The walls of the historical Civil War-era Boone-Murphy House can’t talk, but they come pretty close.
Remodeling work is ongoing to restore the interior of the pre-1860s structure to habitability. Last week, workers from the Department of Correction tore out all of the moldy, damaged sheet rock on the inside that was covering up the building’s original walls.
“Once they got all of this off, you can kind of read the building and see how it evolved,” said Robert Tucker, the city’s Inspection and Zoning Department director and staff adviser to the Pine Bluff Historic District Commission.
The walls are made out of 1-by-16-inch cypress planks, secured together by square-headed, hand-forged nails — each one unique, long and tack-like.
An original glass window and a glass door remain, the wavy lines of the hand-blown glass window panes catching the sunlight.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Part of the original chimney is suspended in mid-air among the rafters in the attic, no longer connected to a fireplace and no longer extending out through the roof of the building, but frozen in position as if ready to take up its former duties at any time.
Along the walls, shadow outlines indicate where some of the original floor-to-ceiling windows were later boarded up or transformed into doorways so that a bathroom and kitchen could be added on either side of the building as the advent of indoor-plumbing arrived. The add-ons tell a different story: most of the fixtures and materials used are common to the ’20s and ’30s, when Tucker believes the additions were likely built.
There are outlines of two original fireplaces — one in each room — and then other tell-tale holes in the wall where later a wood-burning stove was installed and still later, a gas stove. With the current remodeling, the building will be getting its first modern heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.
Tucker believes some of the materials now exposed are likely the oldest in a still-standing building in town, with the exception of the Dexter Harding House near the Jefferson County Courthouse. He is saving all the extra nails and other items that they discover to place in a display in the back room of the house when it is completed and is serving its intended purpose as a meeting room for the Historic District Commission and for community gatherings. The commission hopes to find a full-time tenant to occupy the front room as an office.
A restoration of the Boone-Murphy House’s exterior was completed in 2011 at a cost of about $65,000.
The current work is Phase I of the interior work, during which the electricity, plumbing and HVAC will be installed. The phase is estimated to cost about $21,500.
Larry Matthews, public works coordinator for the city Economic and Community Development Department, estimated that after Phase I is completed later this year, it will bring the project to 70 percent completion.
In 2013, the interior of the building will be finished, with new paint, sheet rock, flooring, fixtures for the bathroom and kitchen, etc. Tucker also has plans to apply for a grant to create a historical garden and outdoor meeting space on the grounds.
When everything is completed, Tucker estimated the project at a cost of $120,000-$125,000.
The project is funded though state grants and city matches in federal economic and community development dollars.
In two to three months, Tucker expects to receive a new historical marker from the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, which is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War through 2015. A county-level Civil War Sesquicentennial group meets once a month at the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum sharing research and planning events.
The long-held belief about the house’s history is that it was the second headquarters for the Union Army in the time period surrounding the Battle of Pine Bluff in 1863. It was originally at Beech Street and Second Avenue, but was moved to its current location at 714 W. Fourth Ave. in the ’70s.
With the aid of more access to primary documents via the Internet, local historians like Ron Kelley, who teaches English and history at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, also believe that Union Commander Powell Clayton lived in the building and had a home office of sorts. Clayton would go on to become the first governor of Arkansas after the state’s readmission to the Union.
Kelley’s research, as detailed in a previous article, indicates that a group of Confederate soldiers broke into the Boone-Murphy House and stole some of Clayton’s papers. The information they found about the relatively few troops and artillery in Pine Bluff led the Confederates to decide to attack, but Clayton had noted the missing papers and called in reinforcements.
When the battle occurred on Oct. 25, 1863, the Union troops were able to repel the Confederates with the help of recently freed slaves who also participated in the battle, according to Kelley’s research. Several refugee camps of former slaves were in and around town. Because the Battle of Pine Bluff was a victory for the Union, the freed slaves were able to stay, and Pine Bluff developed into a key place where black people could come to be educated and launch new lives — a turning point in history that continues to shape Pine Bluff to this day.