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Submitted: 11/21/14 • Approved: 11/22/14 • Last Updated: 11/25/14 • R1052958-G0-S3
1883 - 1950
Biography;
Samuel Bingham Rector came to Heber Springs in 1910 as a twenty-eight year old pharmacist. He moved to Heber Springs from Melbourne, Arkansas, about 60 miles north. Rector was a forward thinking individual from a well established family that had the resources to help him in his initial business endeavors. Though many believe Mr. John Bridwell was instrumental in persuading Sam Rector to move to Heber Springs to establish a business, Rector was attracted to Heber Springs because of the rapid growth in the area due to the Seven Medicinal Springs which were being touted as having “remarkable curative powers.”
Rector was the second oldest child of K. William and Martha C. Bingham. K. William, who went by K. W., was the son of J. W. Rector and Ann Cooper who immigrated to Arkansas in 1852. K. W. was born in 1858. After the Civil War J. W., a well respected and successful Izard County farmer was elected to at least one term as County Judge.
Sam Rector opened the first drug store in town, located west of Gribble’s Grocery at Second and Main Streets. He was also influential in chartering the Arkansas National Bank which was originally located in the old Robbins Motor Company. The bank was located at 211 West Main Street until 1963, when it moved to its present location at Second and Main Street. In 1977, the charter was changed from a national bank to a state bank, and it is now known as the Heber Springs State Bank. It was, and still is, the largest bank in Cleburne County.
The city of Heber Springs is literally built around ‘7 Springs Park,’ and Rector’s bank and pharmacy were within walking distance of the park. Heber Springs had already become well known as a tourist area, with the first promotional brochures being printed in 1866. By the time Mr. Rector located to the town in 1912, there were ten or eleven hotels serving the people who came to try out the miracle springs. He knew that there was a need for a drug store and a bank, and with help from his family, Sam Rector was able to build the first drug store and bank in Heber Springs. The town was known as a place where travelers found gracious hosts and good accommodations in food and lodging. The climate and relaxing atmosphere of the hotels and the pleasant park made people feel better regardless of any effect the mineral waters may have had on their malaria or arthritis.
Max Frauenthal owned the property where the springs were located, and where the park was built, and in 1907, Frauenthal deeded the property to the city of Heber Springs. He specified “free use of the park for everyone for the purpose of drinking water.” That way, the waters could never be put to commercial use. It is still that way today, with hundreds of people coming every week to draw containers of water from the seven different wells in the park.
In addition to his bank and pharmacy, Mr. Rector was a speculator in the oil well business. Heber Springs, like much of Arkansas, had an oil rush in the early 1920s and much of the land in and around Heber Springs was leased. Sam Rector and his partner, Pink Mabry, purchased an old school house east of Heber Springs near Wilburn and all the land around it. Rector, it has been said, always thought there was oil underneath the land. However, nothing ever came of the oil rush. There was one well drilled near Rector’s land to around 3,400 feet, but no oil was found. Though oil was never found, if he still owned it, Rector’s land would be worth a lot these days, since natural gas has been found in the area around Heber Springs.
As a successful druggist, real estate buyer, and president of the Arkansas State Bank, Rector was a prominent man in the community. He built his home near the county courthouse, city square, and main business district. Though we do not know if he hired an architect, nor whom he chose to build his home, the choice of the Free Classic form of the Queen Anne style was Rector’s statement of his importance to the community. There are no other homes on Quitman of the Free Classic, Queen Anne style. The majority of homes are second or third generation housing stock consisting primarily of modern post war homes.
Mr. Sam Rector’s son, Felts Rector, carried on his father’s tradition in the bank after his father’s death in 1950, and the town took another phenomenal growth spurt. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy came to Heber Springs to dedicate a dam which formed Greers Ferry Lake. The town of Heber Springs began a boom in population as thousands of people came to Heber Springs. However, these people were not just tourists. Many came from the Memphis, Tennessee, area and purchased weekend homes in Heber Springs. Felts Rector was very active in establishing financing for this influx of individuals. The population of Heber Springs doubled from 2,265 before the lake was established to 5,000 in 1978. It has leveled off at the present time to 6,200 permanent residents, but swells to over 20,000 on the weekends during summer months. Felts Rector tended the financial needs of the lake area community of Heber Springs until his retirement. Felts Rector is still very active in community affairs, and lives adjacent to the Rector House.
After the Rector family sold their home, the Rector House was a top-rated restaurant for many years, being noticed by several publications, including Southern Living. The lake area residents and tourists came from neighboring states to try the Italian fare served at the 4 star restaurant. When the restaurant owner, Katherine Ramsey, died the Rector House became a commercial office. Renovation began in 2005 to restore the home to its original beauty and it is now again a private residence.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Rector House in Heber Springs was built in 1916 for Sam Rector, Sr. and his family. Sam Rector was a founder and president of the Arkansas National Bank of Heber Springs until 1950. The home is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criteria C as a good example of the Free Classic form of Queen Anne architecture in the town of Heber Springs.
Contributed on 11/21/14 by hawkinsdonna
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Record #: 1052958