A cherished resource needs protection

The neglect, deterioration, and outright abandonment of one of Arkansas’s premier treasures is unimaginable to those of us who remember the excitement of the gift of the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House to the city of Little Rock for the “use and benefit” of the Arkansas Arts Center (AAC), now the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), and how the entire community rallied behind the extraordinarily visionary project to repurpose the house as a Decorative Arts Museum.

Though the house did not open as a museum until 1985, it was a project that was germinating as early as 1963, when Jeannette Rockefeller announced that the imposing antebellum mansion, which had long been a fixture in the Little Rock’s political and cultural life, was being given to the city, with the AAC to be responsible for upkeep and maintenance of the house and property.

What was one of the state’s greatest success stories of an exemplary public/private partnership in raising monies for a stunning restoration and a separate endowment fund is now in perilous condition, embroiled in a legal battle which may ultimately determine the fate of this important landmark.

We all have a stake in this battle because, in addition to private and foundation monies, significant amounts of our tax dollars were poured into the project. It was to benefit all Arkansans. Private and foundation monies played an important role in the project, but equally important in bringing the vision to fruition were the public funds.

City, state, and federal dollars were solicited, accepted, and spent by the AAC on the house to realize the restoration and conversion to a museum space. At the end of the restoration, a separate endowment fund was established to operate and maintain the house as the museum, utilizing more state and city tax dollars.

Figures gleaned from AAC annual reports and a 2007 UALR history of the AAC show tax dollars for both the restoration fund and the endowment totaling $922,500 by 1986. From a basic online conversion, that is $2,366,400 in today’s dollars.

In addition to those monies, starting in 1984, an extra $50,000 a year was requested and granted by the city to add to the regular AAC appropriation to include operation and maintenance of the Terry house as the Decorative Arts Museum.

A few years later the city appropriation tripled. The fact that tax dollars played a significant role in the project and the house’s protection and maintenance has been largely ignored.

It is the refusal to acknowledge and be accountable for the endowment fund, intended to operate the museum and maintain and protect the house, that has bewildered those who remember how those funds were solicited. Public and private monies were generously and enthusiastically given for several reasons, not the least of which was because there was such genuine affection for the beloved landmark and the Terry family.

Funds for the endowment were solicited by the family in letters to their friends, some written on AAC letterhead. The state Legislature also contributed, as did the city once again. The largest contributor was the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, matching the other monies two for one. In the AAC annual report of 1986/1987, the total endowment collected was $1,672,852, or $4,291,232 in 2022 dollars.

Endowment funds are established by nonprofits to ensure the protection that the venture will live on. The capital is kept intact, spending earnings and adding money back into the capital to allow for inflation to preserve a revenue stream. That is why the $4 million figure is important, because a properly administered endowment fund should be at least close to that figure, if not more.

Documents from the Rockefeller Trust support the fact that the intention of the endowment fund was to operate and maintain the house. In a Feb. 18, 1985, letter to the IRS justifying their endowment fund grant, it explained: “The House was built in 1840, and its importance stems not only from its architectural features, but for the numerous contributions of the three families who lived there.”

It discussed the creation of the endowment fund, “the income from which will be used for the daily operations of the House, including … utilities and maintenance … Although the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation has accumulated an endowment fund for purposes of supporting the Arts Center, that endowment cannot support both the operations of the Arts Center and the House. Thus, to be able to carry out the purposes of the House, an additional endowment fund is necessary.”

In a letter thanking the Trust, Robert Schultz, the AAC Foundation vice-president, called it “the grandest old house in Arkansas.” Another letter expressing gratitude to the Trust was from AAC Director Townsend Wolfe, saying the monies would “help generate general operating revenues to ensure its continuity and stability during the coming years.”

Clearly the Terry house was the main attraction. That is what people remember and that is what documentation supports. Now, knowing there were mechanisms and monies in place to protect the house, people see significant deterioration as a result of its abandonment to the point that it needs over $1 million in repairs.

The struggle has progressed from bewilderment to anger ,because the house is seriously endangered and the endowment fund is unaccounted for. Many feel the abandonment and lack of transparency is a real breach of trust with the entire community.

The cynicism of recent language from the AMFA attorneys accusing the Terry family of “sleight of hand” shows how far the original vision has deteriorated from when the house was given with great excitement and fanfare to the city for the AAC.

The AAC, now AMFA, accepted responsibility for stewardship of the house when they accepted the gift of the house—“This Splendid Gift” as the Arkansas Gazette headline announced on Oct. 2, 1964. “Appreciation of their splendid gift will be as enduring as the strong walls of the historic home.”

According to the two days of articles, the AAC Board of Directors adopted a resolution accepting and approving the gift, and the arrangement was for the Board of Directors to administer the property as part of the city’s cultural and educational programs.

“This home and the Old State House will be for the years of the future two monuments of pride and satisfaction to the people of Little Rock and the state as a whole. It is good to know that its eventual administration will be in the hands of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Arts Center …” Yet now it languishes a state of limbo.

The Pike-Fletcher-Terry House is arguably the most important house in Arkansas because of its historical and architectural significance. The three families who occupied the house had enormous impact on the state in terms of commerce, politics, literature, banking, law, navigation, real estate, education, and civil rights, and no other house can claim to have had such a broad range of influence on the state’s economic, political, and cultural growth.

Also, the house is the state’s premier example of residential antebellum Greek Revival architecture, and it is a cherished resource in the state because of its picturesque elegance, imposing scale, and extensive grounds. It must be protected for all Arkansans.

The current and recently renamed Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts wants nothing more to do with the house, and it wants to keep the endowment fund. That contradicts what previous director Nan Plummer told a group of advocates in January 2008: that the endowment fund went with the house.

The stewardship of the house that was entrusted to the AAC is a failure, and now is the time for discernment, reassessment and some serious soul-searching. Whatever the future use of the house, it will be almost impossible to sustain without an endowment fund.

Alerting the public to the jeopardized state of this revered landmark will hopefully garner community support for preventing further deterioration, as well as taking an active role in aggressively pursuing a new vision for the future use of the iconic and venerated Terry house and property.