The McClure-Highfill Home in Paragould is an excellent example of a Craftsman style house in Greene County, Arkansas. The home was built in 1937, and the exterior has remained essentially completely unchanged. The home features distinctive Craftsman elements, including exposed decorative rafter tails, matching decorative wood bracketing, a large second story dormer, deep front porch, and small, high windows flanking the main chimney.

This Craftsman is unusual in that it is entirely brick except for the dormer. The bricks are red, but the house is adorned with a basket weave band of fluted brown bricks that extends completely around the building at the basement line. Interrupted only by the porches, the front and rear of the home feature a row of parallel brown bricks just below the roof line. The three exposed walls of the sun room, which extends from the southwest elevation, are enhanced by the identical fluted brown brick adornment. First and second story windows on the gable ends are topped by a soldier's row of fluted brown bricks. Windows feature sills of the same brown bricks arranged in a parallel fashion. Every brick in the home is fluted.

The one and one-half story building is frame with a brick veneer, rests on a continuous concrete foundation, has a full basement, and is sheathed by composition asphalt shingles on a steeply-pitched, side-gabled roof that is penetrated by two brick chimneys.

The house sets on a one-half acre lot and is surrounded by a meandering concrete walkway leading through cultivated lawns on varying levels. Extensive raised flower and shrubbery beds edged with concrete landscape blocks are found throughout the grounds.

The façade of the building fronts southeast toward West Highland Street. The southeast elevation features a full, hipped-roof front porch supported by short, square wooden columns enhanced by unique decorative vigas; the columns rest on brick piers that extend eight inches above the balustrade. The corner columns are triple, front columns are single, and rear columns attached. A brick lattice balustrade extends to a level twenty inches above the porch floor, surrounds the porch, and is topped with three-inch by twelve-inch concrete slabs, as are the balustrades lining the concrete stair steps that lead to the porch. The deep porch is open, has a broken tile floor, and a beaded board ceiling. The leaded and beveled three-light, solid core front entrance is very slightly asymmetrically placed with paired three-over-one double-hung sash windows to the west and a ribbon of three three-over-one double-hung sash windows to the east.

A large shed-roofed second story dormer is centered over the front porch; it is covered with original white asbestos siding and is enhanced by exposed decorative rafter tails as is the porch roof below. The prominent dormer is fenestrated by two sets of paired three-over-one double-hung sash windows and a single centered squat window, which has been enclosed to allow for the installation of an air conditioner.

The northeast elevation is composed of a large gable end with exposed false roof beams with decoratively cut ends and is fenestrated by a variety of window configurations and one door that provides access to the full basement at the ground level. Second story paired three-over-one double-hung sash windows are centered directly under the gable. On the main floor a second pair of three-over-one double-hung sash windows is located near the western corner; to the east of center under these is the three-light three-panel door, which is flanked by single three-over-one double-hung sash windows identical to others placed throughout the house.

This elevation has two prominent features. First, near the eastern corner is an exterior brick chimney that penetrates the projecting eave; it is adorned with an inset square of basket weave bricks and trimmed with brown bricks that match those of the basket weave band that encompasses the building. High, single three-light stationary windows, which are enhanced with leaded bevels, flank this chimney. Directly beneath these windows, at the ground level and also flanking the chimney, are single three-light hopper windows. Second, a shed-roof squared bay on the main level is placed to the west of center under the top floor paired windows. This bay is fenestrated by a ribbon of three three-over-one double-hung sash windows and adorned with decorative brackets underneath the roof.

The northwest or rear elevation of the home is dominated by an attached screened second story shed-roofed sleeping porch that covers approximately one-half of the elevation. Its ceiling and solid balustrade are beaded board; exposed decorative rafter tails adorn both the porch and house roofs. A pair of three-over-one double-hung sash windows is placed at the eastern side of the rear elevation on the main floor level. To the west, a second pair of shorter three-over-one double-hung sash windows is located east of the three-light single panel door that opens onto the porch from the main floor of the home. To the west of the door is a ribbon of three three-over-one double-hung sash windows; this group opens onto the porch at its western end. The porch has a screened door on its eastern end that opens onto metal stairs that descend to the ground.

At the eastern end of the northwest elevation is the rear wall of a sunroom that extends from the house at the western side of the southwestern elevation of the house. This rear wall of the sunroom is fenestrated by a ribbon of three three-over-one double-hung sash windows.

The basement of the home is at ground level on the northwest elevation. One three-light three-panel door at ground level is placed equal-distance between two single three-over-one double-hung sash windows. There is a single three-light hopper window to the east of center under the ribbon of sunroom windows on the main floor. A symmetrically placed, square brick chimney penetrates the roof of this elevation but is not visible from the front façade. The basket weave band of fluted brown bricks at the basement line is particularly prominent on this elevation as is the row of parallel brown bricks just beneath the roof line.

The southwest elevation is composed of a large gable end with exposed false roof beams with decoratively cut ends and is fenestrated on the second story by a single three-over-one double-hung sash window adjacent to a one-light three-panel door; these are centered directly under the gable. Metal stairs from this door provide access to the ground but are obscured from view by heavy foliage. These stairs are almost identical to the metal stairs that lead to the attached sleeping porch on the northwest elevation.

On the main floor, directly under the window-door combination, are two narrow single three-over-one double-hung sash windows, which have been enhanced with leaded bevels. On the main floor a pair of three-over-one double-hung sash windows is located near the eastern corner. At the ground level, immediately beneath the basket weave band, are two single window openings into the basement; one has a three-light hopper window, and the other has been enclosed to allow for the installation of a dryer vent and central air conditioning connections.

Extending at a right angle from the house at the western side of the southwestern elevation of the house is the aforementioned flat-roofed sun room. The northeastern wall of this attached room is fenestrated by a ribbon of three three-over-one double-hung sash windows. The southwestern wall features a ribbon of four three-over-one double-hung sash windows; centered underneath these is a single three-light hopper window at ground level. Decorative wooden brackets extend from the fascia board on the three exterior sides of the sun room, and a soldier's row of fluted brown bricks is placed between the fascia boards and the tops of the room’s ten windows, which dominate its three exterior walls.

There have been only insignificant alterations to the exterior. One was the addition of a fire escape to the top floor about 1940. In addition, the garage door into the basement was replaced in 1969 with a three-light three-panel door flanked by single three-over-one double-hung sash windows identical to others placed throughout the house.

In the interior, the home’s original coal-burning furnace was replaced with a forced air gas furnace about 1947. When the McClures bought the home in 1969, they spent four months refurbishing it, making minor renovations to enhance its livability, and finishing the basement (where the Highfills had sometimes parked five vehicles) into a spacious living area, thus necessitating the removal of the original garage door. Further, in addition to making necessary repairs to restore the interior to its original pristine condition, they added a laundry chute from the top floors to the basement laundry room, modernized the kitchen, built a small hallway between the kitchen and dining room so that one cannot see through the dining room and into the kitchen from the living room, and rearranged the interior walls in the central portion of the main floor where one bath and four small closets had been. The new configuration resulted in two baths and one closet, but the exterior walls of this area were not altered. In addition, central air conditioning was installed. In 1974 the McClures added a second full kitchen in the basement and in 1999 began creating leaded bevel windows for the main floor, an effort that continues.

National Register of Historic Places

Continuation Sheet           Section 8

Summary

The McClure-Highfill Home, located at 701 West Highland Street in Paragould, Arkansas, is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C for its decorative masonry and fluted brick that make it unique among Craftsman homes in the town of Paragould. The home was built in 1937 for Claude V. Highfill and sold in 1969 to Gary L. McClure, who owns it today. The house was designed by Alfred Thomas, who not only also served as the contractor, but was personally responsible for the extensive hand carving of ceilings and walls on the interior of the home, as well as other custom-built features. Mr. Thomas built several homes in Paragould, including the very distinctive Dilman-Pennington home at 515 West Highland, one block east of the McClure-Highfill Home.

The McClure-Highfill Home features distinctive Craftsman elements, including exposed decorative rafter tails; matching decorative wood bracketing; wide eave overhangs; exposed false roof beams under side gables; a large second story dormer; a deep, full front porch; and small, high windows flanking the main chimney. A continuous concrete foundation supports the building, which is of frame construction with a brick veneer. It is sheathed by composition asphalt shingles on a steeply-pitched, side-gabled roof that is penetrated by two brick chimneys.

Greene County, Arkansas, had its origin in the home of early pioneer Benjamin Crowley, after whom Crowley’s Ridge was named. Mr. Crowley held a New Madrid Certificate, a document that replaced Bounty Certificates that the federal government awarded to veterans of the War of 1812. The replacements were necessary because the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811-1812 had rendered uninhabitable the land originally designated in the certificates.

In the spring of 1821, when Benjamin Crowley first arrived in the area from his home in Henderson County, Kentucky, to identify and claim land with his New Madrid Certificate on which to settle with his wife and eight children, he was 64 years old. He selected the site for his home because of the existence there of a large spring, formerly used by Native Americans for gatherings. The site is now part of Crowley’s Ridge State Park, which is about 12 miles from present day Paragould. Crowley’s family joined him on Christmas Day, 1821, and moved into their new home.

Crowley became a prime factor in the development of the area. The first post office, granted under the name Crowley, was located in his home in 1832, and the first church was organized there. Friends and relatives from Kentucky related information from Crowley that resulted in other Kentuckians’ (friends, relatives, and former neighbors) relocating to the area.

In 1833, Greene County was formally organized in the Crowley home, which also served as a temporary county seat. The original county included not only present day Greene, but also what are now Clay County and a section of Craighead County as well. Isaac Brookfield, a young Methodist Episcopal missionary from New Jersey and founder of that first local church, became the new county’s first judge, and it was he who is reputed to have suggested naming the county after the famed Revolutionary War general, Nathaniel Greene.

Arkansas became a state in 1836, forty-six years before the founding of Paragould. That momentous event resulted from the expansion in the area of two major rail lines. One was Jay Gould’s St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad, now known as the Missouri Pacific, and the other was J. W. Paramore’s Texas and St. Louis, now the Cotton Belt.

A new town was established at the juncture of the two railroads. The name Paragould was coined from the combination of the two rail magnates’ names, Para from Paramore, and gould from, of course, Gould. This town has the rare distinction of having a name it shares with no other establishment in the world!

Paragould was incorporated March 3, 1883, and the county seat was relocated here from Gainesville on October 6, 1884. Most of the town, including the eastern portion of the Highfill-McClure property, was established on land that was part of a 281-acre farm owned by Willis S. Pruett, originally from Tennessee. Paragould’s main street is named after this early settler.

The local economy originally centered around lumber, abundant in great tracts of virgin timber, and the industry was enhanced by the available rail transportation. The local lumber businesses included small manufacturing plants that produced wood products in Paragould and about forty sawmills in the county. The influx of new residents who flocked to what was, in fact, a boomtown, resulted in the town council’s quickly organizing a town government.

By 1890 the population of Paragould had reached 2528. By 1900 there existed a municipal water plant, an electrical power plant, several private telephone companies, three schools (one a business college and another a Bible institute), and several modern department stores and hotels. The downtown streets were lighted and paved.

In the early 1900’s, Claude V. Highfill, who was born July 15, 1898, in Union City, Tennessee, came to Greene County with his family. They settled near the Locust Creek Ditch, and Claude attended grammar school through the third grade at Big Island School. For a while he farmed, and during the summers, from a horse and buggy, he sold Home Comfort cook stoves, manufactured in St. Louis.

In about 1917, Claude Highfill married Elizabeth Cox (born April 14, 1989) a one-fourth Native American Indian orphan originally from Leachville, Arkansas. After the deaths of her parents, Elizabeth had been in the care of her grandparents. After they also died, she was raised in Senath, Missouri, by two aunts, Birdie and Susie Cox.

Later Claude Highfill worked for the Stedman Hardware Company before establishing a transfer business with a new truck he had been able to purchase. He hauled new and used goods, mainly furniture, and had an office in Saul Blankenship’s furniture store. His move from the transfer business to the furniture business occurred quite unintentionally.

The career-changing event involved a load of furniture Highfill had contracted to transport to Tennessee. When he arrived, the recipients could not pay all the charges, so Highfill took some of the furniture in the shipment as compensation. Returning to Paragould with his goods, he rented space on South Pruett Street next to the Home Bakery and went into the used furniture business. Soon he moved across Pruett Street and rented half the Joseph Store Building; O. M. Atkins rented the other half. (Earl Vanhook worked for Atkins and later headed what are now the Van Atkins Stores.)

Through the thirty-two years the Highfills owned the property, they sold approximately nineteen acres of the original homestead. Only about one half acre of land remains with the house.

In the spring of 1969, Gary and Marilyn McClure bought the Highfill home from Claude Highfill for $17,369.59; Elizabeth Highfill had died December 26, 1958. The McClures had three children--Leianne, Lucinda, and Mike--at the time they purchased the property, and later a fourth child, Tim, was born. Four months were devoted to renovating, repairing, and refurbishing the home and converting the basement from parking to living space before the family moved in on August 17, 1969. In 1987, Marilyn McClure died. In 2004, Gary married Bonnie Ann Leadford.

Although there are several outstanding examples of Craftsman homes in Paragould, this one is unique in that it is the only one in town sheathed in fluted brick. These unusual bricks were fired in Jackson, Missouri, 150 miles northeast of Paragould. The house is covered in red colored fluted brick, but unlike other brick Craftsman houses in the area, it is accented with a basket weave band of brown fluted bricks around the entire building at the basement line, making the house unique in the town.

Interrupted only by the porches, the front and rear of the home feature a row of parallel brown bricks just below the roof line. The three exposed walls of the sun room, which extends from the southwest elevation, are enhanced by the identical fluted brown brick adornment. First and second story windows on the gable ends are topped by a soldier's row of fluted brown bricks. Windows feature sills of the same brown bricks arranged in a parallel fashion. Every brick in the home is fluted.

The attention to detail does not stop with the exterior of the home. The interior features hand-carved beaverboard molding on walls and ceilings. The most elaborate design is found in the master bedroom where nineteen Roman arches and columns are carved into the walls. The ceilings also feature wonderful hand-carved detailing.

With the exception of modern updates to the kitchen and bathrooms, the home’s interior appears very much original. In the modern kitchen, original cupboards can be found under an unusually low counter top that was custom built for Elizabeth Highfill, the wife of the original owner, because of her short height. (Light switches throughout the two main floors are also unusually low for the same reason.) The cupboard doors are custom built of birch wood. When the present owners needed more cabinet space, they used the same materials and design employed on the original cabinets, making the new cabinets blend nicely with the originals.

Other examples of the home’s fine craftsmanship are built-in drawers and storage spaces in two bedrooms, a custom-made window seat with storage in the dining room bay, a telephone nook built into a wall of one of the main floor halls, and the living room chimneypiece and mantel. The original floors (oak on the main floor and pine on the second story) are in excellent condition. These were laid by Fred Thomas, nephew of Alfred Thomas, the home’s designer and builder.

Blumenson, John J.-G. Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to 

Carley, Rachael. The Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture. 

Hansbrough, Vivian. History of Greene County Arkansas. Little Rock: Democrat 

Harris, Jeffery. Personal interview. 30 June 2001.

McAlester, Virginia, and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. 

Paragould/Greene County Chamber of Commerce. A Brief History of 

Robinson, Betty Highfill. Telephone interview. 2000; Written correspondence.

     28 June 2001.

Starr, Opal. Personal interview. 29 June 2001.

Thomas, Danny. Personal interview. 26 April 2001.

Thomas, Vera. Personal interview. 5 May 2001.

Woodard, Ella Mae Thomas. Telephone interview. 19 June 2001.