Encompassing a small valley with a spring-fed creek just east of what was then the Washington County Courthouse, the community core included East Meadow, Center, Mountain, and Rock Streets along with South Willow and Washington Avenues.(1) Its cornerstone institutions were the Mission School for Negroes Only (1866, renamed Henderson School in the 1890s), St. Spout Spring was a neighborhood settled by formerly enslaved people and their descendants sometime after the Civil War. The solution? Reroute it to the east through Spout Spring. The road also cut through the business district, limiting growth and burdening in-city traffic. Highway 71’s narrow lanes and steep grades posed a problem for commercial trucks traveling through town. Highway 71 (College Avenue) in front of the Washington County Courthouse, about 1940. It was expected that population, land area, retail and trade, industry, and tourism would continue to grow. With over 8,200 citizens, its economy relied largely on agricultural products (fresh and processed), the University of Arkansas, and forestry products (lumber and veneer). Highway 62 in the south, and to North Garland Avenue on the west. The report’s authors dubbed Fayetteville “A City of Homes, A Place Where People Live.” Back then the town’s boundaries stretched roughly from the veteran’s hospital in the north, to the western edge of Mount Sequoyah in the east, to U.S. Despite the plan’s carefully couched reasons as to why everyone would benefit, the neighborhood’s removal would further marginalize an already marginalized population. Curious, I began reading and was soon struck by how easily the plan’s proponents recommended the destruction of a long-standing, close-knit neighborhood, a neighborhood whose residents likely had no say in the matter. I came across the plan while reviewing a large donation of photographic and archival materials from Ann Wiggans Sugg. ![]() ![]() Key components were the development of a civic center west of the town square, a hospital expansion, the rerouting of a major highway, and the improvement or development of through-roads, parks, schools, and utilities.Īuthors and contributors to the Six Year Public Works Program and Master City Plan, 1945. Hopeful that the end of World War II was on the horizon, in January 1945 the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce hired two engineers to envision the “Fayetteville of Tomorrow” by positioning the town “to receive the most benefit from post-war construction programs.” Working with input from the Chamber, city government, citizen groups, church leaders, and others, the resulting document- Six Year Public Works Program and Master City Plan-was published that fall. Washington County Historical Society Collection (P-2437) From left: Chris Manuel, Bayley Joiner (block chairman of the food-for-victory drive), and Lola Young Manuel. The Manuel family Victory Garden on East Center Street, Fayetteville, May 1943.
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