Behind the News
September 29 - October 5, 2014
Beebe’s announcement delights preservation group By Roy Ockert
It wasn’t really surprising that Mike Beebe would choose to donate his gubernatorial papers, other media and memorabilia to Arkansas State University, but his announcement Saturday made a small group of ASU insiders and supporters especially happy.
Beebe, who was born at nearby Amagon, graduated from ASU in 1968, served on the Board of Trustees and remains close to his alma mater. He attends almost every home football game, and Saturday’s news conference was conveniently on a game day.
The announcement delighted members of the Save the Kays House Committee, formed early in 2012 when ASU administrators announced matter-of-factly that among 19 old houses to be demolished to clear room for a row of sorority houses was the personal residence of the late V.C. Kays, A-State’s first president.
Kays built the house himself in 1936-37 with his own money and was the only ASU president to live in it. Succeeding presidents and then chancellors have lived in a house on Nettleton Avenue. After ASU acquired the first president’s house from the Kays Foundation, it was used for several years as temporary housing for new employees.
In discussing the planned demolition in 2012, interim Chancellor Dan Howard said the 4,401-square-foot house had so much “deferred maintenance” that it would cost more than $440,000 to renovate and another $250,000 to make it handicapped accessible.
A month or so before that, a fellow Kiwanis Club member, Dr. Clyde Milner, director of the ASU heritage studies program, tipped me off about the imminent destruction of the Kays House, but I was in the transition from retiring as editor of The Jonesboro Sun and didn’t follow up right away.
Fortunately, Milner and some others did, including Dr. Scott Darwin, ASU emeritus professor of German, who took a lead role in speaking publicly against the demolition. He had taken a similar stand in 1997, when ASU administrators wanted to destroy a grove of 97 ancient oak trees to make room for an apartment complex, but that battle was lost.
During the first 10 years of his 39 on the ASU faculty, Darwin lived in an apartment next door to the Kays House so he felt a special connection. He also admired its Tudor style, which was popular in the early part of the 20th century.
University officials seemed determined to get rid of the Kays House, but they offered to sell the house to the highest bidder, provided that said bidder would move the 2-story house within six weeks. That was impractical for a house with a full basement and lower-level windows that rose just above ground level.
With more time on my hands, I got Howard to arrange a tour of the house, which I had been in only once many years earlier, led by David Handwork, director of planning, design and construction for ASU. I invited a Sun reporter and photographer to join us.
That tour led to an obvious conclusion: This was a beautiful house that had been badly neglected for years, especially the last 18 months, when it had been vacant. The Sun did a front-page story, and I followed up with a column, pointing out the lack of public discussion before the decision to demolish the house.
Meanwhile, the Save the Kays House Committee continued to grow in numbers and support from faculty, alumni and other A-State supporters, as well as attention from other news organizations. Also significantly, the diplomatic Milner found a critical ally in incoming Chancellor Dr. Tim Hudson.
Hudson’s support helped win a reprieve: The Kays House could remain in place for at least one year, while construction on the sorority houses proceeded and the committee tried to raise the funds needed to preserve it. That decision came virtually at the last minute. During Saturday’s news conference Hudson recalled being at the ground-breaking for the sorority row while a man on a bulldozer waited near the Kays House for the go-ahead.
Renamed the Kays House Preservation Steering Committee, the group of 35, which I had joined by then, chose Milner as chairman, and the fund-raising began.
Within a year the committee had raised nearly $100,000 in private funds, enough to start badly needed work on the exterior. More importantly, university officials decided that there was still life in the old structure — enough to make it a cultural heritage site.
That led to a $200,000 grant for more preservation work from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council earlier this year, followed by a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Beebe’s donation should give the Kays House an enduring purpose. The governor’s office will be re-created in a large room on the main floor, featuring its present furnishings and memorabilia. Other areas of the house will include interactive presentations of Beebe’s legacy, as well as that of other prominent figures in Northeast Arkansas history. The house should become a popular stop for visitors.
ASU will also raise funds to establish the Gov. Mike Beebe Economic and Development Institute, as well as a professorship and scholarship program in his name.
In the long run, that may be more important. But it’s certainly appropriate that one of ASU’s most outstanding graduates plays a key role in preserving one of the university’s most historic structures.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.
