PLEASANT STREET
HISTORIC DISTRICT
The Architecture of the Neighborhood Nineteen buildings in the district were constructed in the first two decades of the 20th century. The Queen-Anne style influenced house at 403 Pleasant Street, known as the John L. Webb House, was constructed around 1900. Originally frame, the house was bricked and a green tile roof added in the 1920s. The dark red brick veneer is thought to have been added in the 1920s by then occupant contractor John L. Webb. The Wallace House at 605 Pleasant Street, constructed c.1903 is another of the earliest extant homes in the neighborhood and also reflects the irregular massing characteristic of the Queen Anne style.
The Visitor’ Chapel A.M.E. Church at 317 Church Street was constructed in 1913 to replace a previous building destroyed by fire. The Visitor’s Chapel A.M.E. Church remains a cornerstone in the neighborhood.
Residences located at 232 Garden, 234 Garden, 229 Garden, 231 Garden display modest Colonial Revival style characteristics in steep hipped roofs, and dormers. Other examples of the Colonial Revival style feature full-width porches with principal areas of interest at entrances, and on cornices. The Wadkins House at 212 Garden Street is a more detailed version of the Colonial Revival style house built in the early years of the twentieth century. Constructed around 1914, the house is two and one-half stories with brick veneer, dormers, full-width front porch and window detail.
The most prolific period of development and growth in the Pleasant street neighborhood took place in the 1920s. Fifty-one (55%) of the buildings in the district were constructed in this decade when tourism related to the hot waters, gambling, horse racing, and music caused a significant period of prosperity and growth in Hot Springs. The Pleasant Street and Malvern Avenue area, during this time, was transformed to a bustling neighborhood with one of the city’s busiest commercial streets.
Most of the buildings in the district constructed in the 1920s are one-story brick Craftsman Bungalows with the typical exposed rafters, front porches supported by columns on piers and low, horizontal emphasis. Most of the houses built in this area in the district are brick, veneered, specifically, in dark red brick. A frequent plan seen is a front corner recessed porch. Also characteristic of the houses built in this era is a cast concrete foundation.
Construction of the four-story brick Woodmen of the Union Building in the 500 block of Malvern Avenue in 1922-23 marked the most prolific building project in the district’s history. The stately four story brick building spans the entire east side of the 500 block of Malvern remains the most significant structure in the district. John L. Webb, Supreme Custodian of the W.O.U., was responsible for the design and construction of the building. The red brick walls are trimmed with cream-colored, Classical Revival-style terra cotta decorations including porch columns, brackets, belt courses and cornices.
Although there is no record of contractor John L. Webb’s construction projects in the neighborhood, the use of dark red brick as seen on many of the residences are thought to be indicative of his work. Another individual who constructed buildings in the neighborhood during the 1920s and ‘30s was Ed B. Mooney. Mooney operated a storage company and advertised as a contractor specializing in well drilling, steam shovel work and concrete work. Buff brick characterizes the structures thought to have been constructed by Mooney as seen in the Mooney Building at 320-322 Church Street and the houses at 605 and 607 Malvern Avenue.
During the 1930s, the growth of the area reflected the nationwide downturn in the economy and decline of the peak of prosperity along Malvern Avenue experienced during the 1920s. The houses built in the early 1930s- 120, 127 and 129 Grove Street and 108 Pleasant Street- reflect a continuance of the Craftsman style in their design characteristics.
Nine buildings in the district were constructed in the 1940s. The Union Baptist Church at 219 Gulpha built a new sanctuary in the late 1940s to replace a building the congregation had outgrown. Commercial construction in the 1940s included the buildings at 203 and 207 Pleasant Street, the gas station at 625 Malvern and residential properties were built on Grove and Kirk Streets.
The Monte Carlo Liquor Store at 611 Malvern and the Texan Apartment Building at 305 Pleasant Street were products of the revived popularity of the neighborhood in the 1950s. Six properties in the district were constructed in the early 1950s. All of these buildings are faced in buff brick and range from Minimal Traditional to revival of Moderne style. The Guinn House at 413 Pleasant was constructed in 1968 and is a good example of the vernacular ranch form popular in Arkansas during the time.
Although the business community in the neighborhood has drastically declined and physically changed through demolition of much of Malvern Avenue’s historic building fabric, the residential streets have changed little. The neighborhood, once the center of black life in Hot Springs, is sandwiched between a major thoroughfare (E. Grand Avenue/ U. S. Highway 70), the Convention Center, and the continuously changing Malvern Avenue thoroughfare. A new thoroughfare has been constructed through portions of the eastern areas of the original historic neighborhood.