Monticello Live

This week we’ll begin at the charming grey house with the white trim and the welcoming porches where we stopped last week. This home was built by Harry Wells (William T. Wells and brother to Mary Phenton and Myrtle Wells) around 1910. Mr. Wells was a businessman who also served in one of the county’s clerk positions for a time. The Wells family members are patriarchs in the history of Monticello and Drew County. Let’s go back and look briefly at this family since the grey house and the next one are tied to them and to the history of Drew County.

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This week let’s look at the east side of the block of South Main beginning at East College Avenue and continuing nearly to East Bolling Avenue. The first lot where we begin now holds a quaint little duplex that once claimed a “refreshing” spot in Monticello’s history.

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This week we will look at the east side of South Main Street between East Jackson and East College streets. We will begin at the site of the present First United Methodist Church. I have been unable to determine the exact type of building that formerly occupied the space where the church stands today although I suspect it may have been a family home.

That said, I have learned some interesting facts about the church that I’d like to summarize for readers. Organized in 1852, this early United Methodist congregation built the first church structure in Monticello in 1853 on their land deeded to the church by Wiley Crook. This lot sat north of our present library on the fenced lot where a handsome, two-story red brick apartment building rests today. The organizer and first minister for the church congregation was Reverend H. R. Withers.

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This week let’s continue down the west side of South Main Street beginning at its intersection with West College Avenue and continuing to West Bolling Avenue. Of course we all know that the block begins with the former private home that now houses the Drew County Historical Museum. The house was built in 1906 by Garvin Cavaness using bricks molded onsite with a Sears brick-making machine. The house became the permanent home of the Drew County Museum in 1970. For a more detailed description of the home and its history, see the 2006 Drew County Historical Journal.

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This week we’ll pick up our tour and cover the block on west side of South Main Street from West Jackson Avenue to West College Avenue. The first house we see on the north end of this block is the old Joe S. Harris house. Joe Harris was a native Monticellonian and retired brigadier general for whom the local American Legion Post was named. Harris’ military career began in 1903 as an Army private and ran through WWI (1917-1918), the formative years of the Arkansas National Guard and his command of National Guard troops during the disastrous floods of 1927. Harris was also the uncle of the late Eric Hardy, a founding father of the Drew County Museum.

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