c.1920 general store in downtown Havana.

Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/06/22

SUMMARY

 

Constructed around 1920, the McBride General Store was once the social and literal heart of the Havana Commercial District. However, over the last few years, the historic commercial structures of the town have slowly been demolished. The lone survivor of this is the McBride General Store. As such, the McBride General Store is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the commercial history of Havana, Yell County, Arkansas. Furthermore, the McBride family’s impact on the residents of the area through their generous business practices, charity, and development of community represent a significant influence in the history of the city. As such, the McBride General Store is also being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion B with local significance for its association with the McBride family. 

 

Narrative Statement of Significance

 

The community of Havana, in Yell County, Arkansas, was incorporated in 1900. Its existence was initially made possible by the introduction of the railroad to Yell County, which occurred in 1898.[1] The site for the town was owned by a Mr. O.J. Ferguson, who hired a General G.W. Green to survey it and divide it into lots. Due to Mr. Green’s efforts, the town was originally called Greenville; however, it was thought that there were too many town names ending in “ville,” so the community was renamed Havana in 1903, after that name was selected by a committee. The reason for the selection of a Spanish name is unknown, though it is thought to have been a play on the word “haven.”[2] A year prior to the name change, in 1902, a post office was established in the town.[3]

 

In the early 1900s, the community had become home to a large lumber operation by the Valley Pine Lumber Company, which erected several saw and planning mills in the area. It was also home to several large cotton farms, which bordered along the Petit Jean River to the south of the town. Due to the economic growth afforded by these industries, the Bank of Havana opened its doors for business in 1905. As these industries flourished, so did the town. Like many towns and cities across the country, Havana experienced an economic boom in the years following the first world war. By the 1920s, the town was home to a variety of commercial enterprises, including but not limited to a movie theater, hotels, cafes, general stores, barber shops/beauty parlors, service stations, multiple cotton gins, and a shingle mill. It also featured five churches and a school.[4]

 

Completed in the early developmental phase of Havana, the building at the northern corner of the intersection of Main Street and Railroad Avenue, later to be renamed McBride Street, was erected around 1920 and was, eventually, one a of series of commercial structures that ringed the railroad depot that set just southeast of Main Street along the rail-line. According to the one known Sanborn Fire Insurance map for Havana, the building originally contained a drug store in the southern half and the town’s post office in the northern half.[5] However, by the mid-1930s, the drug store had closed, and the McBride General Store, began by Wayne McBride, had opened in its place.

 

Wayne McBride was born on September 17, 1888, to Andrew H. and Cornelia Bird McBride in the area that would eventually become Havana. Around 1900, the McBride family moved to the vicinity of Belleville, Arkansas, roughly five miles to the east of Havana, where the family operated a farm. In 1911, Wayne McBride married Kathy Johnson of Pope County, Arkansas. Sadly, this marriage was short lived, as Kathy McBride passed away in 1916 just five years after they were married. McBride remarried six years later, in 1922, to Alma Wardlaw Dodd of the Carden Bottoms region of Yell County. Alma had one son from her previous marriage, Robert L. Dodd, and her marriage with Wayne would go to produce two more sons, James Guinn and Lawayne, and one daughter, Delena Gant.[6] Around the same time as his marriage to Alma, Wayne McBride had moved back to Havana, where he worked at the Union Store, which was located at the corner of Broadway and Main streets. In January 1930, McBride resigned from the Union Store and took a position at the Bank of Havana, which was located next door. However, after being taken hostage during a robbery at the bank in the mid-1930s, Wayne decided that banking was not for him. He rented the former drug store space from the president of the Bank of Havana, John Mitchell, but the post office continued to remain in the other half. After the Bank of Havana closed in 1943, the post office relocated into the former bank building, allowing McBride to expand his business into the other side of the building.[7]

 

Wayne McBride quickly established himself as a pillar of the community. During the early years of the store, Wayne created a credit program that helped many of the local people obtain needed supplies even during hard economic times, a practice that continued for the length of the store’s existence. They also offered a delivery service for patrons that could not make it to the store for one reason or another. Wayne McBride also created a “Drawing Day,” which took place on certain Saturdays, where patrons would enter to win a $5.00 prize. Their commitment to the people of Havana, as well as their wide assortment of products, ranging from food staples and animal feed to mechanical parts and clothing essentials, helped the McBride store grow and prosper over the following decades.[8]

 

The operations of the McBride General Store were a family affair. The McBride’s oldest son, James Guinn, who was born on September 16, 1924, reportedly would build a fire in the store’s coal-burning stove each morning before going to school and would then return to store to assist his father after school. Young McBride would also work at the store on Saturdays and all week during his summer breaks. However, Guinn McBride did leave Havana for a period. During World War II, he served in the United States Coast Guard, though he returned to his hometown when the war concluded.[9] Not too long after his return to Havana, Guinn McBride met Frankie Lou Apple. Ms. Apple was originally from the nearby town of Belleville, where she graduated in 1943, at the age of 16. She then headed to California, where she worked in a lemon-packing plant. After the conclusion of the war, Ms. Apple moved back to Arkansas, where she enrolled in the Draughn’s School of Business in Little Rock. This education allowed her to obtain a bookkeeping position at the Matson Construction Company, where she worked for ten years. During this period, Ms. Apple would commonly return to Belleville to visit her family on the weekends, during which time she became reacquainted with Guinn McBride, whom she had casually known as a child. Because of this, Ms. Apple began making more frequent trips home and Guinn began making regular trips to Little Rock. Eventually, the two were married on March 3, 1956. That same year, Guinn McBride took over the operations of the store completely from his father.[10]

 

Guinn McBride and his wife, Frankie, continued legacy of community support and good business that Wayne McBride had established. Many local residents remember Guinn McBride allowing the boys of the community to ride in the back of his truck while he delivered groceries in the area. He was also known for giving the local children impromptu baseball lessons in front of the store and teaching them how to drive while they were out with him on delivery runs. On at least a few occasions, Guinn McBride took several of the town’s kids to nearby Danville to see movies at the cinema.[11]

 

With the construction of the interstate system in the post-World War II years, people were less likely to take the old highways to get around the state. At the same time, the railways began to wane as the primary transportation method for goods or personal travel, this led to many of the train stations and depots to close across the country. As much of the commerce in Havana depended on the industries supported by these transportation systems, businesses in the area began to close or relocate. As a result, the majority of the businesses in Havana were forced to close their doors. However, the McBride General Store persevered. Its continued success was likely due to the family’s commitment to their community and not just to their bottom line. These practices allowed the McBride Store to keep its doors open until Guinn McBride’s sudden passing in 2001.[12] As a sign of appreciation to the McBride family and their long legacy of community support, the City of Havana renamed Railroad Street to McBride Street in 2001.[13]

 

 

Statement of Significance

 

The building at the corner of Main and McBride streets served as the commercial and metaphorical heart of Havana, Arkansas, for the majority of its existence. The business established by the McBride family in that building touched the lives of countless numbers of local residents not only by providing goods and services, but also through their charity and commitment to community. It was because of these things that the building and the business it housed endured when so much of the rest of the town fell into disrepair, ruin, and eventual demolition. Today, the McBride General Store not only stands in testament of the legacy of the McBride family, but also as one of the only reminders of the once prosperous commercial core of the city of Havana. As such the McBride General Store is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with commercial history of Havana, Yell County, Arkansas. Furthermore, the contributions to the community made by Wayne and Guinn McBride had a lasting impact on the city’s history and civic pride. These contributions led the city to rename the street in front of the store to McBride Street to honor the family’s accomplishments and to recognize their significance to the people of the area. As such, the McBride General Store is also being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion B with local significance for its association with commercial and civic contributions of Wayne and Guinn McBride to the City of Havana and the surrounding area.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

• Ancestry.com. “Wayne McBride (1888-1981).” Found at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/826321/person/6350910048/facts?_phsrc=Skw1266&_phstart=successSource. (accessed 1 November 2021)

   

• Banks, Wayne. History of Yell County, Arkansas. Van Buren, Arkansas: The Press-Argus, 1959. Pg. 177.

   

• Baker, Russell P. Arkansas Post Offices From Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory, 1832-1990. Revised Ed. Little Rock, Arkansas: Arkansas Genealogical Society, Inc., 2006. Pg. 87.

   

• Edwards, Gayla McBride. Interview with the author. 8 December 2021.

   

• Edwards, Gayla McBride. Of An Old General Store and Its Owner. Self-Published, 2001. Found in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

   

• Obituary for Guinn McBride. Yell County Record, Danville, Arkansas. 10 January 2001.

   

• Sanborn Map Company. “Havana, Yell County, Arkansas.” March 1926. New York: Sanborn Map Company, Sheet 1.

   

• Teske, Steven. “Havana (Yell County).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. 19 December 2016. Found at https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/havana-yell-county-6130/. (accessed 26 October 2021)