Former Hotel and Bank Building in AR

Arkansas Riceland Hotel, Stuttgart Arkansas

Date added: July 23, 2024 Categories:

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Designed by Mann and Stern, Architects, the Riceland Hotel is Stuttgart's largest commercial building and was originally an elegant and commanding example of George R. Mann's later neo-classic work. The building, constructed during the declining years of a rice boom that transformed Stuttgart's economy, housed hotels and banks during much of its life. Within the massive frame of the structure's five stories, much of the intrinsic commerce of the rice industry and the railroad were enacted.

In October 1878, the Reverend Adam Buerkle and twelve families of German immigrants founded a settlement at the former Gum Pond Plantation on the Grand Prairie in Arkansas County. The next year the small colony was joined by sixteen additional families and, in 1880, a post office named Stuttgart, after Buerkle's "old home in Germany", was established. In 1882, the Texas and St. Louis Railroad completed its main line near the town, which Buerkle promptly relocated alongside the rails. Two additional railroads, the Kansas City and New Orleans, later part of the Rock Island system, and the Grand Prairie Railroad, a locally controlled shortline, were eventually constructed and contributed to Stuttgart's deferred prosperity. The area's major sources of income were cattle and hay, but the wealth of transportation facilities encouraged the location of a number of manufacturing enterprises, such as furniture and woodworking shops, farm implement factories, and grist, flour, and feed mills.

The unlimited affluence of the Grand Prairie and of Stuttgart appeared assured with the development of successful rice culture in the early twentieth century. Although dates and accounts of persons involved vary, by 1904, the first commercially successful rice crop had been harvested and, by 1906, rice was cultivated in the Stuttgart area. In October 1907, the Stuttgart Rice Mill Company completed the first rice mill in Arkansas and an economic boom began. The prosperity permitted the construction of a brick depot and school in Stuttgart, the town was wired for electricity, and sidewalks were built and streets paved. By 1918, two additional rice mills were in operation. To prolong the boom by enlisting new settlers to cultivate still more rice, the Cotton Belt enthusiastically promoted its lands in the Grand Prairie and the Stuttgart Land and Development Company offered free excursion trains to potential farmers.

By 1918, the economy of Stuttgart and the Grand Prairie was inextricably tied to the state's thirteen-million-dollar rice crop. The Southern Rice Growers Association boasted that Stuttgart was "the price making rice market of Arkansas … by virtue of her geographical and railroad position in the center of Grand Prairie." At least one bank also attributed its assets to the runaway rice market. According to W. B. Wall, cashier of the Exchange Bank, his institution's deposits in 1915 totaled only $118.00. By 1918, they exceeded $800,000 "the greater part … accumulated by the patrons of this bank from three years' profit in raising rice."

In late 1919, a number of Stuttgart businessmen formed the Stuttgart Hotel Company. The company, which eventually included forty stockholders, represented all four Stuttgart banks and "every business and enterprise of any nature on Grand Prairie." A Little Rock architectural firm, Mann and Stern, designed the building, and the E. A. Steininger Construction Company of Missouri was retained as the builder. George R. Mann also drew the plans for the Arkansas State Capital, the Arkansas Gazette building, and the Marion Hotel in Little Rock. The Hotel Price, which stood on Third and Main Streets, was demolished to prepare for the new structure, enthusiastically heralded as "one of the most modern hotels in Arkansas.

Construction on the building began almost immediately, as the rice economy of the Grand Prairie collapsed. In 1919, the price per bushel of rice reached a high of $3.50, but, in 1920, it plummeted to twenty-five cents per bushel. The effect on the soaring economy was instantaneous and devastating, "like a bolt out the sky." According to the Stuttgart Grand Prairie News, the "entire locality was dealt a financial blow that put almost every individual in straits that will take several years … to overcome." Late in 1920, stockholders ordered work on their hotel suspended and, for nearly two years as owners and creditors battled in the chancery courts, "the skeleton of the building stood as a tombstone to a dead burg."

In July 1922, the Exchange Bank, the hotel's new owner, resumed construction and hired W. F. Ault of Little Rock to complete the building according to Mann and Stern's original plans and specifications. On February 15^th, 1923, the Riceland Hotel was formally opened. Leased by the Stuttgart Revilo Hotel Company, which operated several hotels across the state, the Riceland occupied the top three floors of the five-story building, as well as the lower two floors of that portion of the structure that fronted on Third Street. The Riceland Barber Shop leased a section of the hotel's basement, while Webb and Son leased part of the ground floor adjoining the lobby for their Riceland Pharmacy. On February 17^th, the Exchange Bank held its formal opening in the remaining two-story portion of the building, which fronted on Main Street.

Following its nearly disastrous conception, the Riceland Hotel hosted a number of occupants. In 1926, the Exchange Bank, which had so solidly staked its success on rice, defaulted and was purchased by the First State Bank. Three years later, the Southern Hotel Company acquired the hotel lease, which it retained until 1957. In 1970, the Riceland Hotel closed. The part of the building previously occupied by the Exchange Bank and its owners houses retail and commercial tenants.

Building Description

The Riceland Hotel is a five-story, reinforced concrete, stone, and brick structure, braced with steel support beams, and with a full basement. A two-story ell projects from a minor, rear elevation. Its interior is divided by concrete floors and gypsum block or metal stud walls sheathed with plaster on metal lath. Originally a representative example of the later, neo-classic work of George R. Mann, most of the distinctive details have been obscured by the application of modern materials.

Details

Most of the neo-classic details incorporated by Mann and Stern, Architects, in their original design of the Riceland Hotel were embodied in the facade, or east elevation.

On the building's opening in 1923, the lower two stories, which were faced in limestone, and capped with a denticulated limestone cornice, housed the building's owner, the Exchange Bank. The bank facade was originally divided into three bays by two-story engaged columns. A double door with a transom provided entry into the bank lobby, while the flanking bays contained large, double casement show windows. In the second level central bay, hopper windows were set, while smaller versions of these opened in the remaining bays. In a modern renovation, the lower floor of the facade was clad in metal and glass and the bays converted into doorways. Three commercial establishments, each with separate entries, were installed in the former bank. On the second story level, Carrera glass enclosed the columns.

The upper three levels of the facade housed the hotel. Three pairs of 6/1, double-hung windows are repeated on each level. Each pair is framed by a stacked brick pattern, edged with a line of bricks set end, which continues the vertical line of the bays on the lower facade. A similar line of stacked bricks, set on end, is above each pair of windows. Centered above the three window pairs are three decorative grill attic vents. A limestone cornice spans the facade above the vents and is surmounted by a brick parapet.

Many of the elements represented on the facade are continued and preserved on the north elevation, which served as the primary entrance to the Riceland Hotel. Along the lower two stories, the limestone facing is retained, capped by a limestone cornice. Shallow pilasters divide the bays. The street-level windows in the four bays in the eastern end of this elevation, previously occupied by banks, have been closed with concrete blocks. The fifth bay provided a secondary entrance to the bank, with a door framed by narrow pilasters and flanked by sidelights. In 1923, a hotel and pharmacy occupied the remainder of the east elevation, which has been extensively altered. The three bays on the west end of the elevation comprised the hotel entrance. The central bay provided entry through its double doors, while the flanking bays each contained three six-over-one double-hung windows above three wooden panels. Immediately to the east of the hotel bays, a second set of double doors opened originally into the Riceland Pharmacy and, between its entrance and the bank's secondary entrance, another set of three double-hung windows over wooden panels completed the lower story of the east elevation. Originally the hotel and pharmacy entrance were sheltered by a wooden porch with paired columns on concrete piers. A wrought iron balustrade circled the roof.

Alterations to the bank and pharmacy portions of the north elevation are also extensive. The wooden porch was replaced with a metal marquee. In the three bays which contained double-hung windows, the sashes were removed and the openings expanded to accommodate single panes of stationary glass. The pharmacy entrance was also converted to a single-pane, stationary window.

On the second floor of the north elevation, the four bays above the bank's large casement windows contained double sets of hopper windows, now covered or boarded over. Three sets of narrow casement windows occupy the bay above the former secondary bank entrance. On the western end of this elevation, two sets of French doors provided access to a balcony on the wooden porch. Both doors were later replaced by wide six-over-one double-hung windows and the lower portion of the doorways filled. Four pairs of narrower, six-over-one double-hung windows comprised the remainder of the hotel's second level.

Above the limestone cornice, the brick pattern of the facade's upper levels is repeated. Each of the three remaining stories of the north elevation are identical. Ten pairs of double-hung six-over-one windows provided each room with an outside window. Two single, narrow stationary windows lighted transverse hallways on each floor. One window was placed in the center of the elevation and the second rested between the third and fourth pairs of windows from the eastern end of the elevation. Decorative-grill attic vents were again stationed above each brick parapet.

The plain brick west elevation contains an exterior entrance to the hotel basement. Set partly below ground level, a full door flanked by six-over-one double-hung windows is reached by a stairway at the northern edge of the elevation. Two sets of three small windows, raised just above ground level, provided ventilation and light to the basement, which originally contained the hotel's refrigeration and heating plants, supply baggage rooms, employee rest and locker rooms, club dining room, and the Riceland Barber Shop. The first floor contains two groups of three six-over-one double-hung windows to the north of a slightly elevated door with a transom. To the south of the door, a large area which may have housed a freight door has been filled and two small windows inserted.

The remaining four floors of the west elevation are identical. On the northern end of the elevation, a pair of the predominant six-over-one double-hung windows are set. South of these, three similar windows are located. A single narrow window opens into the stairway and a pair of double-hung windows identical to those in the other groups complete each floor. The limestone cornices of the north elevation end abruptly on this elevation, but the brick parapet is maintained. On the southern edge of the west elevation, a small block penthouse continues above the fifth-floor roofline and houses a stairway and the hotel elevator. The fire escape on this elevation was accessible from every hall.

The lower two floors of the south elevation are obscured by adjoining buildings and by a contemporary two-story ell which housed a banquet room, kitchen, and manager's apartment. The ell extends along the western one-third of the south elevation. Along its west side, three groups of three windows, now boarded over, extended the length of the first story. The second-floor manager's apartment also has three pairs of smaller, six-over-one hung windows. The first floor of the southern side of the ell is virtually identical to that of the west side. On the second level one window of the western pair is filled and a single window is located on the eastern end of this side. The first story of the north side of the ell contained only two sets of three windows, while the second story was identical to the second floor of the south side.

The top three floors of the south elevation of the hotel are also identical. The combination stairway and elevator shaft is bare, leaving space for only eight pairs of the prevalent type of double-hung windows used throughout the other elevations. A continuation of the brick parapet is the only other feature of this elevation.

Few of the Riceland's distinctive interior features are visible or remain. The largest and most stately interior space was the bank lobby, with its square columns with composite capitals and an ornamental plaster cornice at the beams. At the rear of the bank space, a mezzanine overlooked the lobby and offered access to a director's room with a fireplace, mantle, and decorated tile. Most of these features were concealed when the building was converted to commercial spaces. The one-story hotel lobby contained massive wood-clad columns and beams. Now deteriorated, the dining room was decorated with columns, capitals, and a coffered ceiling. The guest rooms were plainly furnished.