Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/03/19
SUMMARY
The Heffelfinger-Freund House, located at 1408 East Rockwood Trail, in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas, is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion C with local significance for its importance as a good residential example of the Mid-Century Modern style of architecture.Designed and built in 1955 with an addition constructed in 1978, and designed by the architect John Williams, who was the founding faculty member of the school of architecture at the University of Arkansas, the Heffelfinger-Freund House represented a departure from some of the other homes in its neighborhood.Referred to as the Contemporary style in McAlester’s A Field Guide to American Houses the Heffelfinger-Freund House exhibits many of the characteristics of the style, including wide overhangs, contrasting wall materials and textures, and unusual window shapes and placements.Although the large addition, which is less than 50 years old, makes the house ineligible for the National Register, the Heffelfinger-Freund is still significant as one of the few residential designs that Williams carried out, and is therefore eligible for inclusion in the Arkansas Register.
HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY
The establishment of Washington County and Arkansas’s western border began in 1820 with the creation of Crawford County by the Arkansas territorial legislature.Four years later, Congress passed a bill that moved the western boundary of the Arkansas territory 40 miles to the west, although white settlers were not allowed to establish residence in the new area due to an 1817 treaty.In 1827 the Secretary of War lifted the ban on white settlement in the Cherokee country, and on October 13, 1827, Lovely County was created by the Arkansas territorial legislature.The following year, a treaty moved the territorial boundary 40 miles to the east, to its present location, and on October 17, 1828, the territorial legislature created Washington County out of Lovely County, which ceased to exist.[1]
Although settlement began in Washington County and the Fayetteville area in the early 1800s, it was not until the arrival of the railroad that the region really began to develop.Leaders in the area had the construction of a railroad in the area as a goal prior to the Civil War.However, it took many years before it was finally accomplished.In 1868, the Arkansas legislature granted aid of $15,000 per mile to the Northwestern Railroad Border Company for the completion of a railroad from Missouri to Van Buren through Fayetteville and Bentonville.However, they were not able to accomplish it.[2]
The completion of a railroad line through Washington County would not happen until the Frisco decided to undertake construction in the late 1870s.The Frisco surveyed two lines through Washington County, one through Prairie Grove Valley and one through Fayetteville.Businessmen in the Fayetteville area influenced the Frisco’s decision by purchasing right-of-way for the line from Missouri to Fayetteville for $8,000 and also contributing $2,500 for a depot in Fayetteville.[3]
When the first train arrived in Fayetteville on June 8, 1881, it was a great occasion.Approximately 10,000 people greeted it, and J. R. Pettigrew, who was the publisher of the Arkansas Sentinel, commented, “Fayetteville, and Northwest Arkansas, are exuberant with joy.We are entering a new era; the humdrum of the stage coach days is past, we are out of the old grooves; the steam is up, the bell is ringing and we plunge into the stirring active scenes of the new life.”[4]
Throughout the twentieth century, as Fayetteville’s population grew, the city expanded as well.By 1948, the date of the last Sanborn map completed for Fayetteville, the city limits on the north side of Fayetteville stopped just north of Shrewsbury (now Rockwood Trail) and just to the east of Mission Avenue (AR 45).[5]However, throughout the 1950s up to the present day, Fayetteville has continued to expand to the north and east, which has necessitated the platting of several other additions to the north of the city.The Crestwood Acres Addition to the City of Fayetteville, where the Heffelfinger-Freund House is located, was one of several additions to the city that were platted sometime during the early 1950s.[6]It was in the Crestwood Acres Addition that William and Charley Heffelfinger bought land and hired John Williams to design their home.
William Agnew Heffelfinger was born on January 2, 1915, in Miller County to Agnew T. and Myrtle Oneita Witter Heffelfinger.Apparently, his mother died when he was young and he was raised by his father and two older sisters.After being educated in the public schools of Washington County, Heffelfinger studied at the University of Arkansas College of Business Administration, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in public administration, a Master’s degree in business administration and a Doctorate in finance and economics.Also while at the University of Arkansas, Heffelfinger lettered while playing on the University’s tennis team.[7]
On February 15, 1941, Heffelfinger married Charley Lee Bird, who was born December 31, 1912, in Waldron, Arkansas, the daughter of Charles Ollie and Cynthia Jane Bird.She, like Heffelfinger, was an avid golfer.In fact, Heffelfinger was a caddy at the Fayetteville Country Club during his teen years.Heffelfinger was employed by the University of Arkansas for over 40 years as the Associated Director of the Industrial Research and Extension Center and as a Professor of Business Administration.As his obituary states, “Dr. Heffelfinger's own field of specialization was finance and economics, with emphasis on regional and small area development. His personal work has involved participation in numerous research projects for Arkansas, including studies on the Buffalo National River, the Arkansas River Region and the Pulaski-Saline Metropolitan area. …His doctoral dissertation was titled ‘Capital Formation Through Local Government Bond Issues;’ and teaching assignments were in commercial banking, public finance, current economic problems and regional economic research.”Heffelfinger retired on June 30, 1982.His wife, Charley, died on May 26, 1999, and he died on January 27, 2003.[8]
When the Heffelfingers looked to build their new home at 1408 East Rockwood Trail, they hired architect John G. Williams to complete the task.The Heffelfingers did not need a large house – they had no children – so Williams designed a small cozy house with two bedrooms, although the guest room was very open to the living room, and a large open living room centered on the house’s fireplace.The use of the large banks of windows away from the entrance allowed the house to interact with its site, but still be private from the approach.The large terrace also encouraged interaction with the outside, and the large number of jalousie windows allowed airflow throughout the house.
Williams was born on April 30, 1915, in Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, to Charles Bunyan Williams and Vera Jane Wallace Williams.Initially, Williams studied engineering at Arkansas Polytechnic College, which is now Arkansas Tech University, before studying for his bachelor’s in architecture from Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University).After getting his degree in 1940, he taught drawing and math at Arkansas Polytechnic College, and while there he met Faye Millard of Gravelly, whom he married on September 6, 1941.[9]
Williams left Russellville in 1942 to begin teaching at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, but he left there to begin his long career at the University of Arkansas in 1946.At the University of Arkansas, Williams began to develop what would become the Department of Architecture.Interestingly, the program was established after the curriculum for the program was accidentally included in the University’s 1946-1947 academic catalog.Williams would remain chair of the department for twenty years, and remained a part of the faculty until his retirement in 1985.[10]
Williams’ influence on the department was immense.Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Williams was able to help bring several notable architects and designers to the University of Arkansas campus, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, and Frank Lloyd Wright.In addition, Williams’ relationship with Arkansas native Edward Durell Stone, and Stone’s role in designing buildings on the University campus at the time, allowed Stone to participate in student critiques, both formally and informally.Williams was also instrumental in the efforts to have the Department of Architecture to earn its full accreditation in 1960, and the development of the School of Architecture was the subject of Williams’ book, The Curious and the Beautiful, which was published in 1984.[11]
Outside of his work at the University, Williams also maintained a private architecture practice.Williams designed several residences, including the Durst House (NR-listed May 28, 2015) and the Clack House (NR-listed March 2, 2006) both in Fayetteville as well as the Dr. Neil Crow House in Fort Smith (NR-listed September 18, 2018).[12]
The use of the Mid-Century Modern style for the Heffelfinger-Freund House was not an unusual choice, since it was a style that was gaining popularity for modern buildings after World War II.The AIA reported in the early 1960s that a shift was occurring where people were starting to embrace modern architecture, especially for business buildings, but still even to a certain degree for homes.The book Mid-Century Architecture in America states:
No sooner has America embraced the new architecture than it has blossomed out into richness and inventiveness that must, in retrospect, astound even its most daring prophets.It’s stark, bare, and square austerity, largely a gesture of protest against over-decorative eclecticism, has given way to a less self-conscious expression.
Taking up the fundamental tenets of the earlier “modern,” a new modified modern with three basic characteristics has developed.These characteristics are:
First, a totally new emphasis on the interior spaces of a building in terms of their usefulness, comfort, and beauty and their inter-relationship.In the past, rooms within a building were rigid compartments.Interior spaces are more flexible and sometimes can be divided at will.They open and flow into one another in a dynamic rather than static relationship.
Second, there is a new indoor-outdoor relationship.The use (some complain the overuse) of glass has made it possible to bring nature’s plants and greenery into the building, and extend the building out into nature.Planted plazas, interior courts, and terraces have brought nature even into our urban working environment.
Third, our buildings appear lighter, often buoyant.Skyscrapers soar effortlessly into the air.Other buildings rest lightly on the ground as though to disturb it as little as possible.Even where they hug the earth and adapt to its contours, they avoid being massive and ponderous.[13]
The Heffelfinger-Freund House reflects these characteristics of the style, especially the usefulness and inter-relationship of the interior spaces and the indoor-outdoor relationship, which is best manifested in the large amount of windows on the east side of the house and the large terrace on the north end of the original house.Furthermore, Mid-Century Architecture in America states that all of the AIA award-winning houses “…share an emphatic withdrawal from the bustle of the street and from ostentation as well.”“If one word were to summarize the aspiration of American architecture at mid-century, that word would be ‘liveability.’”[14]Although the Heffelfinger-Freund House does withdraw from the ostentation, it is somewhat unusual in that the large bank of windows doesn’t face away from the street.Rather, the bank of windows faces to the east, mainly to take advantage of the slope of the lot and the view.The only way that it really withdraws from the street is in the fact that vegetation screens the east side from the street.
The Heffelfinger-Freund House also perfectly illustrates the description of the style in McAlester and McAlester’s A Field Guide to American Houses, which they call “contemporary.”They describe the style by saying:
This style was the favorite for architect-designed houses built during the period from about 1950 to 1970.It occurs in two distinctive subtypes based on roof shapes:flat or gabled.The flat-roofed subtype is a derivation of the earlier International Style and houses of this subtype are sometimes referred to as American International.They resemble the International in having flat roofs and no decorative detailing, but lack the stark white stucco wall surfaces, which are usually replaced by various combinations of wood, brick, or stone.Landscaping and integration into the landscape are also stressed, unlike the pristine white International house that was meant to be set upon the landscape as a piece of sculpture.
The gabled subtype is more strongly influenced by the earlier modernism of the Craftsman and Prairie styles.It features overhanging eaves, frequently with exposed roof beams.Heavy piers may support gables.As in the flat-roofed subtypes, various combinations of wood, brick, and stone wall cladding are used and traditional detailing is absent.Both subtypes are most commonly one-story forms although two-story versions are not infrequent.[15]
It is not known how long the Heffelfingers lived in the house, but it is known that it was less than twenty years.After the Heffelfingers left the house, it was owned by Lester H. and Leah Courtney, and they sold it to Joel S. Freund on September 20, 1972.[16]After Freund married Carla Crawley and they started a family, it was necessary to enlarge the house to accommodate the growing family, most importantly by adding additional bedrooms.Early in 1978, Bob Acree, a student at the University of Arkansas who was also an intern architect at Smith & Russell Architects and who would get his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture in 1980, designed an addition to the house that contained a bedroom, recreation room with sewing area, office, porch, and storage areas.The new addition added approximately 1,000 square feet to the original house’s approximately 1,500 square feet, but Acree designed the new construction to blend seamlessly with Williams’ design for the original house.Since the completion of the addition, the Freunds have continued to live in the house and still own the house today.[17]
The Heffelfinger-Freund House represents an outstanding example of the Mid-Century Modern style of architecture in Fayetteville and an excellent example of Williams’ philosophy.The interrelation between indoors and outdoors, the lack of ornamentation, and the use of windows to allow privacy were hallmarks of the style.The house that John Williams designed really exhibits the characteristics of the style, and is an excellent example of the style.The Heffelfinger-Freund House also remains an excellent residential design of the significant Arkansas architect John Williams.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPERTY
The design of the Heffelfinger-Freund House is an excellent representation of the shift in residential design that was occurring across the country after World War II.The decorative pre-war revival styles, which were all the rage, were being pushed to the side by more functional and livable residential designs.Although some people after World War II still believed “that only shrunken colonial, Cape Cod ranches, or Cinderella homes properly represent the American way of life…a trend [had] now begun working the other way.…[It was] slowly becoming apparent to people that architects working with builders can give them better, more thoughtful design for their money.”[18]
This post-World-War-II architecture moved away from an “over-decorative eclecticism to a less self-conscious expression.”Expression, rather, was manifest through window placement and design, placement of the home in the landscape, and also through interior space arrangement.Also, the Mid-Century Modern style greatly espoused the relationship between the indoors and the outdoors (which was partly expressed through the window placement and design).
The style and its design also put more emphasis on privacy.Privacy played a role in the design, both on the exterior – large amounts of glass more often appeared on the rear of the property, making it private from the street – as well as on the interior.“The interior, too, emphasizes privacy for the members of the family from each other.The children’s right to their noisy pursuits is recognized along with that of the parents not to hear Huckleberry Hound’s televised antics.”[19]
The Heffelfinger-Freund House clearly reflects the design trends that were impacting residential architecture in the Mid-Century Modern style after World War II.The house lacks the applied ornamentation that was so often used prior to World War II, and uses window placement and a variety of materials to give visual interest and ornamentation.As McAlester and McAlester point out with respect to the style, the Heffelfinger-Freund House has “no decorative detailing.”Furthermore, it “lack[s] the stark white stucco wall surfaces, which are usually replaced by various combinations of wood, brick, or stone.” [20]
The design of the Heffelfinger-Freund House also reflects the increased relationship between the indoors and outdoors, as well as the issue of privacy in house design.The design of the Heffelfinger-Freund House, with its large windows along the east façade, encouraged residents and visitors to interact with the house’s surroundings.The placement of the large windows away from the street also emphasized privacy for the house’s occupants from the street.
Since the Heffelfinger-Freund House is an excellent example of the Mid-Century Modern style designed by the Arkansas architect John Williams, it is being nominated to the Arkansas Register with local significance under Criterion C.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acree, Bob.Plans for an “Addition for the Mr. & Mrs. Joel Freund Residence.”January 19, 1978.In the possession of Joel and Carla Freund, current owners of the property.
History of Washington County, Arkansas.Springdale, AR:Shiloh Museum, 1989.
Information on Bob Acree found at:http://www.acreedesignconsulting.com/about.
Information on Charley Lee Bird Heffelfinger found at:https://arkansasgravestones.org/view.php?id=506123.
Information on the Crestwood Acres Addition to the City of Fayetteville in the files of the Washington County Assessor’s Office.Accessed through www.actdatascout.com.
McAlester, Virginia & Lee.A Field Guide to American Houses.New York:Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1984.
Obituary for Dr. William Agnew Heffelfinger.Northwest Arkansas Times.30 January 2003.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Fayetteville, Arkansas.1948.
Von Eckardt, Wolf.Mid-Century Architecture in America.Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961.
Wallack, Catherine.“John Gilbert Williams.”The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Found at:http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7598.
Warranty Deed for the Heffelfinger-Freund House.1972.In the files of the Washington County Assessor’s Office.Found at:https://www.actdatascout.com/Image/DocumentView?type=Deed&countyIdYearRPID=5143201838933&countyId=5143&book=837&page=661&inModal=False.
Williams, John. The Curious and the Beautiful. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1984.
Williams, John.Plans for the Heffelfinger House.1955.In the possession of Joel and Carla Freund, current owners of the property.
[2] Ibid, p. 236.
[3] Ibid, p. 237.
[4] Ibid, p. 235.
[5] Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Fayetteville, Arkansas.1948.
[6] Information on the Crestwood Acres Addition to the City of Fayetteville in the files of the Washington County Assessor’s Office.Accessed through www.actdatascout.com.
[7] Obituary for Dr. William Agnew Heffelfinger.Northwest Arkansas Times.30 January 2003.
[8] Obituary for Dr. William Agnew Heffelfinger.Northwest Arkansas Times.30 January 2003, and Information on Charley Lee Bird Heffelfinger found at:https://arkansasgravestones.org/view.php?id=506123.
[9] Wallack, Catherine.“John Gilbert Williams.”The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.Found at:http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7598.
[10] Wallack, Catherine.“John Gilbert Williams.”The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.Found at:http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7598.
[11] Wallack, Catherine.“John Gilbert Williams.”The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.Found at:http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7598.
[12] Wallack, Catherine.“John Gilbert Williams.”The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.Found at:http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7598.
[13] Von Eckardt, Wolf.Mid-Century Architecture in America.Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961. pp. 21-22.
[14] Von Eckardt, Wolf.Mid-Century Architecture in America.Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961. p. 22.
[15] McAlester, Virginia & Lee.A Field Guide to American Houses.New York:Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1984, p. 482.
[16] Warranty Deed for the Heffelfinger-Freund House.1972.In the files of the Washington County Assessor’s Office.Found at:https://www.actdatascout.com/Image/DocumentView?type=Deed&countyIdYearRPID=5143201838933&countyId=5143&book=837&page=661&inModal=False.
[17] Acree, Bob.Plans for an “Addition for the Mr. & Mrs. Joel Freund Residence.”January 19, 1978.In the possession of Joel and Carla Freund, current owners of the property and Information on Bob Acree found at:http://www.acreedesignconsulting.com/about.
[18] Von Eckardt, Wolf.Mid-Century Architecture in .Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961, p. 21.
[19] Von Eckardt, Wolf.Mid-Century Architecture in .Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961, p. 22.