Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/05/17

Summary

The Louis Rudolph and Flossie Belle Ritter House is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic places under Criterion C, with local significance, as an example of a Spanish Colonial Revival Style residence in northeastern Arkansas designed by prominent local architect Elmer A. Stuck. The Ritter House was designed and completed in 1926 along the northern side of Nettleton Avenue on a two and one-half acre country estate. Due to the continuing expansion of the city of Jonesboro, the house is now a surrounded by a residential neighborhood.

Elaboration

Craighead Country, which was established on February 9, 1859, is situated in northeastern Arkansas. The city of Jonesboro was established the same year and quickly grew due to its role as a county seat of government.[1] The other county seat was established in 1883 in Lake City due to the difficulties inherent in traveling large distances in the early history of the county.[2] From the original first surveyed plots within the fifteen acres donated by local farmer Fergus Snoddy, the area grew slowly around the county courthouse building until the arrival of the railroad in 1883.[3] The same year, the local voters finally approved the town’s official incorporation.[4]

The early economy of Craighead County and the town of Jonesboro was initially based on the thriving timber industry in the surrounding area. This helped to fuel a large population boom in the last decade of the 19^th century.[5] Charles Abram Stuck arrived in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in December of 1888.[6] C. A. Stuck had previously worked as a carpenter and joiner and had also created and sold a successful retail furniture business. In 1881, after selling his furniture business he moved his family to Danville, Illinois, in order to open a new planing mill for the manufacture and reworking of lumber. This initial mill was not as successful as Stuck had hoped and after several hunting trip to northeast Arkansas, C. A. Stuck decided to move his business to Jonesboro in order to take advantage of the high quality timber he had observed.[7] He moved his family to Jonesboro and opened a new lumber mill on March 14, 1889.[8]

After finding success in his lumber business, Charles A. Stuck stared the Jonesboro Brick Company in 1899 with several partners, including Johnson Patrick, J. C. Hawthorne, and G. W. Puryear.[9] The new brick manufacturing plant for the company was in operation by May of 1900. Unfortunately, Mr. Patrick passed away only a month after the company started producing its first bricks. Charles A. Stuck passed away in August of 1898 and ownership of both the lumber and brick businesses passed to his sons, Elmer Charles and William R. Stuck, and his widow, Margaret McCulloch Stuck.[10] In August of 1910, Elmer Charles and William R. Stuck bought out the other remaining partners in the Jonesboro Brick Company. In 1923, Elmer Charles Stuck became the sole owner of the brick manufacturing company while ownership of the lumber company was transferred to William R. Stuck.[11] In 1937, after the death of Elmer Charles Stuck, the brick company passed to Elmer Charles Stuck’s sons, Elmer A. and Howard Stuck.[12] The Jonesboro Brick Company continued operation under the direction of the Stuck family until its closure in August of 1942.[13] This closure was due to the prioritization of building materials for the war effort, which made local building material sales impossible. The brick manufacturing plant would eventually be reopened after the war under new ownership. The Stuck family continued to run the lumber company until the 1950s, when it was bought out by another local building material firm, Barton Lumber Company.[14]

Elmer Charles Stuck's son, Elmer Axtell Stuck, grew up learning the brick business with his father. He finished high school in Jonesboro, then attended Washington and Lee University. Before completing his degree, Elmer A. Stuck transferred to Washington University in St. Louis where he earned his architectural degree in 1924.[15] After finishing his education, Elmer A. Stuck started working in Little Rock, AR, but soon returned home to open up the first architectural firm in Jonesboro in 1926.[16] Elmer A. Stuck soon became a significant architect in the Jonesboro area. He created designs for the Craighead County Courthouse, Jonesboro City Hall, Craighead County Jail, Jonesboro Public Library, and many of the building on the Arkansas State University Campus. Elmer A. Stuck was also a past Board member and President of the state Architect Licensing Board and a member emeritus of the American Institute of Architects.[17] The architectural firm that Elmer A. Stuck created is still in existence as Stuck Associates.

One of the first residential design projects that Elmer A. Stuck undertook in Jonesboro was for newlyweds Louis Rudolph and Flossie Belle Ritter. Mr. Louis Rudolph Ritter was a veteran of WW1. After his military service, Louis Ritter served several years as commander of the local American Legion Post, Pickett Post #21. He was also an automotive dealer and in later years worked for the Employment Security Division.[18] Mrs. Flossie Belle Ritter was a past president of the Women's Democratic Party, past president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the first woman to be appointed to the Arkansas Racing Commission. Her grandfather, Ivy S. Hughes, was a captain of the Confederate Army in the Civil War. He owned the first hotel in Jonesboro.[19] The couple had honeymooned on the coast of California and loved the Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Style homes they saw. They hired local architect, Elmer A. Stuck, to design a home with these styles in mind.

The original design of the house incorporated common Spanish Colonial Revival Style features such as a tile roof, stucco-clad walls, ornamental ironwork, and an outdoor patio and fountain. The Spanish Eclectic or Spanish Colonial Revival style featured low pitched roof, little or no overhanging eaves, prominent arches above windows or doorways, asymmetrical massing and the use of stucco on wall surfaces.[20] Other common features included decorative window grills of wood or iron and decorative chimney tops. This style drew inspiration from a broad spectrum of Spanish sources, including examples in Europe as well as early colonial California, Mexico and the Caribbean. The various forms of Spanish Revival styles were popularized by several 20^th century expositions, including Spanish Revival style pavilions at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, and the Electric Tower of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1900. These examples and the early adoption of the style in California led to residential, civic and institutional examples across the county by the 1920s. The success of the San Diego Panama-California Exposition in 1915 and especially the popular California Quadrangle, which included the California Building and California Tower, further popularized the Spanish Revival style across the United States.[21]

The residence Elmer A. Stuck designed originally rested upon two and one-half acres of land about one mile from downtown Jonesboro. At the time it was built, it was considered in the country since it was outside the city limits. The property included pastureland for horses, chicken coops and a large garden. While living in the house, the Ritter’s had three children and employed a full time nanny and housekeeper, Creassie, and a gardener, Austin. [22] The house was built using materials from the Stuck family businesses, including lumber from the Stuck family mill and brick from the Jonesboro Brick Company. The stamped "S" logo is visible in some of the bricks along with the stamped label Jonesboro Brick Company in others. The house was built by the McDaniel Construction Company of Jonesboro, who also left a trace of their participation by signing the concrete driveway near the garage door and front patio. In c. 1937, a room was added to the front of the home when the third child was born.

The present owners of the home are Clifton Hughes and Rebecca S. Ritter. Clifton is the grandson of Louis Rudolph and Flossie Belle Ritter. Clifton's father, Rudolph Alwin Ritter, his Uncle Rodney, and Aunt Suzanne were raised in this house. The house was sold in the late 1950s and the acreage was divided into lots and sold individually. Clifton and Rebecca Ritter became only the third owners of the property after they purchased the property in 2008.

Statement of Significance

The Louis Rudolph and Flossie Belle Ritter House is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic places under Criterion C, with local significance, as an example of a Spanish Colonial Revival Style residence in northeastern Arkansas designed by prominent local architect Elmer A. Stuck, completed in 1926.

Bibliography

A Monograph from the work of Elmer A. Stuck, Architect, Jonesboro, Arkansas. Pamphlet, c. 1940. From the personal collection of Rebecca Ritter, Jonesboro, Arkansas.

"Elmer A. Stuck, Architect, Dies at Age 78." Arkansas Gazette. Little Rock, Arkansas. 13 July 1978, page unknown.

"Flossie Belle Ritter". Emerson Funeral Home. 2 January 1995.

Hendricks. Nancy. “Jonesboro (Craighead County).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, 19 December 2016. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Accessed 1 February 2017.

Koyl, George S., AIA, ed. American Architects Directory, First Edition. New York: R. R. Bowker, Company, 1955.

"Our Roots: The Story of Craighead County and Jonesboro(ough), Arkansas." Jonesboro City Guide: 2016, pp.14-21

McAlester, Virginia, and A. Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture. First ed. Knopf, 1984.

"Rudolph Ritter Found Dead In Burned Bed." Jonesboro Sun. Jonesboro, AR. 9 November 1957 p. unknown

Stuck Associates (Jonesboro and Little Rock). "Stuck Incorporated." www.stuckarch-jb.com. (acessed September 29, 2008).

Stuck, Charles A. The Story of Craighead County: A Narrative of People and Events in Northeast Arkansas. Jonesboro, AR. 1960.

Wheeler, Randall. "The History of Brickmaking in Jonesboro, Arkansas." Craighead County Historical Quarterly. Craighead County Historical Society: Jonesboro, AR. Vol. 31 (January 1993). pp 3-8.

Wilcox, Ralph S. “Helena U. S. Post Office and Courthouse.” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. 2014.

Williams, Harry Lee. History of Craighead County Arkansas. Parke-Harper Co.: Little Rock, AR. 1930.

Witsell, Charles and Gordon Wittenberg with Marylyn Jackson Parins. Architects of Little Rock: 1833-1950. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press, 2014.

Young, Joe Clay, IV. “C. A. Stuck & Sons Lumber.” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. 2002.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Harry Lee Williams, History of Craighead County Arkansas, Parke-Harper Co.: Little Rock, AR, 1930. p 599.

[7] Williams, History of Craighead County Arkansas, p 600-601.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Randall Wheeler, "The History of Brickmaking in Jonesboro, Arkansas," Craighead County Historical Quarterly, Craighead County Historical Society: Jonesboro, AR. Vol. 31 (January 1993). pp 3-8.

[10] Williams, History of Craighead County Arkansas, p 601-602.

[11] Wheeler, "The History of Brickmaking in Jonesboro, Arkansas," Craighead County Historical Quarterly.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Joe Clay Young IV, “C. A. Stuck & Sons Lumber,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 2002.

[15] George S. Koyl, AIA, ed. American Architects Directory, First Edition, New York: R. R. Bowker, Company, 1955.

[16] Ibid.

[17] "Elmer A. Stuck, Architect, Dies at Age 78," Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas, 13 July 1978, page unknown.

[18] "Rudolph Ritter Found Dead In Burned Bed," Jonesboro Sun, Jonesboro, AR, 9 November 1957, p. unknown.

[19] "Flossie Belle Ritter,” Emerson Funeral Home, 2 January 1995.

[20] Virginia McAlester and A. Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture. First ed. Knopf, 1984. 417.

[21] The California Quadrangle was built as the grand entrance to the Panama-California Exposition and still exists in Balboa Park, San Diego as the San Diego Museum of Man. The California Quadrangle buildings were designed by Architect Bertram Goodhue. National Historic Landmark Nomination, Balboa Park, San Diego, 12.22.1977.

[22] Information provided by current owner, Clifton Ritter, grandson of Louis R. and Flossie Belle Ritter. 2017.