the background of the project and read previous posts at the link below.
UPDATE — SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2024
After three weeks of work, very solid progress can be seen to restore the outside of the depot. Contractor Larry Cates and his crew have replaced the lower part of the siding all the way around the building. A layer of primer has been added to protect it. No decision has been made about what color we’ll eventually paint the depot once the restoration is complete. As the final layer of paint has been peeling off, the previous red paint is becoming a lot more apparent.
The lower part of the siding has been replaced around the entire structure, as seen on March 29, 2024. A layer of primer has been added to protect it. Photo: Michael Hibblen
The back side of the depot with the freight room doors. Also visible is where the overhang of the roof was restored in 2020 when the roof was replaced. Photo: Michael Hibblen
The front entrance to the freight room with the ADA-compliant ramp that leads to one of the doors. Photo: Michael Hibblen
A large dumpster that was full of rotted materials has been hauled away. The county covered the cost of providing it and I expect the dumpster will be emptied and returned as a thorough cleaning of the inside continues.
Look for more work to be done on the siding in the weeks ahead. Replacing broken windows, then sealing them and the doors will also be completed.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
Former North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays, a third generation railroad worker who later became an attorney and entered politics, died Wednesday, Oct. 4. He was 76. The cause of death was cancer, his family said.
I interviewed Hays twice over several decades about his work to preserve the Rock Island bridge over the Arkansas River, which at one point was slated to be torn down. Below is audio and a transcript of our final interview, which also delved into his experiences working as a Missouri Pacific fireman and brakeman while in college. He was always a pleasure to speak with.
Former North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays speaks during the dedication ceremony for the renovated Rock Island Bridge, which was renamed the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge. Photo: Clinton Foundation screenshot
In the mid-1990s, Hays, Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey and Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines oversaw the revitalization of the cities’ downtown areas. One component of that, as I reported in 1996, was to keep the century-old Rock Island Railroad Bridge from being removed. The three took part in negotiations with Union Pacific, which acquired the bridge after the 1980 bankruptcy shutdown of the Rock Island. Union Pacific had said in 1989 that it planned to dismantle the bridge which hadn’t been used in about five years and was considered a liability because it was a hazard to river navigation.
As part of my research on the Rock Island, I interviewed Hays at his law office on Nov. 23, 2017 about why he felt it was important to save the bridge. After reaching an agreement with Union Pacific, the bridge remained largely untouched — seemingly abandoned to unknowing eyes — until $10.5 million in work was finally completed to convert it into a pedestrian and cycling bridge that is at the eastern end of the 14-mile Arkansas River Trail. I covered the dedication ceremony for the renovated bridge on Sept. 30, 2011, in which Hays spoke alongside former President Bill Clinton, whose presidential library is adjacent to the bridge.
In my interview, Hays also talked about his five years working for the Missouri Pacific, which his father and grandfather had also worked for. It was a typical story for young people in railroad families.
“Back in 1965 when I graduated from high school, I started taking my student trips the next morning — graduated one night and then I was up at 4 or 5 the next morning,” Hays said. “They needed folks to work during the summer because a lot of the folks would take vacations. We would work off of what they called the extra board and that was just simply a rotation of regular jobs that people had that they wanted off.”
North Little Rock has always been a railroad city, with a sprawling rail yard that today belongs to the Union Pacific. The Rock Island’s primary yard for the state had also located in the city until 1918, when Biddle Yard was constructed in south Little Rock. North Little Rock was also served by the Cotton Belt Railroad, with a passenger station that Hays recalled sitting on top of as a kid to watch circus trains pass. We also talked about his appointment to be chairman of Amtrak’s Mayors Advisory Council, as well as rail transportation elsewhere in the world.
It was a rather informal interview as I primarily wanted to document his recollections and ask for any additional details he could offer regarding the Rock Island. I had grown up in North Little Rock and explained to him my vantage point as a child seeing the final trains of the Rock Island passing in front of my elementary school. Hays was very generous with his time and I’m happy to share audio of the interview here. You can also read a transcript with much of the interview, while I have highlights of our conversation below.
AUDIO: Part 1 of my interview with former North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays on Nov. 23, 2017, discussing working for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
AUDIO: Part 2 of my interview with Hays on his work to save the Rock Island Bridge and other railroad topics.
Hays served longer than any other North Little Rock mayor, in office from 1989-2012. He previously represented the area in the Arkansas House of Representatives. A funeral service is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 12, 3 p.m. at North Little Rock First Pentecostal Church at 1401 Calvary Road.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
Hays discussed the expansion of railroads in central Arkansas and how that led to multiple railroads building rail yards and shops in North Little Rock.
When the rails finally… They came over from Memphis and came down from St. Louis, and they obviously stopped initially in North Little Rock because there wasn’t a rail bridge at the time, or any [Arkansas River] bridges at the time. Because they were ferried across the river, and that obviously was somewhat of a slow process, from what I understand from a historical standpoint, they would take that time and tinker with some of the maintenance issues that they had to do. One thing led to another, and that’s in large measure why North Little Rock became somewhat of a railroad town. When the rails reached here, they paused in going across the river because they had to ferry them.
The Baring Cross Bridge became the first rail bridge built across the Arkansas River, opening in 1873. Just to the east, the original Junction Bridge was constructed in 1884. At the easternmost end of the bridges between Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad constructed a 1,200-foot bridge that opened in 1899. In 1902, that railroad was taken over by the Rock Island. Hays told me about his work for the Missouri Pacific, which primarily involved crossing the Junction Bridge.
I used that bridge when we were working on the Valley Division. There was a rail yard — I guess it’s pretty much where the Clinton Library and the Heifer Project are now — and we would go over there when the job picked back up in terms of needing substitute folks. We had what we called the full crew law back in the 1960s, and perhaps before then, where you had to have an engineer, a fireman, a conductor and two brakemen. So you had to have five employees on each freight train. On the yard jobs, you had to have an engineer and a fireman. [The full crew law] was tied to public crossings. If you crossed a public crossing, that’s what kicked the law into effect, in large measure for safety reasons. So I would go over there, and of course there’s a lot of crossings that go up and down on the east side, along the right-of-way going out toward the airport. The Valley Division went through Pine Bluff and then down to McGehee and then on into Alexandria, Louisiana. So the Junction Bridge was the bridge we used primarily.
Hays spoke about what he, Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey and Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines envisioned for the unused Rock Island and Junction bridges.
In the early ‘90s, I was part of a program called the Mayor’s Institute of Urban Design. There’s several of them around the country and the one that I was a part of spent two or three days in Atlanta, then we spent two or three days in Chattanooga. While we were in Chattanooga, they have what they call the Walnut Street Bridge, and they had converted that bridge to a pedestrian bridge — totally pedestrian — and so I saw what they had done with that bridge. And I took a trip to Portland, and I think they converted a rail bridge and/or road bridge to a pedestrian — partly-pedestrian bridge. I’m not sure what the name of it is. So the concept of turning a bridge into a modern public use was not a foreign concept to me in recognizing what other communities had done and how they did it. Obviously, there are all sorts of different ways for them to do it.
We had a pretty unique opportunity here in central Arkansas. Buddy and Jim and I worked on a variety of things that jointly could make central Arkansas a much better place — we felt — to live. And the unique opportunity we had were the six bridges that joined Little Rock and North Little Rock. We thought a lot alike about creating an urban environment, trying to redo a downtown environment, how if the core of the community was unhealthy that the entire community was unhealthy. We started learning about different things, about why you wanted to revive an urban lifestyle.
Transportation — the interstate system started in the ‘50s, and really, to me in many respects, destroyed the urban vitality of areas all over the country. So, you were having challenges in trying to provide a healthy and livable place in the urban core for people to live and work and learn and play and do all the things that really made a community much better. And North Little Rock was particularly challenged in many respects because we were surrounded by other jurisdictions: Little Rock in the south across the river; Maumelle out west; Camp Robinson to the north; Sherwood to the north-northeast; and then, in some respects, a lot of improvements have been made, but the flat Delta land had some flood-prone issues. If there are large mosquitoes as there are on the eastern side of our city, the Delta kind of land was more challenging to grow. So we were pretty well surrounded. Fort Smith, maybe, was the only other city in Arkansas, perhaps a little bit in Texarkana, but they still had areas to grow. They weren’t hemmed in by other cities, and then had some geographic challenges or topographical challenges.
So it was real important for me to try to develop the kind of urban environment that would cause people to want to live in that environment. North Little Rock, we had a census one year after I arrived at City Hall in 1989, and we grew a little bit, but for the first time in the city’s history, I think it was the census of 2000, we lost population. We’d been pretty flat since the 1960s. We’d grown by 8,000 to 10,000 people up until the 1960s, but then we pretty well flattened out, and a large reason was because we didn’t have areas to grow by annexation. So I saw my responsibility was to try to create it because we were probably one of the more urban cities because of what I just mentioned.
So [I was] trying to do anything that I could, and the city of North Little Rock could do, to create the kind of an environment that would fertilize growth. And quality growth to me was what other areas were then starting to do to try to revive their urban cores. So, the heart of our urban core and the major asset that we neglected for 50 years or more, maybe 100 years or more, was the Arkansas River. Water has historically… that was our first highway. The rails obviously were second, and then the highways were basically our third — the interstate system particularly.
Hays, Dailey and Villines worked together to negotiate with Union Pacific to address liability concerns to keep the Rock Island and Junction bridges from being torn down so that they could eventually be utilized in a new way.
It was a natural for me to want to encourage the city to be a part of the effort to preserve those bridges because once they’re down, they never would come back. And the Corps of Engineers, because of hazards to navigation, mandates that after a certain period of time — with some exceptions, which I think were granted in the cases of the Junction Bridge and the Rock Island Bridge — are mandated to be taken down. So that hammer was hanging over us and the cost was also hanging over Union Pacific; so there was some opportunity to negotiate with them because of trying to utilize those bridges, and then once they’re utilized again, then they’re no longer a hazard of navigation and there’s not a mandate to tear them down. So we obviously became quick allies.
The fenced Rock Island Bridge over the Arkansas River in January 1994. At that time, Union Pacific was planning to scrap the bridge with the lift span to be used for a bridge in the state of Washington. Photo: Michael Hibblen
Preserving those bridges was a no-brainer, if you want to put it that way, and so the three of us started working together when the site was picked for the [presidential] library. Part of the appeal of that site was because there was an abandoned rail bridge that could be used to be a part of the campus. And they had hoped to raise enough money, the [Clinton] Foundation did, to open the bridge at the same time they dedicated the library, [but] they weren’t able to do that. So they took on the primary fundraising, the foundation did, to try to do the rehabbing of the bridge. I know that they had, I think, a $1 million contribution from Little Rock. I’m not sure exactly how the ownership issues were at the time, whether Little Rock owned it. I don’t think the foundation ever owned it. So when the foundation sort of took the lead in saving it, I took the city council a request for $750,000.
With plans underway to raise money and eventually renovate the Rock Island Bridge, Mayor Hays began working to prepare the North Little Rock side of the bridge for what it would become.
At the time, the city’s ownership of the land came to the seawall, and then it was in private hands for about two blocks until it got to Riverfront Drive. I didn’t want something to be built there at the end of the bridge that would block public access to our end of the bridge, so when I went to the city council and asked for $750,000, I put two conditions on our donation. One: that we would be able to use some of those funds to acquire the land that was at the north end of the bridge up to Riverfront Drive, and I think we acquired that for somewhere in the $300,000 range. The second condition that I wanted, because I had been familiar with the landings of the Big Dam Bridge, and they were pretty well straight — and because I’m a bicyclist at heart and in many respects, in reality, bicyclists and pedestrians don’t mix real well unless they each respect each other. Bicyclists sometimes would go pretty fast down the Big Dam Bridge on both sides of the river. North Little Rock, we have one [ramp], in Little Rock [there are] two, but they’re pretty well straight shots. So I wanted to try to do something that would minimize that kind of a conflict — to be able to curve [the ramp off the Rock Island Bridge] so that it would have some natural tendency to slow people down and provide a little bit more of an aesthetic kind of an ending to our side of the bridge. And so both [conditions] were agreed to.
The change of design probably was somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000 in additional cost. So, for our $750,000, we’ll say somewhere between $450,000 and $500,000 was because of those two requirements, and then the other $250,000 to $300,000 was to help fund some of the remaining obligations of rehabilitation of the bridge for pedestrian use. So we put some of our money where our mouth was to — in my mind — enhance the north side of the bridge.
There were a couple other things that I did which I thought were appropriate. Just before the bridge was dedicated, there was a little two-block stretch that runs parallel to our end of the landing on the bridge. It had a name, but it wasn’t a name that had a whole lot of history to it, maybe a tree designation. So I went to the city council and got them to agree and the landowners, made sure nobody objected to naming that Virginia Kelly Drive, which was Bill Clinton’s mother.
When we dedicated the bridge, I told him, “Mr. President, any time that you’re telling anybody directions to come to the north end of the bridge, it’ll be easy to remember.” And I had a street sign made up that had his mother’s name on it. And I said, “Just tell them to come along Riverfront Drive until they get to Virginia Kelly Drive,” and there’s your end of the bridge.
Then the last thing I did — in fact, the last day I was in office — I was working on this on December 31, 2012. There’s another street that’s three or four blocks. It was named Brother Paul Drive. Paul Holderfield was pretty much an institution, had the Friendly Chapel Soup Kitchen and Church of the Nazarene down there. So his name was on that street — it still is on part of it — but I’d gone to his son, Paul [Holderfield] Jr., and told him what I wanted to do about that two or three block stretch that runs east and west. I thought it’d be nice to name that after Hillary [Clinton’s] mother Dorothy Rodham. So the city council, everybody went along with it, and shortly after I left office — all of the nods had been put in place, so the city council renamed that street Dorothy Rodham. So now we have Virginia Kelly and Dorothy Rodham that meet together right at the north end of the Clinton Bridge, a la the Rock Island Bridge. And I went ahead and put a little bench there — or my successor Joe Smith did — but it was something I wanted to do, and I call that my Forrest Gump bench. So there’s a little bench there that is at the north end of our bridge. So that’s part of the success.
Hays expressed great satisfaction with the project to preserve the former railroad bridges.
I don’t know if when we started the efforts that we felt like we would be able to do it — the cost was pretty significant. It was a dream and a goal and a desire, but certainly some of the things that helped make that happen, probably one of the largest of which was the president selecting that site for his presidential library. Now on the Junction Bridge, we were much more of a financial player, the two cities and the county — still are, for that matter, in terms of the operation and maintenance of it. But the Rock Island Bridge, the partnerships of the Clinton Foundation and the two cities and the county, the asset is, I won’t say greater than the Junction Bridge, but because of the design [with a ramp not requiring people to take stairs or an elevator up to the lift span like on the Junction Bridge] makes it a whole lot more pedestrian friendly in many respects. So that’s a no brainer, you know, a goal, a desire, a hope that because of a variety of circumstances, the reality happened and the public is, I’m sure, very enjoyable in having those two structures available and can be used.
Hays speaks during a dedication ceremony for the bridge on Sept. 30, 2011. Photo: Michael Hibblen
AUDIO: Hays’ remarks during the dedication ceremony for the Rock Island Bridge on Sept. 30, 2011.
UPDATE: A few weeks after Hays’ death, former Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines — who served in the position from 1991 to 2014 — died on Oct. 21, 2023, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He was 76. Some referred to Villines, Hays and Dailey as “the three amigos” for their collaborative work to improve the region while they were in office.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
A roofing crew puts new shingles on the Perry Depot on Aug. 3, 2020. All photos by Michael HIbblen unless otherwise noted.
(Jan. 15, 2022) – Plans are being considered to begin making additional repairs to the Rock Island Depot in Perry, Arkansas. As we enter the fifth year of the project, which initially was an effort to keep the historic structure from being torn down, difficult choices are being made about the best ways to move forward.
One year ago, on Jan. 15, 2021, we celebrated news from the National Park Service that an effort with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (AHPP) to get the depot listed on the National Register of Historic Places was successful. That gave the project a new level of credibility and should be especially beneficial when applying for grants to help cover the cost of the restoration.
But matching donations are typically required for grants, and an issue has been raised that would need to be resolved to apply for what seems like a logical grant from the AHPP. I’ll explain more about that further down. Those matters, along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have led to the project becoming somewhat stagnant.
Since it has been more than a year since I last wrote a detailed update, I wanted to explain where things are at this point. The good news is that work done over the last few years seems to be effectively protecting the wooden building from any further deterioration.
Since being moved to an adjacent city-owned lot along the rails, the ground and depot have been treated for termites. A new cinder block foundation was built at a height based on how high flood water from the Arkansas River rose in May 2019. Most importantly, the roof was replaced in August 2020, which included restoring the overhang on one side that had been cut off when the Little Rock & Western Railway built a locomotive servicing shop directly behind the building in 1984.
“It’s dry inside the depot,” said Buford Suffridge, president of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society, who has been overseeing the project. “It doesn’t seem like water is getting inside. The overhang protects it real well.”
The projecting telegrapher’s booth on Aug. 10, 2020.
We were hoping to host a fundraising event last year outside the depot or at the nearby former high school gymnasium, which was restored by one of the people involved in this project. The ongoing pandemic, with the delta variant causing a surge last summer and the omicron variant now setting new records for cases in the state, is keeping us from holding any in-person events.
“Every time we get to the point where I think we can hold a fundraiser, COVID rears its ugly head again,” Suffridge said.
We know there are many people who would like to be able to look around inside the historic structure. The floors will need some work before it would be safe to hold an open house, but if we held a luncheon outside or nearby we could let a few people in at a time.
The building is empty, but fascinating with the two waiting rooms on each side of the office and the freight room, which is covered with graffiti from former Rock Island employees who wrote their names and dates on the walls and ceiling. The office still has the Western Union circuit boxes and the controls for the semaphore signal that is in storage and will one day again stand outside the projecting telegrapher’s booth.
Walking through, people would be able to envision the plan to turn the depot into a community meeting space and museum to tell the history of the community and the Rock Island Railroad.
The larger of the two waiting rooms, each with a ticket window still in place. The entire depot was painted blue and white in the 1970s after the Rock Island changed its logo.
For now, Suffridge is looking at what immediate repairs could be made to the outside of the depot using funds available in an account dedicated to the project.
FUNDRAISING
We’re extremely grateful to the many people who have made donations to help us get to this point. 113 donations have been received through an online Go Fund Me campaign started in May 2018, recently surpassing our original goal of $9,000. The nonprofit has also received checks, while in-kind donations have been made for labor and supplies.
Much of that money was spent hiring a house moving company and paying the thousands of dollars in insurance coverage that was required by the Little Rock & Western’s parent company for movers to access the property.
Rachel Patton with Preserve Arkansas, a group that advocates for saving historic structures, has been guiding us since the start of the project. She connected me with Suffridge in 2017 after learning that the Little Rock & Western planned to demolish the depot to expand its locomotive servicing shop which was directly behind the depot.
In April 2019, she helped us get a nearly $10,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Division of Rural Services with the goal of helping to create a community meeting space inside the depot.
A westbound freight blows up a cloud of dust as it passes the Perry Depot on March 25, 1976. Photo: Bill Bailey.
Now that it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, she has suggested applying for a grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. It would require us to raise an additional $10,000 to, if approved, receive $20,000 in grant funding. That would go a long way toward covering the cost of repairs recommended by architect Gary Clements who went through the depot with Suffridge and Patton in October 2020.
One issue that would complicate applying for that grant is that we’ve learned the town of Perry holds a quitclaim deed to the property the depot is now on. The AHPP requires a warranty deed in order to donate an easement with grants of more than $10,000. I understand that could be resolved but would require hiring an attorney and conducting a property survey. That could easily cost about $5,000.
Suffridge is frustrated because, like the insurance coverage required by the railroad to move the building, it would be a large sum of money not going into actual work for the depot. The expense would be eligible grant expenses, Patton said, but with no guarantee we would get the grant, Suffridge is apprehensive.
At this point, he says the nonprofit has about $4,900 available for the depot project and is considering using that to make some immediate repairs. He has asked for a cost estimate of restoring the appearance of the outside of the building. This we hope would include sealing the doors and windows.
A year ago the estimate for this work was at about $10,000 but supply chain problems worldwide have pushed up the cost of materials. Suffridge is checking now to see what can be done with the current funds available.
Plastic covers a window that was starting to fall in on Aug. 10, 2020. Repairs to the roof can also be seen.
Part of the goal is to maintain public confidence in the project. For more than a year the depot has sat largely untouched. Though the foundation and new roof look great, the rest of the siding on the building, especially toward the bottom, is quite ragged.
“I wish we could make it look good and encourage people to donate,” Suffridge said.
While no work has been done over the last year, he and others in town are keeping a close eye on the depot. When it was noticed recently that a window was falling in, Jimmy Middleton, another key leader in this effort, made sure to seal the opening.
Once the exterior is fixed, repairs would likely focus on the floor, which is soft in spots. If no large grant happens, Suffridge is looking at restoration work then being done inside the depot in phases to different areas, likely starting with the office.
Regardless of whether we get additional grant funding, continued donations will be key in helping this project continue. They are tax deductible and can be made online through the Go Fund Me box below.
While in the depot nearly a year ago on Jan. 29, 2021, I heard the sound of an approaching Little Rock & Western locomotive blasting its horn at the crossings in Perry. I looked out the door in time to see the lone locomotive pass in front of the depot, then stop at the railroad’s headquarters on the next block.
Having active service on the line, typically with one train departing, then returning on weekdays, will be great when the depot finally opens with the sound of passing trains harkening to the days when this was a busy part of the Rock Island’s line running between Memphis, Tennessee and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
FORMER EMPLOYEE REUNIONS AND INTERVIEWS
More than 40 years after the bankrupt Rock Island was shut down in 1980, an ever-shrinking group of former Arkansas employees of the Rock Island continue to meet regularly. I was at the most recent annual reunion on Oct. 4, 2021 to visit with them and to share the latest on the effort to preserve the Perry depot.
Jerry Oates, president of the Arkansas Rock Island Club, speaks at the annual reunion of former employees on Oct. 4, 2021..
The brakeman’s passenger uniform from Bill Anderson which will be donated to the Perry Depot once it opens.
After I spoke briefly to the group, Jerry Oates, president of the Rock Island Club, told me they will donate the brakeman’s passenger uniform of the late Bill Anderson to be displayed in the depot once we get to that point. I recorded an interview with Anderson at the 2017 reunion, including his recollections of Perry. His uniform would be a cherished part of the collection we hope to build.
I have been recording interviews with employees for decades and am now working to get the full interviews online. Just over a year ago I also started a project to digitize cassette tapes of interviews recorded by Tom Sandlin and share those on my website. He spoke with hundreds of employees over the span of a decade beginning in 2001.
The oral histories are priceless in sharing the experiences of what it was like working for the railroad. I’ve been slowly producing a podcast series on the railroad, with the most recent episode focused on the experiences of engineers Harold Rhoads, Buddy Bryant and Howard Smith. All three have died since talking with Sandlin nearly two decades ago. Several times they mention Perry, which was a significant as a midway point for the Rock Island between Little Rock and Booneville.
We believe the depot was built 1918, replacing a smaller structure that was placed there when the tracks were first laid between Little Rock and Oklahoma by the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad between 1898 and 1899.
You can help by making a donation, which is tax deductible, to either our Go Fund Me campaign or by sending a check to:
Perry County Historical Museum P.O. Box 1128 Perryville, AR 72126
Please make out checks payable to Perry County Historical Museum.
I welcome any additional information, photos, stories, comments or corrections. Write to: michael@hibblenradio.com.
To read previous updates on the depot, click on the link below.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
A roofing crew completes putting new shingles on the roof of the Perry Depot on Aug. 3, 2020. Photo: Michael Hibblen.
(Dec. 10, 2020) – Arkansas has nominated the former Rock Island depot at Perry to the National Register of Historic Places. It will now be up to the National Park Service to determine if it meets the criteria to be listed. Meanwhile backers of the project have met with an architect to determine how to proceed with the restoration and are working to raise money that will be needed to get matching grant funding from the state.
Members of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program’s State Review Board met on Wednesday, Dec. 2, to consider nominating several properties, including the depot. The state’s National Register/ Survey Coordinator Ralph Wilcox gave a presentation detailing the history of the depot, which was built in 1918, and its impact on the region. Because of the mountainous terrain, the area was sparsely populated until the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad laid tracks through western Arkansas in 1898 and 1899.
“The railroad changed everything,” Wilcox said. “A temporary depot was set up at North Perryville, just three miles north of the county seat, and quickly attracted businessmen and other professionals. When a post office was established in 1899, the name was shortened to Perry.”
In 1902, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, as a part of a national expansion, acquired control of the CO&G through a hostile takeover. Wilcox noted the importance of the line, which moved freight through the center of the country and provided passenger service between Memphis, Tenn. and Los Angeles, Calif. via connecting service with the Southern Pacific at Amarillo, Texas.
“The Perry depot is significant to the people of Perry and Perry County because it functioned as an essential community gathering place during the heyday of rail transportation as people journeyed to the depot to get merchandise, got the latest news, and bid farewell to loved ones,” he said.
A split screen Facebook live feed of the Dec. 2 meeting of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program’s State Review Board looking at historic photos of the Rock Island Perry Depot while hearing a presentation by Ralph Wilcox.
While showing photos of the depot through the years, Wilcox spoke of how passenger service was eliminated in 1967 shortly after a mail contract was ended by the U.S. government, how the depot continued being used to coordinate freight until the end of the Rock Island in 1980, and how it initially served as the office for the Little Rock & Western Railway. He also explained that when the shortline railroad announced in 2017 it was going to tear down the depot, the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society, with guidance from Preserve Arkansas, began raising money to eventually move the depot 150 feet to an adjacent piece of land owned by the city on the same side of the tracks.
Wilcox then took questions from board members. One asked why the foundation constructed earlier this year to place the depot on was built so high. Rachel Patton, executive director of Preserve Arkansas, responded in the comments section of the web feed that the height was determined based on how high water had risen during last year’s record flooding of the Arkansas River.
The flooded Perry depot on May 30, 2019 while it was sitting on a trailer waiting for a new foundation to be built. Photo: Buford Suffridge.
Another board member, while acknowledging he wasn’t familiar with the demographics of Perry at the time of the depot’s construction, asked why it had segregated waiting rooms. Wilcox said the layout likely came from standard depot designs by the railroad. It might also have been because of Jim Crow laws of the era.
Finally, a motion was made to nominate the depot to the National Register, which was seconded, then approved by the board on a voice vote. The whole process took just under 15 minutes. The following day a letter from Arkansas Historic Preservation Program Director Scott Kaufman was sent to Perry Mayor Willie Summers sharing the news.
In anticipation of the nomination, Patton had spoken with architect Gary Clements of Clements & Associates in North Little Rock who has worked on historic preservation projects throughout the state. He agreed to prepare a grant application for the AHPP’s Historic Preservation Restoration Grant program at no charge unless the grant is awarded. His fees would be built into the grant.
“He thought it was a fantastic project. Whenever I called and told him what we wanted him to do he was really excited,” Patton told me in October.
Clements recently finished the latest phase in the restoration of a two-story wooden train station in Warren, Ark., which was built in 1911 by the Warren and Ouachita Valley Railway. The company would be bought by the Rock Island in 1948, with Warren at the end of a branch line. That station, which is today owned by the city, was added to the National Register in 1977. It has been restored in phases over the years, receiving multiple grants from the state and exemplifying how these can be continually ongoing projects.
On Oct. 12, Clements and Patton went through the Perry depot with Buford Suffridge, president of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society. Clements wanted to get an idea of the condition of the building and talk about what they hope to accomplish. He took a lot of photos of the interior and exterior of the depot and discussed what needed to be addressed first. With the Warren project fresh on his mind, Patton said Clements felt some of the same approaches could work in Perry.
The Warren station features a long freight room, which has been converted into a community meeting space. While the Perry depot’s freight room is not as big, it could still serve as a nice meeting and event space. A nearly $10,000 grant we received last year from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Division of Rural Services was provided with the intention of creating a community building with exhibit space inside the depot.
Suffridge says Clements found the building to be “structurally pretty sound.” Rotted floor joists had been replaced before the depot was set on the new foundation earlier this year. Work to fix the roof’s eaves was also completed, while roofing shingles were replaced in August to prevent any further deterioration underneath.
The Perry depot in November 1983, three years after the Rock Island had been shut down, still showing the final color scheme for the railroad. At that time it was being used as the office for the Little Rock & Western Railway. Photo: Bill Pollard.
Clements recommended a thorough examination of the building to find what urgent repairs need to be made and to allow him to come up with a plan for what it will take to completely restore it. But everything can’t be addressed at once. It will take several phases.
“I can see that it’s probably going to take longer than I had hoped for,” Suffridge said. “Of course, he did say that there’s really no limit to what you can spend on a project like that. He said basically you have to decide what can you spend on it and you go from there.”
Walking through the depot, Clements noticed places in the floor that were weak. There is also a dropped ceiling in the office and no telling what might be found above it.
He recommended applying for a $20,000 grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, calling that a realistic amount to ask for. It would require $10,000 in matching donations to show there is support for the project, so more fundraising will be needed. We would need to have a plan together and the cash match by March 1, 2021.
We will need to be successful in getting the depot listed on the National Register to qualify, but Patton and state officials feel the odds are good.
Clements suggested the first phase of work should be a basic preservation of the exterior of the building. That would involve fixing the siding, replacing rotted wood near the bottom, and striping off old paint, then priming and putting a new layer on. The windows are in pretty good shape, but some panes are missing. This would ensure the depot is sealed so that vermin and rain can’t get in. Improving the appearance of the exterior would also show people that visible progress is being made.
There will be a lot of additional hard decisions and challenges ahead, but at this point it feels like we are making solid progress in preserving this piece of history. If you can support the project with a donation, any amount would be greatly appreciated. Online donations can be made through our Go Fund Me account.
If you would prefer to send a check, make it out to the Perry County Historical Museum, which is part of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society.
Perry County Historical Museum
P.O. Box 1128
Perryville, AR 72126
You can read more about the background of the depot and my previous posts as this project has progressed over the last three by clicking on the link below:
Also, if you haven’t heard my newly-listed podcast Rock Island in Arkansas, you can find it on Apple Podcasts. Episode 2 is an hour-long look at the history of the Perry Depot, featuring interviews with Buford Suffridge, former Rock Island employees who worked in Perry, and Danny Majors, the son of longtime depot agent Joe Majors.
UPDATE Jan. 15, 2021 – Great news! The National Park Service notified us today that the Perry Depot will be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I’ll have more soon and we continue with this joyous preservation project!
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
After decades of recording interviews to document the stories of former employees of the Rock Island Railroad, I’m proud to officially release a podcast called the “Rock Island in Arkansas.” I’ve produced two episode, but only yesterday was it officially listed as a podcast available for download or to be subscribed to on Apple Podcasts. With a lot of material recorded and ongoing developments in the preservation of the Rock Island Depot at Perry, I hope to package a new episode once every few weeks. I also would welcome the opportunity to talk with more former Rock Island employees who would be willing to share their experiences.
The photo featured for the artwork of the podcast comes courtesy of Bill Pollard, showing a westbound Rock Island train at the Missouri Pacific’s HH crossing just south of Union Station in Little Rock.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
Since getting involved in a project three years ago to preserve the Rock Island depot in Perry, Arkansas, I’ve been recording interviews with former employees of the railroad and others who have had connections to the building. The depot, which we believe was built in 1918, was slated to be torn down in 2017. But, thanks to the efforts of the Perry County Historical and Genealogical Society, Preserve Arkansas, and the financial support of many donors and a grant from the state, it is being preserved. The wooden building, which is in surprisingly good condition, has been moved to an adjacent lot, placed on a newly-constructed foundation, and the roof has been replaced.
A westbound passenger train approaches the Perry depot in 1960. This photo was taken from the cab of a Budd Rail Diesel Car by Rock Island company photographer Ed Wojtas.
This podcast, which is the second episode in a series I’ve been slowly producing, tells the history of the Perry depot through first-hand accounts. I feature memories from Buford Suffridge, who has been leading the restoration effort, and Danny Majors, the son of longtime Depot Agent Joe Majors. I also include former Rock Island employees John Henderson, Bill Anderson and Mike Childers. It’s an effort to preserve the stories of those who remember when this was part of a major rail link. Millions of people probably rode over this spot when it was part of the Rock Island’s sunbelt line linking Memphis, Tennessee and Amarillo, Texas.
The plan is for the depot to eventually serve as a community meeting place and museum, telling the story of the community and the Rock Island. But there is still a lot more work to do before that can become a reality.
A lot of the stories featured in this podcast focus on Joe Majors and what it’s like being a depot agent in a small town alongside a major rail line. I hope the image here, which was shared by his son Danny, will someday be featured on a large display inside the depot.
Longtime Perry Depot Agent Joe Majors with his pipe and pocket watch poses for a photo outside the wooden station. He worked here from about 1950 until the Rock Island was shut down in 1980. Photo courtesy of Danny Majors.
A future episode of the “Rock Island in Arkansas” will tell story of the depot being the headquarters for the shortline Little Rock & Western Railway, which was created after the Rock Island was shut down. The program will also include details on our effort to preserve the depot so that it can become a community meeting place and museum.
You can read more about the project to preserve the depot as it has progressed here. I’ll also have an important update soon as the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is to consider nominating the Perry depot to the National Register of Historic Places at a meeting on Dec. 2, 2020.
This episode was produced with the assistance Dr. J. Bradly Minnick, features the music of central Arkansas musicians Jim Mize, Fret & Worry and a classic recording of the song “Rock Island Line” by Leadbelly. You can listen to the first episode of the podcast here.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
On the web since 2002, this is the online home of broadcasting news veteran Michael Hibblen. I've worked for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the country, with this website telling the story of my career, including audio, photos and videos. Also featured are various interests I've researched, primarily about radio and railroads. Today I'm Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, overseeing production of the program "Arkansas Week" and the streaming of events on the Arkansas Citizens Access Network.
My Book
Released by Arcadia Publishing in 2017, Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas delves into the history of the railroad which once had a huge footprint in Arkansas, as well as other states in the middle of the U.S. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE
For 13 years, from May 2009 to December 2022, I worked for NPR station KUAR-FM 89.1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That included 10 years as News Director while continuing to anchor and report. You can read and hear reports from that time on Little Rock Public Radio's website.
