One of the more significant historical buildings in town, both in terms of the unique three-story structure itself and the collections inside, is the Calif Stone Building at 95 S. Main, home of the Eureka Springs Historical Museum. But in recent years, rainwater splashed by passing vehicles has affected the front of the building.
This past year, a stonewall was added to protect the entrance, and now the museum building is undergoing a major facelift. Currently you can see through the front part of the building into the museum as workers tackle rebuilding the wall that rotted, although plywood covers the opening at night where windows used to be. Workers employed by Pemberton Painting are not just repainting, but doing major restorative carpentry work at the building that has housed ESHM since 1971.
Mayor Butch Berry, an architect with a special interest in historic preservation, has been involved with the building for decades. While he was in architecture school, he did work on the building for an architectural preservation class project.
“A friend, Kenneth Davenport, and I measured the building for the Historic American Buildings Survey,” Berry said. “I did the original grant application in 1978-79 for the porch, which was built on a couple years later. Prior to being taken over for the museum, it was the Elk’s Club.”
Berry said the architecture style is known as the Second Empire, which is always recognized by the high mansard roofs (also known as a French or curb roof) that are four-sided gambrel-style hip roofs. The steep roof with windows creates an additional floor of habitable space. The only other example of Second Empire that Berry knows of in Eureka Springs is Penn Castle.
“It is really neat to look at the front of the building the way it was originally compared to how it is today,” Berry said. “There was no porch on it originally. It was just a square front. I worked on the design for the porch. It’s neat to see the before and after photos of the building.”
Berry said the building is also significant in that it is not just a historical museum, but an art museum with the works of many well-known artists who have called Eureka Springs home.
Currently workers with Pemberton Painting have been climbing up and down tall ladders and using a scissor lift to work on the second floor exterior portions of the building, including areas with a lot of intricate trim work.
“You can walk out on the third floor, so work on that part is really easy,” paint contractor Penny Pemberton said. “We were trying to get the most difficult things done when foot traffic was the least. We had the scissor lift over the New Year’s weekend to reach high areas because the museum was closed down so much. The challenge with any downtown building in Eureka is the foot traffic and tourism part of it. We waited until the slow season even though it will take longer because we have to work with the correct weather. We were able to tent off the deck in order to paint underneath even when the weather is bad.”
Pemberton said a lot of the grant money for the project that started December 1 is going for carpentry, not painting. Rotted wood had to be replaced next to the front door and on other areas of the building. She said metal parts of the building are in good shape.
“You can see on the third floor the wood part has the most damage as compared to the metal,” Pemberton said. “Metal will last longer than wood and we did a few specific things to make it last even longer. If the building is prepped and painted every ten years, it will last forever.”
Pemberton said their contract gives them four more weeks to complete the work but, if the weather is cooperative, she hopes to finish it in three.
The work is funded half by real estate transfer taxes funneled through the Department of Arkansas Heritage. The other half is paid by the museum, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
The museum is dedicated to preserving and exhibiting documents, photographs and artifacts pertaining to the history of Eureka Springs and surrounding areas. In addition to the main floor with exhibits that tell the history of Eureka Springs, the second floor contains more exhibits and an art gallery featuring local artists who helped put Eureka Springs on the map as an art town.