Shoring up a piece of Cane Hill history: Stabilization work begins on historic home

Today’s Arkansas Democrat Gazette features a wonderful article about a place that is special to all of us at WER - Cane Hill. Read the full article below featuring WER Principal, John Greer, talking about the Kirby-Colburn House.

March 4th, 2023 by Stacy Ryburn

CANE HILL -- Sally Kirby Hartman used to visit Cane Hill with her father when she was an adolescent and found it hard to imagine the place as a once-thriving community. Her father could imagine. Louie Christopher Kirby was born in a two-story home east of Arkansas 45 in 1906, across the street from the Cane Hill College building. The home, constructed around 1890 by Hartman's great-grandfather, remains today.

The nonprofit Historic Cane Hill Inc. intends to restore the home, now referred to as the Kirby-Colburn House. First the nonprofit has to stabilized it. That work has begun as the start of a yearslong project. The interior of the long-vacant home is in better condition than the outside might have one believe, said Vanessa McKuin, executive director of the Historic Cane Hill nonprofit.

"It's gotten very grown up," she said. "The local community is so familiar with certain structures. It's one of those that's always been there, but it's always been in disrepair."

The home is not on the National Register of Historic Places. McKuin said the nonprofit hopes to restore it first, then apply to have it listed.

Several of the oldest houses in the region still stand in Cane Hill, the earliest settlement in Washington County. Europeans settled there in 1827, attracted to its soil, springs and temperate climate after Native Americans were removed and forced to relocate to modern-day Oklahoma, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Cane Hill College was chartered in 1850 and became one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in the state. Union forces burned the college and much of the area during the Civil War. A railroad built in the early 1900s bypassed the community and went through Lincoln instead, ensuring Cane Hill's demise. The community had a population of 74 as of the 2020 census.

Hartman's great-grandfather, James Christopher Kirby, donated the land for Cane Hill College. One building of the college remains today. Its restoration was led by John Greer with WER Architects in Little Rock and Fayetteville. Greer also is leading the effort to restore the Kirby-Colburn House, as he has with several buildings in Cane Hill.

"I'm 59, getting closer to retirement age. This is what I really enjoy doing," he said. "We do a lot of different kinds of work, but this is what gives me the most reward. We're preserving this history, and being able to tell that story for kids, grandkids and great-grandkids -- that's what it's all about."

Wagner General Contractors in Searcy was selected as the construction company for the project. Crews will stabilize the house's foundation, repair the roof and salvage as much of the original siding as they can. Many of the original windows also were protected by sheet metal and will be restored. The porch collapsed but will be rebuilt. A kitchen that was added at some point in the back of the house likely will be removed.

Crews discovered some interesting items inside. Every room has a unique floor cloth, which is basically a decorative precursor to linoleum flooring. There also was a walking cane and a newspaper from 1896, as well as a ledger.

Greer said he thinks the home has been vacant since the early 1970s. "For it to be still standing and to have its bones for that period of time is just amazing," he said. "They built good buildings back then, that's for sure."

James Christopher Kirby was a livestock buyer. He and his wife, Mary, used to rent rooms of the house to "drummers," the term at the time for traveling salesmen. Kirby's brother, Thomas Henry Kirby, took over ownership in the early 1900s. Other families owned it through the years, including the Colburns, another prominent family from Cane Hill, before the Historic Cane Hill nonprofit bought it. The nonprofit purchased the 4 acres the house sits on for $50,000 in July and the 22 mostly wooded acres to the east for $120,000 in January, according to Washington County property records.

Hartman said knowing someone is restoring the house would have made her father happy. She lives in Virginia now but remembers her father would take the family out to Cane Hill every chance he could get. He kept extensive records of the family's history. Many of Hartman's relatives are buried in the nearby cemetery, she said. "I didn't know what he was talking about," Hartman said. "You could see where there had been a couple of stores, but they were closed. It was just hard to imagine that having been a thriving community. But he loved to tell tales of it."

Crews hope to finish stabilizing the house by July, Greer said. That part of the project has a budget of about $350,000. It's being supported with donations. The Historic Cane Hill nonprofit hasn't decided on a use for the property yet. Greer said he doesn't want to make too many changes to the house until the nonprofit decides on its use. For now, the plan is to stabilize the house, maintain it and keep it dry, Greer said. The community lacks places to eat or spend the night, so there are plenty of options for the home's future, he said.

"When you're rebuilding a community, you have to kind of think outside the box about, 'What can I provide people to get them excited or get them interested in coming to Cane Hill?'" Greer said.

How to help

To learn more about how to support Historic Cane Hill Inc.'s mission to restore much of the once-thriving community, go to: https://historiccanehillar.org/join-support/