Jaw-dropping change: A recent rehabilitation in downtown Paragould is the talk of the town this fall. Owners Rita Ellington and Madelyn Holifield began work on their historic property, located at 209 and 211 South Pruett Street, in early Spring of 2009. Today, the building is virtually unrecognizable, unless you’ve time traveled from the 1920s, the period to which the building’s exterior was restored.
The historic façade on Pruett Street is one of many hidden architectural gems that lie beneath metal surfaces all over small town America. As was happening to historic buildings all over the country in the 1960s, a metal slipcover was placed over the façade in an attempt to compete with modern shopping malls of the era. On the bright side, the slipcovers have kept original facades considerably intact, as is the case in downtown Paragould. Still, much work was needed to appropriately restore the 1920s character of this building. The brick work was cleaned, tuck-pointed, repaired and replaced where needed. After a masonry primer coat was applied, the façade was painted a masonry spiceberry color. A new cornice was fabricated to resemble the original that had long since been removed. The project was finished with the installations of custom-made awnings and valances in the traditional style.
“The look of Pruett Street has greatly improved, thanks to this newest example of what interested, committed owners and a talented informed contractor can accomplish,” said Main Street Paragould executive director Gina Jarrett. Much of the work on the Holifield-Ellington building was done by a local contractor who is today the go-to person in Paragould for restoration work. The contractor, Chris Bass, one of the first advocates for Main Street Paragould, bought his first historic downtown property ten years ago when the program first started. Lacking a formal background in restoration but ever-willing to learn, the contractor trained himself over the years by using the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, preservation briefs, and online resources. Now a skilled craftsman in historic building rehabilitation, he has bought and restored three buildings downtown.
The new hallmark of downtown Paragould, the Holifield-Ellington rehabilitation is a catalyst for further economic growth in the Main Street area. Such projects create “a little bit of peer pressure on owners who know their buildings need work,” says Jarrett, which causes them to make improvements. Jarrett has also seen such changes impact the community in ways that are not measurable. “All of the [slipcover removals] have made an impact on the downtown area, not only in terms of design and how things look, but in a feeling of pride of ownership.”
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