Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 09/03/97
SUMMARY
The Fakes-Bull House is being nominated to theArkansas Register of Historic Places underCriterion C as an example of the transition between the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles of architecture. It is ineligible for the National Register at this time, because vinyl siding obscures many of its historic details.
ELABORATION
In 1850, the country in Woodruff County which is now McCrory was a vast wilderness. Two miles to the south was a village of DeView, one of the oldest settlements in the area, and as legend has it was settled by the French who gave the village its unusual name. Eventually, a stagecoach line ran through DeView which contributed to its growth. The land upon which the City of McCrory now sits was bought by Cyrus G. McCrory on August 30, 1862 for $3,500 in confederate money. After the death of Cyrus G. McCrory in 1869, his son, Cyrus Waded ("Wade"), became the administrator of his father’s estate and handled the family’s business affairs.
In 1870, Wade moved his family to Waco, Texas, but maintained his farming interest in the county through the sharecrop system. Dr. Gideon B. Fakes became the manager of Wade’s affairs and continued the arrangement until 1890 when Wade and his wife moved back to McCrory. In 1886-1887, the rails of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad, which ran from Memphis to Little Rock, was laid two miles to the north of DeView through the McCrory family land. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1889, the petition for the incorporation of the Town of McCrory was filed in the Woodruff County Court. On January 30, 1890, the petition was heard in court and the town was incorporated. After the town was laid out, there was a gradual exodus from DeView to McCrory.
Gideon B. Fakes was born on April 11, 1841. He grew up in Lebanon, Tennessee, where he attended school and planned at an early age to study medicine. Fakes attended medical school in St. Louis and returned to Lebanon. Becoming dissatisfied, he decided to make his life in a new state. In 1860, her joined the Sam Kittrell family in a covered wagon and settled on land about a quarter mile north of where McCrory is today. Several pioneer families lived in a small clearing where they built their homes. Two miles to the south was the village of DeView, the largest settlement in the area. Dr. Fakes set up his medical practice. When the Civil War broke out, Dr. Fakes joined the Confederate Army and fought under the command of General Nathan B. Forrest as assistant surgeon of his company. While on furlough in 1863, Dr. Fakes married Eleanor J. Edmonds and built a large log home on land north of McCrory. After the town was incorporated, Dr. Fakes, with the aid of his son, Walter, engineered the laying out of the streets of McCrory. The first street was named Edmonds Avenue, which to this day serves as the main business street in McCrory. Dr. Fakes organized the first Methodist church in McCrory and served as Sunday school superintendent until his death. After retiring from medicine, Dr. Fakes entered the mercantile business along with several other local business men and started the Fakes Mercantile Company, one of the largest in Woodruff County at the time. In 1905, the Fakes decided to build a new home in the city of McCrory. The house was designed by the J. H. Davermann & Son Architectural Firm and built by a construction company out of Wynne, Arkansas. The house was completed in 1907 and was known as the "home of hospitality." The house had ten rooms located on two floors as well as a full basement and full attic. The Fakes, their son, Walter, and his family lived in the house until the deaths of Dr. Fakes in 1918 and Mrs. Fakes in 1919. That same year, Walter Fakes sold the house to Thomas Cheatham Bull.
Thomas Cheatham Bull, the second owner of the house, was born in 1858. He also hailed from Tennessee in the town of Moscow where he lived and attended school. In 1871, his father, Jeremiah, moved his family to Arkansas to a site about three miles south of DeView. After the death of his father in 1881, Bull became the administrator of his estate and took over the business affairs of the family. Years later, after the addition of a general store, cotton gin, and a school, the area near DeView became known as "Bulltown." Bull’s first marriage ended in1895 shortly after the birth of their second daughter, Terry. He was married again in 1906. Their son, Thomas Cheatham Bull, Jr., was born in 1911. Some time after this, the elder Bull left Bulltown and moved his family to McCrory. In 1919, Bull bought the Fakes home and adjoining property from Walter Fakes. Throughout his life in McCrory, Bull maintained his farming interest at Bulltown and operated several businesses in McCrory for which he was widely respected. He was a charter member of the Farmers Merchants Bank of McCrory and was elected as one of the first directors of the bank. Thomas C. Bull died in 1932 and is buried in the Bull family plot north of McCrory in the Fakes Cemetery. In the 1940s, Bull’s second daughter, Terry, married Grover C. McCrory, the grandson of Cyrus G. McCrory. There were no children born of this marriage. Thomas C. Bull, Jr., inherited the estate of his father and lived with his family in the Fakes-Bull House until his death in 1990. After the death of his wife, LaDell, in 1991, the estate of T. C. Bull, including the Fakes-Bull House, was inherited by their son, Thomas C, Bull, III.
SIGNIFICANCE
Built in 1906, the Fakes-Bull House is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion C for architectural significance, as an example of a transition between the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. The interior retains an abundance of high-styled features including an inglenook, dark mahogany stained woodwork, decorative fretwork screens, and original chandeliers. It is ineligible for the National Register at this time because vinyl siding obscures many of its exterior historic details.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bronte, Dorothy H. "History of DeView - McCrory." Woodruff County Historical Society Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Volume V, No. 4, Fall 1977.
Information provided by Thomas C. Bull, III, 1997.
Paysinger, Vernon. "The McCrory Family in McCrory." Woodruff County Historical Society Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Volume XI, No. 1, Winter 1983.
"The Town of McCrory Incorporation Papers," Woodruff County Historical Society Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Volume XXII, 1995.