Blytheville Greyhound Bus Station, Blytheville Arkansas
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The Blytheville Bus Station is the only remaining "Art Moderne" Greyhound bus terminal in the state of Arkansas. It stands as one of the purest examples of the Art Moderne style existing in the state's commercial architecture and is one of the finest examples exhibiting structural glass in its design. This isolated island-type station is unique in its small-town setting. The exterior facade remains entirely intact with no alterations. The interior is relatively intact and still reflects its original design and purpose.
In 1930, the Greyhound Corporation was organized from the former Motor Transport Company. The new corporation, which emphasized speed as representative of the restructured organization, adopted the form of a racing greyhound as its symbol and Art Moderne as its architectural image. From 1935 to the early 1940s, Greyhound employed regional architects to interpret the streamlined building style in their distinctive blue and white terminals across the country. In several southern states, architect George D. Brown designed stations that utilized structural glass and were characterized by exteriors with blue Vitrolux veneer and ivory Vitrolite trim. Locations of these terminals included Charleston, Columbia, and Spartanburg, South Carolina; Bristol, Virginia; Charleston, West Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia.
According to a city official who recalls the event, the Greyhound Corporation constructed a new terminal in Blytheville in 1937 to replace an earlier structure. Although similar in style to the southern stations designed by Brown, the island-type station was smaller in scale. The island-type station was usually constructed in larger towns and cities where an appropriate lot with proper access could be obtained. The Blytheville island-type station is unique in its small-town setting, where the L-plan terminal or the parallel loading terminal would have been more common.
The exterior of the Blytheville Bus Station is virtually unaltered from its original appearance. The only addition to the original has been the placement of a new Greyhound sign that hangs under the front canopy.
Building Description
The Greyhound Corporation constructed three basic types of bus terminals during major expansion in the late 1930s and 1940s. The Blytheville Bus Station is an excellent example of the island type terminal. This design offered easy access and was favored by a majority of bus drivers and patrons. Continuity of architectural style in its new terminals was important to the Greyhound Corporation as part of its emerging corporate image. The Blytheville Bus Station was part of this effort and remains today as one of the finest example of the Art Moderne style in Arkansas. Individual themes of the Art Moderne style that are present in this building are a concern for volume and curvilinear form, highly visible polychrome treatments, strong horizontal and vertical elements and the use of "Modern" construction materials such as structural glass and stainless steel.
The building is one story and has a rectangular floor plan with rounded corners. The front corners contain casement windows with 24 panes each. This curvilinear form is repeated in a set of unsupported projecting canopies located over the loading areas on both sides of the building and with a rounded single canopy over the front entrance. These canopies create a strong horizontal architectural element that continues in the back facade as two single brick courses painted blue. The building's horizontal appearance is offset by a large vertical Greyhound sign centered immediately over the front entrance, giving the entire building a nautical appearance. In all Greyhound station architecture, the Greyhound sign is a prominent vertical element in the design and functions as a integral part of the building.
The exterior walls of the primary elevation are covered with Vitrolux structural glass in alternating colors of two shades of blue and ivory. These colors are alternated ten times in bands of varying widths and give the exterior a contrasting polychrome appearance. The back facade is exposed brick painted white. There are six entrances to the building. The main entrance facing Fifth Street and a set of entrances on each side contain single-pane double doors with transoms. Each transom has twelve panes decorated with an inverted triangle of frosted glass. Ornamental stainless steel handrails are on each door, with a stainless steel door plate containing the Greyhound logo.
Other decorative details exhibited on the exterior of the building are pressed metal ceilings under each canopy, elongated ornamental electric lights at the main entrance, lighted signs over each side entrance that once designated segregated facilities, scalloped ivory "Vitrolux" trim and neon lighting on the main Greyhound sign.
The arrangement of interior space in the Blytheville Bus Station is reflective of both a corporate concern for an efficient transportation system and an unfortunate cultural concern, which persisted in most Southern states until 1963, for the racial segregation of its patrons. Originally, the central ticket office and adjacent kitchen area effectively separated two sets of waiting and bathroom facilities, including separate lunch counters. The smaller, unadorned facilities for blacks were discontinued and later converted to storage and freight areas as a result of federal desegregation efforts.
The design features and "Modern" materials used in the interior remain mostly intact today and were consistent with the architectural image of other Greyhound terminals constructed across the country during this period. The ceilings and curved interior walls are plastered and were originally painted in blue and pink. A "Presdwood" wainscot with molded trim and baseboards accents the walls of the larger concession and waiting room areas. A simple curvilinear ceiling partition delineates the main lunch counter space. Stainless steel was initially utilized throughout the interior in suspended lighting fixtures, countertops at the ticket booth and lunch counter, lunch counter trim, footrests and bar stools, and even in the name plates on the bathroom doors. The lunch counter, bar stools and the wooden benches used in the main waiting room have been removed in the last few years. The general color scheme of the building is continued in the restrooms with white tiles trimmed in blue.

View looking west (1986)

View looking southwest (1986)

Interior view, lunch counter area (1946)

Interior, lunch counter area (1986)
