Continuing the LegacyLee & Samantha Rice Pavilion

Design: Tommy Jameson, AIA – Jameson Architects, P.A.Little Rock, Arkansas

Old Monarch

FROM Lydia of the Valley

...I suppose this home has always been called the old house, but let’s call it the Old Monarch. It has been a refuge for the stranger... who was passing through. None were ever turned away, but found a welcome inside its wall for warmth, food and rest and, we might add, a cup of hot coffee...

The beloved Old Monarch which cannot, I suppose, stand forever.

Melissa Ozella Miller Upshaw

Sharing with Students & Visitors Alike

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Site Plan

Drawing Index

A-0 Site PlanA-1 Pavillion Foundation & Floor PlanA-2 Pavillion ElevationsA-3 Pavillion SectionsA-4 Pavillion Details & Scheduals(MEP) Pavillion Plumbing & Electrical Plans(Civil) Site Utility Plan(Civil) Parking

Site Plan Notes:

Melissa Ozella Upshaw expressed in Lydia of the Valley her concern that the family’s beloved Old Monarch would just gradually slip back to the earth. Under the stewardship of descendants of Reuben and Lydia Rice and Black River Technical College, not only is the house preserved but it will share its story with students and visitors alike for generations to come. Lee and Samantha Rice were among those descendants. Their daughter, Wanda Lee, left, and her husband James Vaughn provided generous support for the new pavilion named for her parents in recognition of their lifelong support of education. The pavilion with restrooms and public parking was designed by preservation architect Tommy Jameson of Jameson Architects P.A. of Little Rock, Arkansas. The Rice-Upshaw House and Site are available for tours and special events. For information please contact the Office of Development, Black River Technical College.

Wanda Lee Vaughn

Lee & Samantha Rice PavilionDesign: Tommy Jameson, AIA – Jameson Architects, P.A.

Little Rock, Arkansas

Celebrating Two CenturiesSettlement at the Rice-Upshaw Site began two centuries ago when Reuben Rice and his family arrived at this location in 1812 from Tennessee. For the celebration of the public opening in October of 2011, living history re-enactors Gerry and Maria Barker of Frontier Resources, Edmonton, Kentucky were joined by project craftsman Eric Sammons and his crew from Barren Creek Timberworks, Mountain Home, Arkansas to demonstrate the types of skills required by pioneering settlers of the Eleven Point River Valley as they laid the foundation for the agricultural heritage celebrated at the REACH sites today. The Barkers’ oxen were team players as they pulled logs to demonstration sites. Maria Barker explained the equipment the Rice family and others used to make fabric from the flax, cotton, and wool produced on farms in the valley 200 years ago.

Celebrating - Rice-Upshaw House & Site

Students and visitors alike swarmed the Rice-Upshaw Site for three days taking home valuable experiences related to frontier life of centuries past. Oxen trod the same ground as the oxen of 200 years ago displaying for all their gentle nature and great capacity to perform the tasks required to build homesteads, grow crops, and move people and produce. Award-winning local musicians and dancers from Marilyn’s Clogging Studio performed traditional music and dances. Decorations by local volunteers celebrated both the bounties of fall harvests and the public opening of the REACH sites.

The origins and history of the William Looney Tavern came to light through multi-disciplinary architectural, archeological, and historical analysis. Archeologists excavating under the log dogtrot structure set aside some soil for educational purposes. During the public opening celebration local students became amateur archeologists under the direction of Dr. Leslie Stewart-Abernathy of the Arkansas Archeological Survey and his wife Judith, Director of the Arkansas Tech University Museum. Students found artifacts they labeled for addition to the larger collection of archeological finds. A volunteer assistant for 6th graders noted... most of those kids who sifted a button, or a coin, or a piece of ceramic plate or cup out of that soil will never forget it. Older FFA students were closely examining the high-quality craftsmanship of the half-dovetail notching executed by both the original builders and the restoration craftsmen.

Celebrating – William Looney Tavern

Celebrating a Homecoming

Threads of the past weave families around the world to their roots in the Eleven Point River Valley. Many of these families had been connected for generations prior to their arrival in the valley two centuries ago. Working together, both Anglo Americans and African Americans planted one of the earliest seedbeds of agricultural heritage in what would become Arkansas. In October 2011 many descendants of these pioneering families gathered at the newly restored REACH sites to celebrate that heritage. While too numerous to mention by individual names, the families of William Stubblefield, Reuben Rice, William Looney, Joseph Looney, Hiram Looney, and Dennis and Catherine Looney Downey were prominently represented. Entangled roots of past generations tie present-day descendants to nearly every pioneering family creating a truly rich ‘homecoming’ event.