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Searcy, AR Real Estate News

By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
A blog friend sent this delightful photograph of the Searcy High School swing band playing a symphony.  It is from 1949 and lots of the characters are still around Searcy Arkansas.  Because the picture was so wide and hard to put on in one picture and have the characters recognizable, I have cut it in half and am putting up both sides PLUS the members of the band. It is full of humor, in my opinion, starting with the title which says, SEARCY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL BAND PERSONNEL.  I believe they were high schoolers.  What a subtle insult!!  Then we have a yawning guy in the foreground and a wig or two to indicate the long-haired music.  I'm going to let one of our readers identify the people if they will.  Step up, Anita or Bob!  And Bob, remember that I don't know a piano from a flute and ...
Comments 35
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
  My husband and a bunch of his buddies, old football (Well, at that time they were still young.) players, got together and decided to begin a Pee Wee Football League in Seary Arkansas.  The year must have been 1969 because someone saved and loaned me this list of players and coaches.  Duncan's Roadrunners was his team. It is interesting now to look back and see who the first players were and who the highly competitive coaches were.  Hubby coached for about 4 years and said he had to quit before he got so heated and upset that he'd ruin his health.  But they had gotten the league started and it still exists to this day.  A picture of his team is also shown below.  ThTh
Comments 8
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
The newspaper reported that 501 East Race is going to become the home of White County Children's Safety Center, an organization in its second year of operation of supporting children who may be victims of child abuse or neglect. The house was built in 1929.  The original owner died in approximately 2003 and I had the house listed when it sold the first time.  I always loved the house.  It was so charming with an oozy brick exterior.  Look at this brickwork.  There is probably a real name for this brick work but I can't remember it.  What's wrong with "oozy?" The front used to have large trees in the yard but they've been removed.  At least you can now see the front of the house better.   Here's an old MLS photo from a few years back.  The columns in the East sunroom were awesome.  I'm n...
Comments 17
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
Remember getting rolled?  By toilet paper?  You get up and your mom and dad are cussin' and fussin' about the mess in your yard and how you're going to have to clean it up? You look out and pretend to be furious but secretly your little heart is pumping because you've been selected!  You're popular!!  The gang remembered you on Saturday night and left toilet paper all over the front yard!! I'm calling it the toilet paper passage (we could call it message) and it is alive and doing well in my neighbor's yard.  It's more fun as a parent to see it across the street. Happy Easter to everyone on activerain and to the happy kids across the street from me.
Comments 14
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
It is such a pleasure to think back over the years and know that you sold a house to a family who has lived there, taken care of it and loved it all through the years. Here's an example.  They kept the picture of the house when they bought it.  It had 7 acres in a very private area on the popular West side of our Searcy town. They had to cut the two tallest trees and a storm made them get a new garage door and roof but it is basically the same now.  It still has three bedrooms, two baths, two living areas, a workshop, AND seven acres of land!!  And the trees appear to have grown large again.    It is for sale.  $129,000.  It is a gem if you want a private place in the country.  And I love them for remembering their real estate agent after 15 years. 
Comments 10
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
Would you look at the tires on this contraption.  Can you imagine being run over by that thing?  It looks like something from a futuristic movie.... and with a line of these going across the country, it would wipe out everything. The cute kid is an activerain reader and supplied this photo saying it was taken in 1941 at Harmony Arkansas.  Perhaps we can persuade him to tell us more about the machine and reassure us that he survived this gruesome experience.  Wonder if any of these machines still operate.  Wonder if they'd work on a super highway? 
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By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
Ahhh, this is the old Rendezvous that you may have loved.  It is located on Main Street in Searcy Arkansas and many civic meetings, weddings, parties, and family meals were held in this building.  Memories are wonderful.  It was also a bus stop.  This wonderful picture of the bus stopping at the Rendezvous was made by Paula Windsor Thompson when she was a wee tot doing a photography project. It is up for sale right now.  Price is $235,000 and it was built in 1944 and has 8384 sq. ft.  For a better view of it today visit my personal website, www.barbarasduncan.com, do a MLS search and put in MLS # 10239658.  You'll find 15 pictures, including some of the inside. But for a quick view of it right now, here are two photos.  Several restaurants have tried to make it in the old building but ...
Comments 17
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
In an attempt to relive some of Searcy Arkansas's history we've been running pictures of  some old houses.  This is another one for my Searcy readers to think about and see if they remember it.  Where was it?  What is there now?  And if you want to name the person in the picture you can do that to. Fewer and fewer of these great old houses remain.  I deliberately drove over to take pictures of two houses on a street near downtown Searcy.  I knew they were in bad shape and wouldn't be around much longer.  Well!  When I got there one was already gone.  Demolished. Nothing but a lot remaining.  So I drove around and took photos of lots of the ones threatened by progress.  I have them in my inventory now!  
Comments 34
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
I'm putting this picture on my blog with no memory of where I got it.  It makes me think of the Great Depression and the work that was done during the 30's and very early 40's by the WPA and the CCC.  I put up a blog a few months ago regarding a relative's discharge papers from the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1941.  He was shipped from California back to Georgia and was about 17 years old. Could this have been in his estate pictures?  The first guy beside the truck stands like he did.  The amazing thing to me, and puzzling, is that the trucks are the same (at least in my eyes), they are lined up between rows of trees and it looks like a person may be beside each truck.  Were they ready for work? If any of you have an idea about what is going on here, comment and let me know. 
Comments 10
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
This postcard was run in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette by Steven Hanley, who has collected post cards for years and years and has a huge collection.  He runs one a day in the newspaper. This one has an explanation that at Armstrong Springs (not far from Searcy and only a memory now) in 1909 six mounted men and their dogs were about to go fox hunting.  Armstrong Springs was a small health resort that attracted visitors from far and wide because of its "miracle water" which was bottled and shipped across the nation.  The building shown here was a hotel.  When the resort faded, the location became known as Morris Institute, a Catholic school for boys.  Now the school is also gone but it lasted for a long time. When my children were growing up they'd see loads of "Morris School" boys in do...
Comments 10
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
  Have you driven by and seen something like this? A good ole Southern country boy's reaction might be, "Why, them ain't nuthin' but hafatrees." In fact, I agree.  We find these half-trees a lot in the Searcy Arkansas area.  Entergy, the power company who services the area, sends out men in trucks with buckets and trims the tree away from the power lines.  Why they don't just tell the property owner that they have to cut the trees down escapes me.  Maybe they think half a tree is better than no tree at all.  This scene above is on Country Club Road and the Country Club is shown in the distance through the half-trees.
Comments 14
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
A few nights ago we had the familiar tornado warnings again.  Hubby told me I'd better turn off the computer.  I put on my tennis shoes in case I'm blown away and wake up in some dark field with glass and tin all around me.  We didn't get hit but Center Hill Arkansas did. Again!  This is I think the third time Center Hill has been hit in the last few years.  A drive up to the area today showed the damages this time. I had blogged about some houses at Center Hill a few days ago.  It got those houses.  Look at these pictures.  They were taken at the same place I took the pictures for the earlier blog.  Thankfully, most of these were old, old structures with no occupants.  Center Hill is a tiny community about 8 miles from Searcy Arkansas and it seems to be a tornado magnet.  I'm wondering...
Comments 34
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
Here's a rediscovered photograph of a house that used to be on East Race Street in Searcy Arkansas.  It was loaned to me by Dorothy Yarnell Warden, our historical oracle, and she tells us that it was built probably around the 1920's by R. A. Neelly, a relative of hers.  It replaced the cottage that we featured yesterday and was the reason for moving the smaller house.  It was located where the Sexton's Food Market is now. I love the lady on the porch steps and the curtain blowing in the open upstairs window.  Look how the street was not paved but there appeared to be sidewalks.  The wrap porch, which is still loved by so many people, was probably REALLY used in that era.  Now I tell people that if they're thinking of building a wrap porch, count on it costing almost as much as addition...
Comments 13
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
We did another blog once arguing about how one house can not have turned into "this" house and I lost the argument.  Here we have another interesting situation.  Our Searcy history oracle, Dorothy Yarnell Warden, loaned me this picture of herself in the front yard of her house which was on Race Street where Sexton's market is today.  The dress she has on looks stiffly starched and ironed and makes me think of my mother slaving over an iron which was heated at the fireplace and then carried to the ironing board to iron clothes.  (And we complain about hard work!) Here is the house now.  It is as stiffly starched and manicured as a house can be.  It was moved to another street in town and saved.  A drive-by was satisfying because it is in such good condition.  I believe Dorothy, if we cou...
Comments 19
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
Cruising through Bald Knob Arkansas, which I have to do quite often because of properties for sale, I always delight in driving past this house. Last week I drove by it and snapped a picture.  It made me wish we had been able to keep more of the mansions that were in Searcy Arkansas and have been torn down for progress. Looking at the picture made me wish there were a few kids in the windows, which made me remember an old picture from the newspaper of a mansion in Searcy AR.  The mansion was torn down  so I put the two photos of them side by side!  Look what I discovered.  They are practically the same design with just a few decorative outside trims changed.  So now we have another job.  Were these builders the same and which one was built first.  Now I'm thinking that the houses are as...
Comments 18
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
The Deener House always led to confusion on my part because I had heard the term used a lot and I didn't know exactly what they referred to. Some said the Old Deener House.  Well.....does that mean the Deener was old or the house was old? Anita, my blogging friend, says that this is the Deener house and she knew and was friends with the girl who lived there. It's now a daycare center.  Don't you know kids like to drive up to their school and see the A, B, C's on the side of the house?  According to the courthouse records, this house was built in 1895!!  That's getting to be a little old. Back to the story.  Anita says these next two pictures were made inside this historic house.  She loaned them to me.  They make me think of some handsome reluctant young man being cornered by some girl ...
Comments 27
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
On the front page of our Searcy Daily Citizen today was this picture of a kindly gentleman holding a cage with a lovely squirrel.  The newspaper took liberty and called the squirrel a furry fiend!  Imagine!  A furry fiend! I looked closely and feel pretty sure it is my godson Nutsy, the Washington Certifried Home Inspector who works for Steven Smith in Bellingham WA.  Nutsy is caught here while trying to find my house.  He had no intention of going into a strange attic and getting caught in a cage! He probably got off at the wrong bus stop or if he was being shipped parcel post he was delivered to the wrong address.  He probably had a suitcase full of his outfits, too, and they may be lost.  He must be mortified to find himself in this predicament.  So I'm signing off this blog and go o...
Comments 19
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
Looking through an old Historical Society book I found this house and just knew where it was located.  The nice curved porch support was unique.  So I decided to do a before and after shot.I drove by the house here just knowing I'd located the right house.  I snapped my photo and hurried back to the office.  This is a finely maintained older home located near Harding University and I drive by it all the time. WRONG! The houses are not at all alike. So while in a little surrounding town I saw that unique curved porch support again and snapped another picture thinking it could be it.  WRONG!   Yep, wrong again.  So I'm asking whether my Searcy readers can tell me if this Green Booth house is still in existence or was it perhaps torn down for a parking lot. The search is on!   I have some...
Comments 41
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
When I go to Beebe Arkansas, a city about 19 miles from Searcy, and drive down their old Main Street, I admire the old look of the town.  It could actually be used for an old movie because it looks so authentic. This old building reminds me of one of my favorite buildings in Searcy Arkansas.  Check out the windows.  I can't resist giving this old picture first.    The modern version of this building is now shown below.    And the windows remind me so much of probably my favorite and perhaps most unchanged one in Searcy Arkansas.  They both also have corner entrances.    And then we have the old version of this fantastic building in Searcy Arkansas.  Note the drive-through window. Well, it might have been more of a WALK-UP window.  And it was Robertson's Drug Store at that time.
Comments 18
By Barbara S. Duncan, GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR
(RE/MAX Advantage)
This picture was posted on Facebook on Main Street Searcy's page.  I showed it to my husband who grew up in Searcy and he didn't remember it.  I'm putting it out there for folks who read this blog to see if they remember it and tell us where it was. It is certainly a very clear and lovely picture from Searcy's past.  Notice the brick paved streets.  It might be good for us to know when the city of Seary covered the bricks with asphalt. Would you call this front an Art-Deco type design? 
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