This display has just about every camera one can imagine, and probably some you couldn’t , come by and see if you have seen some of these in your lifetime.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays from 2pm till 5 pm and Sunday by appointment..

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

This is a homemade kerosene lamp made by MM Hardy.  This goes to show the ingenuity of the people back then to be able to take old parts, weld them together and make a lamp to light the house and be safe enough to do so.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays from 2pm till 5 pm and Sunday by appointment..

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

I want to look briefly down West McCloy Street now to share information about the location of a public “meat storage locker” that once operated near the Square. Bill Dunlap, a kind gentleman who is a former Drew Countian and brother of the late Martha Sue McClain, called and supplied some information about the business. He also suggested I call his cousins, Shirley Burks of Wilmar and Hardy McKinstry of Banks, to hear their memories. I did and heard some delightful memories!

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By popular request we’ll continue our tour of Monticello’s Main Street by looking at the history of South Main Street. Let’s start of the corner of South Main and Gaines Streets and continue south. This corner spot has a colorful history that is still changing today. An old photograph made in the 1880s shows a two-story wooden building sitting there. This structure housed R. C. Bennett’s saloon on the ground floor; the second floor held a poker room.

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Now let’s begin our look down the north side of West Gaines from the Square to North Hyatt. Today that first block is filled with the main branch and drive-thru of the Commercial Bank.

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This is a 1930’s Icebox.  Back in the day, delivery people would make weekly trips and deliver everything from groceries to milk and even ice from the ice house.  A block of ice would be set in the top portion of the icebox, with the perishables in the bottom portion.  The old ice house in Monticello is still located on McCloy Street.  It is not a ice house anymore, but you can still see remnants of the operation out front, including the chute that the ice would come out of onto the loading dock.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays from 2pm till 5 pm and Sunday by appointment..

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

This week we will continue our tour of Monticello by looking from the Square down the south side of West Gaines Street.

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Here are the links to the series of articles on Sheilla Lampkin’s “Tour of Monticello’s North Main Street

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16

This week we will continue our “look” at some remembered businesses along the south side of East Gaines Street in Monticello. Starting at the business on the corner of East Gaines and South Main, one of the earliest businesses there was a dry goods store owned by a Mr. Ely, a Russian Jew. It has been pictured as a two-story building with a wooden sidewalk on the south side.

However, records also indicate that one of the two water wells for the courthouse preceded the mercantile store. (There were originally two wells for the 1870 structure – one for people and one for the livestock.) That well is believed to still be buried under the present buildings.

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Before we journey down South Main Street, let’s look briefly at the business history of the primary streets that begin at Monticello’s Square. We’ll start on the corner of East Gaines Street and travel to the railroad tracks, but first let’s examine how Gaines Street was named.

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This is a Little Boys “Sunday best” early 1920’s clothing along with other clothing from different periods on display,

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 pm till 5 pm.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

Before we continue our historical “tour” and head down South Main Street, we should revisit our Square itself and again look at its fascinating history.

The Square is located in the “heart” of the original 83-acre tract of land donated by Fountain C. and Polly Austin in 1849 for the establishment of the city of Monticello. The town was laid out with 35 numbered blocks and one unnumbered block in the “center” designated for a courthouse square. This square was to be a 170 foot square.

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Here are some of the personal items donated to the museum by Sadie Johnson.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 pm till 5 pm.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

At last we come to the west side of the historic Monticello Square. In many ways this side may have been the most colorful and exciting! Let’s start on the south end of the block. The earliest business on this corner that has been related to me was a service station operated by the White brothers (George and Ed). I also understand that Monticello’s first telephone office was formerly located on the second floor. (Telephone service first came to Monticello in 1898 with 65 phone lines. This office would have been at that location at some point between that date and 1929 when the office was moved to the cornet of Trotter and Church streets.)

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Let’s continue our look around the Square by looking at the east side of the Square, beginning at the north end of Main Street where it intersects with East McCloy and continuing south to its intersection with East Gaines.

As we look at that east side today, we see the several storefronts that encompass Discount Merchandise. Most of these buildings are two-storied. The northernmost building formerly held Plantation House Furniture. That business was preceded by Van-Atkins before their move to Northpark Mall. Before Van Atkins moved to this corner the location housed Sterling’s, a variety store, followed by Dozier’s Shoes and Trotter’s Grocery, operated by Charlie Green. Mr. Dozier’s shoe store was in a narrow space and was known as the “smallest big store in town” to reflect his large stock of merchandise.

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This week we’ll discuss the history and evolution of the south side of Monticello’s Square. Earliest memories recall a wooden two-story building on the southeast corner that housed the R. C. Bennett Saloon in the 1890s, as evidenced in an old partial picture of the Square we own at the museum. The second story once held a “private” poker room.

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Let’s continue our look around the Square by looking at the east side of the Square, beginning at the north end of Main Street where it intersects with East McCloy and continuing south to its intersection with East Gaines.

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This is an early 1900’s crank style telephone displayed in the kitchen area of the museum, When you would crank this telephone, it would get the attention of an operator who would ask who you were calling, then plug you into that line making a connection and alert the other party with a series of rings, also there would be up to 10 or more of your neighbors on this same “party” line all of whom could at any time pick up their phone receivers and listen in on your conversation.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 pm till 5 pm.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

Last week we stopped at the charming little orange brick structure formerly known as the “Finn McCloy” house. Now we’ll move on south to the next McCloy house.

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This week we will discuss the last block on the west side of North Main. I have chosen to try to cover the entire block because it not only faces Main Street, but also the heart of Monticello – the town’s Square. I had stopped earlier at the First Baptist Church so we could return and review some of the other businesses on that last corner block on North Main Street as we begin our “sentimental journey” around the Square.

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Since we began taking our little “imaginary stroll” down historic North Main Street the Hyatt family name has emerged several times so I wanted to begin this week by enlightening readers about this legendary family’s history.

The first Hyatts migrated from Chester County, South Carolina, in 1846 when Rev. Benjamin Culp Hyatt bought 40 acres for $80 on Rough and Ready Hill and moved his family to Drew County. There he operated a boarding house, preached at Scrough Out Church, practiced medicine, taught school and was a carpenter.

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This late 1800’s French mirror was bought by the home owners (Museum) from a plantation in Vidalia, Louisiana, and was shipped by mule and train to Monticello. This mirror hangs in the living room above the fireplace in the Museum.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum.  We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 pm till 5 pm.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.

This week we’ll resume our journey south down historic North Main Street and begin at the handsome buff brick Tudor-style home sitting on the attractively manicured lawn at the beginning of the next block on the east side of the street. Built in the late 1920’s by Henry Trotter who married Lucille Simmons from Pine Bluff, the home is one of the most admired in the city. (Henry Trotter was a son to V. J. Trotter and grew up in the house that is now the Trotter House, a bed-and-breakfast.) In 1937 the young couple moved to Pine Bluff and Dr. Johnny Price bought the home. Dr. Price’s daughter, Ann, has many delightful stories and memories centered on growing up in the beautiful home. It was there that Ann was married to Dr. James F. Clark in 1964. (more…)

This week we’ll continue our tour of Monticello’s North Main Street by returning to the north end of the street where the site of the new library sits and “strolling” down the east side of North Main Street.

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This is a Edison Amberola DX on display in the living room at the museum, It was produced in July of 1914 and retailed for $30 dollars. It was the first model that had a internal speaker instead of the “horn” and played a 4 minute plastic disc instead of the old fragile wax disc. This model was also the last of the Edison line to be belt driven and was said to be Edison’s “final achievement”.  He later came out with a more inexpensive worm gear driven model.

Come see this and many other interesting items on display at your Drew County Museum, We are open Fridays from 1pm till 5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 pm till 5 pm.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Drew County Historical Society, memberships are $25 Dollars for a single membership or $40 for a family membership. Please mail your membership request to The Drew County Historical Society 404 South Main Monticello, AR 71655.