Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/06/18

SUMMARY

The WPA Privy at 9359 White Drive in the Cord area of Independence County is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion C as a good example of a WPA-built privy.  During the 1930s, the WPA built thousands of privies across the United States and they were built to a standard plan.  The WPA privies featured a cast-concrete base and toilet set at an angle along with a T-shaped vent behind the toilet.  Slits at the top of the sides of the privy provided ventilation to the interior.

The WPA Privy is also being nominated under Criterion A with local significance for its associations with the promotion of healthy and sanitary practices during the 1930s.  The construction of the WPA privies during the 1930s, sometimes referred to as “sanitary units” in WPA posters, was meant to promote more sanitary, and therefore healthier, environments around homes.

The WPA Privy is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration B as a building that has been moved from its original location.  In addition, the WPA Privy is being nominated under the multiple-property listing "An Ambition to Be Preferred: New Deal Recovery Efforts and Architecture in Arkansas, 1933-1943."

Although the fact that the WPA Privy has been relocated to a non-residential setting precludes its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the building is still considered to be significant enough to be nominated to the Arkansas Register.

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

Although French traders and trappers were the first Europeans to visit the Independence County area when they sailed up the White River and camped at the area known as Oil Trough Bottom, permanent settlement of the area began c.1810. John Reed was one of the first settlers that arrived in the area, and he settled at the site of Batesville in 1812. Other people followed him to the area including Samuel Miller in 1813, Colonel Robert Bean in 1814 and James Trimble and his family in 1817. In response to the increased settlement, Independence County was created by the Arkansas territorial legislature on October 20, 1820, and the town of Batesville, which already existed, was in a central location, and had a location on a navigable river, was chosen as the county seat.[1]

The exploration and early settlement of Batesville and Independence County was focused on the area’s waterways, mainly the White River. According to Goodspeed, with respect to exploration, “French traders and trappers ascended White River long before the permanent settlement of the country traversed by it began. A party of these people encamped and hunted bear in the region now known as Oil Trough Bottom, in Independence County. … These traders and hunters left many marks of their travels at various places up and down the river, which were plainly visible to the pioneer settlers. Not a few of the streams and other natural objects were named by the French and Spaniards.”[2]

When settlement began in the first decade of the 1800s, it also centered around the county’s waterways. According to Goodspeed, “The permanent settlement of this territory is believed to have commenced about the year 1810, or perhaps a little earlier. John Reed located at the site of Batesville in 1812. Samuel Miller, of Tennessee, came in 1813, and subsequently settled on the creek that bears his name in this county. Col. Robert Bean ran the first keel boat up White River and established himself at the mouth of Polk Bayou (Batesville) in 1814. James Micham settled near the same place in the same year.”[3]

The community of Cord, which is located approximately four miles northwest of the Black River, may have been settled due to its proximity to the river.  Although it is located a ways from the river, much of the distance between the river and Cord is occupied by the river’s bottomlands.  (However, the Black River was much closer to Cord than the nearest railroad line, which was almost ten miles to the southwest at Newark.)  Little is known about the development of the community other than it was apparently supposed to be originally named Como or Hope.  However, the post office was established as Cord in 1880.[4]

Cord apparently did not grow much in its early years – the community is not mentioned in the discussion of the county’s towns in the 1880s Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas – and didn’t grow much throughout the twentieth century.  In fact, on the 1940 U.S. Geological Survey map for the area, Cord really doesn’t have a defined center, but is rather a scattered collection of dwellings in the area.  By 1955, there is a small center of the community, consisting of approximately ten buildings, but the majority of the area consists of scattered dwellings.[5]

Due to the fact that the Cord area was rural during the first part of the twentieth century, utilities such as sewer, water, and electricity were not common.  With a lack of sewer systems, the outhouse or privy was an important building during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially due to its important role in helping to maintain a sanitary and healthy environment on many homesteads or farmsteads.  One of the agencies that helped with the construction of outhouses during the 1930s was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the WPA, which was the largest and best known of Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies.  The original name of the agency was the Works Progress Administration, although the name was later changed to Works Projects Administration.  The WPA, which began work in Arkansas in July 1935 continued many of the functions of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.  The WPA continued its work until June 1943, when the program ended, having spent almost $117 million in Arkansas.  Although the agency is best known for its road, bridges, and buildings built by its Operations Division, the unemployed people who worked for the WPA engaged in a wide variety of jobs, including building roads, schools, bridges, outhouses, and much more.[6]

The WPA-built privies were an important component in helping to eradicate many parasites, sicknesses, and illnesses for rural America.  The WPA privies of the 1930s were constructed with special features that other privies during that period didn’t have, such as concrete floors and concrete stools.  Pits were dug six feet deep and lined with boards or concrete to keep any nearby waste from contaminating ground water.  This was the forerunner of concrete septic tanks.  Specifically, the WPA-built outhouses had a distinct style of structure that consisted of: 

1. A 4-foot by 5-foot wood-frame structure set on a concrete foundation.

    

2. An overhanging shed roof with a six-inch-wide fascia board on all sides.

    

3. A front façade that was divided in half with the door on one side, usually the right side.

    

4. A concrete sidewalk that led from the house to the outhouse.

    

5. A concrete square pot set in the building at a 45-degree angle in the back left corner.

    

6. A well-fitted lid that was used to help keep the odor under control and to keep flies and varmints out.

    

7. Screened wire that was used just below the roof to help with ventilation as well as keeping out flies.

    

8. A “T”-shaped ventilation system with screens on the square openings on the back and left side of the building.

    

9. Pits that were dug six feet deep and lined with wood or concrete to keep waste from contaminating water sources.[7]

The basic design of the outhouse was developed by the American Red Cross with emphasis on eradicating hookworm, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and other intestinal diseases.[8]  In the southern states 40% of the population was infected with hookworms by 1910.[9]

For the cost of materials, which was usually from five to seventeen dollars, area residents could have a WPA-built privy.  The construction of a typical WPA privy took about twenty hours.[10]  Under the guidance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the WPA built over two million outhouses all over America.[11]  The buildings were sometimes called, the Roosevelt, the Eleanor, and the White House.  Other names that were used were the shack out back, the John, latrine, outhouse, and privy just to name a few.[12]

“Miss Ollie’s Privy,” as it is known locally, was one of over 50,000 outhouses that were built in Arkansas by the WPA.[13]  It is believed Miss Ollie’s Privy was built sometime during 1936-1939; although no records exist for the privy, the Cord High School was built in 1936 by the WPA, and it’s possible that they worked on the privies in the Cord area at the same time that the Cord High School was under construction.[14]

Ollie Leara Parr Hensley lived in the home where the privy was built.  It was located approximately a quarter of a mile east of Cord off the Elgin Road (Highway 37) from Cord.  Miss Ollie was born September 13, 1885, in Black River Township, Independence County, Arkansas.  She was the daughter of Thomas Allen and Mary Jane Williams Parr.  On May 16, 1909, Miss Ollie married George Frank Hensley in Independence County, Arkansas.   Miss Ollie lived all her life in Cord and died November 15, 1969.  She was buried at the Hopewell Cemetery, Cord, Independence County, Arkansas.[15]

“Miss Ollie’s Privy” was moved from its original location sometime during the 1980s to the Bradley Quarry located off Highway 25, approximately 2.5 miles north of Cord.  In 2020, the privy was moved again to its present location at the Cord Mercantile Building for restoration and historical recognition.[16]

Although it has been moved, the WPA Privy is still a good example of the specialized privy design that was built by the WPA during the 1930s.  The WPA’s construction and installation of privies during the 1930s was an important trend during the 1930s due to the fact that it helped with sanitation, especially in rural areas, and also helped with the curbing and elimination of disease.  The WPA Privy in Cord is an important reminder of the efforts to increase sanitation and curb disease during the 1930s through the efforts of the WPA.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPERTY

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, intestinal diseases due to a lack of sanitation became an increasing problem across the country.  Diseases such as hookworm, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery became more rampant – in fact, by 1910, 40% of the southern population was infected by hookworm.[17]

One easy way to help eradicate the diseases was to increase sanitation around homes, and having a good, well-designed privy was a key component in providing a sanitary environment.  To help with this effort, one of the tasks of the WPA during the 1930s was to build and install privies so that waste would not contaminate the groundwater.  Features of the WPA-built privies that helped with sanitation included screened wire that was used just below the roof to help with ventilation as well as keeping out flies; a “T”-shaped ventilation system with screens on the square openings on the back and left side of the building; and pits that were dug six feet deep and lined with wood or concrete to keep waste from contaminating water sources.  These features, along with some of the construction methods, made the WPA-built privies easily recognizable when compared to other privies of the period.  The WPA Privy in Cord exhibits almost all of the defining characteristics of the WPA-built privy.

The WPA Privy in Cord is an important example of a WPA-built privy, and it is also important for its associations with the efforts during the early twentieth century to promote healthy and sanitary practices.  During the 1930s, the WPA built thousands of privies across the United States and they were built to a standard plan.  The WPA privies featured a cast-concrete base and toilet set at an angle along with a T-shaped vent behind the toilet.  Slits at the top of the sides of the privy provided ventilation to the interior.

As a good example of a WPA-built privy and for its associations with the promotion of healthy and sanitary practices during the 1930s, the WPA Privy in Cord is being nominated to the Arkansas Register under Criterion C  and Criterion A with local significance.  In addition, due to the fact that the WPA Privy has been moved twice and is not in its original location, it is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration B as a building that has been moved from its original location.  In addition, the WPA Privy is being nominated under the multiple-property listing "An Ambition to Be Preferred: New Deal Recovery Efforts and Architecture in Arkansas, 1933-1943."

Although the fact that the WPA Privy has been relocated to a non-residential setting precludes its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the building is still considered to be significant enough to be nominated to the Arkansas Register.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Bowman, Sue, “Pondering the Privy:  A History of Outhouses,” https://www.lancasterfarming.com/pondering-the-privy-a-history-of-outhouses/article_3f416eae-d0df-5d7f-9e70-3fcfb72a110a.html, accessed August 15, 2021.

Dougan, Michael.  “Sanitation.”  The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.  Found at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/sanitation-5315/.

Information on Ollie Leara Parr Hensley from www.familysearch.org and www.findagrave.com.

Information on Miss Ollie’s Privy from Sue Richmond, 2021.

Interview with Mrs. George (Rosemary Osborne) Catton, October 14, 2020.  Long-time Cord resident and owner of two of the WPA-built privies in Cord.

Interview with Mrs. Eugene (Marian Baker) Dickey, January 16, 2021.  Long-time Cord resident.  Mrs. Dickey was the owner of one of the WPA-built privies near Cord.

Miller, Cooper Mary, “WPA Outhouses,” The Izard County Historian, Vol. 44, No. 2, pages 4-5, April 2019.

Morgan, Sam.  “Works Progress Administration (WPA).”  The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.  Found at:  https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/works-progress-administration-2284/.

Rieke, Dorothy, “History of the Old Outhouse,” Capper’s Farmer-Practical Advice for the Homemade Life, https://www.cappersfarmer.com/humor-and-nostalgia/old-outhouse-history-zm0z17suzsgre/, accessed May 30, 2021.

The Rockefeller Foundation-A Digital History website, “Eradicating Hookworm,” https://rockfound.rockarch.org/eradicating-hookworm, accessed August 15, 2021.

Tabler, Dave, “The shack out back,” https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2016/06/shack-out-back.html, pages 1-6, accessed August 15, 2021.

U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Maps:  Strawberry, 1:62,500, 1940 and Cord, 1:24,000, 1955.

“We Will Persevere!  The New Deal in Arkansas,” by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, accessed January 18, 2021.

Whitaker, Rachel, Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Encyclopedia of Arkansas online, “Outhouses,” https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/outhouses-9162/, accessed January 18, 2021.

“Works Progress Administration,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration, accessed January 18, 2020.

WPA Privy (1935-1943), History Colorado, https://www.historycolorado.org/wpa-privy-1935-1943, accessed January 13, 2021.