Two Historical Homes in Little Rock Have First Date with Destruction
By: Josh Berry
Updated: March 16, 2013
Piece by historic piece was hauled out of the home on Cantrell in Little Rock.
Salvage crews from Alabama chipped away at the home's guts.
Local history lovers or just curious passerby's came to watch the painful destruction of the home built in the late 1800s.
Amber Jones said, "We're losing our history bit by bit."
The biggest of those bits, at least on this home, was chopped off with chainsaws. Only rays of light peaked through at first but the roof eventually opened the home to the sky above.
It's a mint condition piece of work built well over century ago; the spire is a staple of the structure with pieces dating back to 1879.
Garlan Gudger said, "I would imagine that this roof has been rebuilt 2 or 3 or 4 times from what I can tell."
Gudger runs Southern Accents Architectural Antiques, the Alabama company tasked with salvaging the home for everything it has.
Most of the home, including the spire, will be re-purposed somewhere else.
"That's the silver lining," said one resident, Tony Curtis. "These pieces will end up back in another home and it's history will continue on rather than ending up in landfill."
Curtis say's he's watched this area become what it is today.
"It will never be residential again."
He wishes something could have been done.
Now everything that's not saved or hauled off back to Alabama will likely end up flattened to the ground and dumped in a landfill.
"We just really feel like it shouldn't have happened," said another resident, Amber Jones. "We hope this is a call to action."
We've waited to hear back from the owners of the property as these residents worry for the future of other historical homes in Little Rock. They hope this can be a call to action in hopes the city can save other historical homes that are potentially on a future list to destroy.
Salvage crews from Alabama chipped away at the home's guts.
Local history lovers or just curious passerby's came to watch the painful destruction of the home built in the late 1800s.
Amber Jones said, "We're losing our history bit by bit."
The biggest of those bits, at least on this home, was chopped off with chainsaws. Only rays of light peaked through at first but the roof eventually opened the home to the sky above.
It's a mint condition piece of work built well over century ago; the spire is a staple of the structure with pieces dating back to 1879.
Garlan Gudger said, "I would imagine that this roof has been rebuilt 2 or 3 or 4 times from what I can tell."
Gudger runs Southern Accents Architectural Antiques, the Alabama company tasked with salvaging the home for everything it has.
Most of the home, including the spire, will be re-purposed somewhere else.
"That's the silver lining," said one resident, Tony Curtis. "These pieces will end up back in another home and it's history will continue on rather than ending up in landfill."
Curtis say's he's watched this area become what it is today.
"It will never be residential again."
He wishes something could have been done.
Now everything that's not saved or hauled off back to Alabama will likely end up flattened to the ground and dumped in a landfill.
"We just really feel like it shouldn't have happened," said another resident, Amber Jones. "We hope this is a call to action."
We've waited to hear back from the owners of the property as these residents worry for the future of other historical homes in Little Rock. They hope this can be a call to action in hopes the city can save other historical homes that are potentially on a future list to destroy.
