GENTRY -- After almost three years of work, Charlie Bookout and Kevin Stell removed the cedar boards from the Carpenter's Building on Gentry Main Street Thursday to reveal the original windows of the building fully restored. The windows had been covered for decades, and the work was done from the inside by removing the windows, restoring them, painting them and putting them back in place before the cedar boards were removed.
Bookout said the windows were all still there but in pretty bad shape. Birds had gotten in and built nests between the cedar boards and the windows and the space in between the windows and boards was full of old nests and bird skeletons. Since the building is used for a haunted house, Bookout saved a a large candy jar full of the skeletons.
The large windows with their many individual glass panes had to be repaired, sanded and repainted in addition to replacing broken panes. And the restoration project has been ongoing since the building was purchased nearly three years ago by Bookout, Stell, Shane McNair, Doc Savage and Jimmy Hamilton.
The large brick building was designed by Albert Oscar Clark, the same architect who designed the Benton County Courthouse and numerous other landmark buildings in northwest Arkansas, and built in 1929 by the Carpenter Brothers to make more room for their grocery and furniture store in Gentry.
According to the University of Arkansas Libraries website, "the Carpenter brothers, Ray and Roy, took over the retail grocery of their father, I. W. Carpenter, in 1909. They built up the grocery business, added a furniture line, and in 1929 moved into a new building."
An April 25, 1929, article in the Gentry Journal-Advance states the following: "Work of wrecking the old frame structures in which they have been doing business for many years was begun this week by Carpenter Bros., and as soon as the ground is cleared, the construction of their new and modern brick business building will get under way. The corner frame, we understand, is to be moved into the street east, and business will be conducted therein during the construction of the new quarters.
"The new structure will be of brick, steel and concrete, one-story in height, 75x115 feet in size, and will be divided into two separate and distinct departments. On Main Street, a corner entrance into the grocery department, with a double-door entrance on the south leading to both the grocery and furniture sections. This part of the building will be 75x90 feet in size.
"With an entrance and 25-foot frontage on Rust Avenue, a section 25x75 ft. will be given over to a mortuary, with all the up-to-date conveniences, including a modern chapel.
"Planning of the building was done by O.A. [initials are inverted in this article] Clark, architect, who also served in this capacity with the Benton County courthouse.
"The Carpenter brothers state that it is their intention to spare no means or effort in making this one of the most up-to-date business blocks in northwest Arkansas, and that they expect to occupy the same by the first of October.
"This move on the part of this successful firm is but in keeping with the policy of the concern -- nothing but the best is sufficient to satisfy."
Dale Carpenter bought the family business from his father and uncle in 1939 and operated it until his death in 1974. Dale Carpenter served the city of Gentry as fire chief in 1948 and he served on the Gentry Cemetery Committee in the 1950s and 1960s. He was on the building committee that made plans and helped obtain financing for the Gentry Medical Center in 1963.
The building was purchased by Don Evans and became home to Cherokee Boot Co., a western boot and clothing store. The building also was used for a time as a post office and for a plumbing business, according to Bookout.
About three years ago, the building was purchased from Evans by Bookout, Stell, McNair, Savage and Hamilton and has been used for a variety of their video and art projects, as well as for the annual haunted house they operate there.
With the windows restored, Bookout is hoping that the large open room to the east might be made available for special events and meetings -- a large event room for those on a budget, he said. A display room for local artwork also sounded like a great idea to Bookout.
Work continues to clean up and restore the west side of the building. The original tin ceiling tiles, in addition to the windows, are still in place.
A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is possibly on the agenda for the building, according to Bookout.
Rick Parker, local historian and restoration expert, said the fact that the building was designed by Clark and is one of his later designs, should make it a "shoo-in" to get the building on the National Register if paperwork is done correctly.
Parker commended Bookout, Stell and their partners for doing the restoration work the right way.
"They're taking their time, going slow and doing things right," Parker said.
And looking back to the 1920s when the Carpenter Brothers began to see the need to build a new building and expand, a store ad in the Journal-Advance said Carpenter Bros. offered "Good things to eat at interesting prices." Some of those prices included heads of lettuce for 15 cents, pecks of Ben Davis apples for 45 cents, 6 pounds of fresh rolled oats for 25 cents, Polar Bear Coffee for 50 cents a can and 100 pounds of C&H cane sugar for $5.60. A package of Malt-O-Meal was only a quarter and a free kite came with each package.
General News on 06/08/2016