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FORMER UNION HEADQUARTERS IN PB FOCUS OF RESTORATION PROJECT

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, November 29, 2008 11:55 PM CST

It’s easy to miss the little white-and-blue house at 714 W. 4th Ave., but the Boone Murphy House was once the headquarters for the Union Army.

Pine Bluff’s Historic District Commission is looking to the Boone Murphy house with an eye toward restoration. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

Pine Bluff’s Historic District Commission wants to ensure that the Boone Murphy House has a new lease on life with a restoration project that they hope will jump-start renovations in the 5th Avenue Historic District.

“I think this is something we can do ourselves and preserve a little piece of Pine Bluff,” Dave Sadler, the historic district chairman, said at the commission’s monthly meeting Nov. 21.

Grants up to $7,500 are available for homeowners in the 5th Avenue Historic District for improvements.

Powell Clayton, the ninth governor of Arkansas, used the Boone Murphy House as a base of operations from 1863 to 1865, around the time Confederate forces attacked Pine Bluff and were deflected.

The Union army was outnumbered, but freedmen were used to supplement the forces, constructing obstacles and stopping fires.

The house was first located at 702 W. 2nd Ave.

Robert Tucker, the director of the city’s inspection and zoning department, said certain parts of the floor and ceiling needed repairs.

“It’s something concrete that we can do as a commission,” Sadler said.

The historic commission also discussed photographing and cleaning historical plaques around the city.

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