WILSON-RICE-WHITE-FORT HOME

This luxurious home in Beebe was built for merchant J.E. "Buddy" Wilson at the corner of Cherry and Illinois streets around 1905 and later served as a boarding house. The two-story structure is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Fort, who purchased it around 1973. The ornate doors, molding and most of the trim are original, even though Mr. Fort had to replace some of the trim and paint much of the exterior and interior of the home. The home originally had 14 outside doors and each room had its own porch. The stained glass windows in the front of the home are original. The home has solid oak walls with floors of white pine. It had cedar shingles for roofing but new roofing was added many years later. Acording to the White County Historical Society White County Heritage publication of 1980, an interesting story about this home is the very "cold semicircle" around the location of the chair where Mr. Rice died. The Forts reported nothing sinister about this area except that they had to relocate their drawing room as guests found the room too "uncomfortable." The purpose of relating this information is not to start ghost stories but perhaps a report on old homes would not be complete without at least one such tale. The beautiful snow-covered scene above was provided by Mary Dean Rice Reynolds of the White County Historical Society, a granddaughter of Pierce and Ethel Rice, who bought the home from Buddy Wilson. This is her history of the house: "Mr. Wilson had a daughter who died when she was eight years old. He also had three sons. Mrs. Wilson died in 1925. It was after her death and the boys were grown that my grandparents, Pierce and Ethel Rice, rented the house from Mr. Wilson. The agreement was that Mr. Wilson would keep a bedroom and have meals with them. The house was large so they began to keep boarders. After Mr. Wilson's death in 1930 my grandparents bought the house. They continued to keep boarders until shortly before my grandmother's death in 1962. My grandfather died in 1968 in the nursing home at Jacksonville. So the story about the cold spot has another explanation. After Grandpa died the house was sold to Warren and Christine White. They did some modernizing. This house is very special to me. We lived there when I was very small and later lived next door. And then just down the street. I was the only grandchild for almost 10 years so I spent a lot of time there. Several years ago I wrote an article called 'Room and Board' for the Heritage [1993 edition, pp. 79-80]. I also sent an article I had written about Mr. Wilson's death. As a small child that was my first awareness, of death. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Fort have done a fine job with the house and they are generous to let others visit it. My grandparents had lived at Antioch before moving to Beebe. Grandpa had a used furniture store for several years. I have a picture of the house with a Room & Board sign on a tree in the yard."