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Delta Cultural Center celebrates Heritage Month with new program, beloved event
March 14, 2007
--History After-Hours and Gospel Fest scheduled in May
HELENA-WEST HELENA – May’s Heritage Month 2007 celebration in Arkansas will be marked at the Delta Cultural Center with the introduction of a new feature and a new edition of an old favorite.
In addition to the highly successful seventh edition of the Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Fest, slated Saturday, May 26, the Delta Cultural Center will embrace the business theme of this year’s Heritage Month with a number of “after-hours” events that focus on major structural restoration efforts in the Delta, and the businesses and craftsmen who make them possible.
The month-long History After-Hours program starts off on Wednesday, May 9, at the historic Moore-Horner home, a DCC property, and continues over the next three weeks with visits to the Palmer House near Marvell, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, and Centennial Baptist Church. Each evening event will be highlighted by presentations from restoration specialists speaking about the efforts underway at each site, and will also feature light refreshments for all guests.
All of the History After-Hours events begin at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend.
History After-Hours is sponsored by the DCC in partnership with Phillips County Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Helena, the Rural Heritage Development Initiative, and the Helena-West Helena Historic District Commission.
Each year, the Department of Arkansas Heritage sets aside the month of May to highlight a particular aspect of Arkansas’s rich state heritage so that residents of the state may better recognize and appreciate these aspects of the Natural State.
The Moore-Hornor Home at 323 Beech Street in Helena-West Helena will be the focus of the first History After-Hours on Wednesday, May 9. The speaker at the event has yet to be announced.
The Moore-Hornor Home, built in 1859, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is regarded as both a stately example of the asymmetrical Greek Revival and Italianate architecture in the Delta, as well as an important link to the area’s history. Graveyard Hill, site of one of the bloodiest engagements in the Battle of Helena, tapers off into the back yard of the Moore-Hornor Home. Two shots from the fighting in the Civil War can still be noted on huge sliding doors which separate parlors in the home.
On Wednesday, May 16, the after-hours event will be held at the Palmer House north of Marvell on Highway 49 near the Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park. Built in 1873 by prominent attorney and Civil War veteran John Coleman Palmer, the structure is currently being restored under the direction of contractor Robert Sanders of Helena, who also oversaw the Moore-Hornor restoration effort. Sanders is scheduled to speak at the May 16 event.
On Tuesday, May 22, representatives of Norton Arts will speak at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 123 Columbia Street in Helena-West Helena, detailing the restoration of the famed Charles Quest mural in the church sanctuary. Built at the height of the Great Depression in 1934 under the guidance of Father Thomas J. Martin, St. Mary’s brought together architect Charles Eames; artist Charles Quest, who painted the mural in the new church, and Emil Frei, who designed and installed the stained glass for the church. Frei was considered one of the world’s foremost glass designers and was frequently utilized for projects at the Vatican. Local historian Annetta Beauchamp will also speak. Beauchamp is considered an expert on the history of the parish and the construction of the church building, a recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places.
On Tuesday, May 29, Centennial Baptist Church at the corner of York and Columbia Streets will host the final evening of the History After-Hours. Tommy Jameson, a Little Rock-based restoration architect, will speak on the continuing efforts to restore the structure. Built in 1905 under the leadership of Dr. Elias Camp Morris, the building is today owned by the E.C. Morris Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the property and revitalizing its role in the community and the Delta.
Gospel Fest
The Delta Cultural Center will host its seventh edition of the Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Fest on Saturday, May 26, offering a continuing popular favorite to the festivities of Arkansas Heritage Month.
Music at the May 26 festival begins at 10 a.m. and is slated to end at midnight. Admission is free, and the public is invited and encouraged to attend.
The festival, a production of the Delta Cultural Center’s Delta Music Documentation Project, features live musical performances throughout the day and evening by national, regional, and local gospel groups and performers on the DCC’s Cherry Street Pavilion stage in historic downtown Helena-West Helena.
Originating in 2001, the Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Festival offered an opportunity for the DCC to document one of the major musical genres of the Delta, gospel music. Today, it continues that mission, even as it has evolved into one of the center’s most successful and eagerly-awaited annual events.
For more information, interested persons can contact the Delta Cultural Center at (870) 338-4350 or (800) 358-0972.
The Delta Cultural Center shares the vision of all seven agencies of the Department of Arkansas Heritage – to preserve and promote Arkansas heritage as a source of pride and satisfaction. Other agencies within the department are the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, the Arkansas Arts Council, and the Natural Heritage Commission.
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