* CHURCH,  - Faulkner County, Arkansas |  * CHURCH - Arkansas Gravestone Photos

* CHURCH

Solomon Grove (African American) Cemetery
Faulkner County,
Arkansas

Solomon Grove Smith-Hughes Building, Twin Groves, Faulkner County

The Solomon Grove Smith-Hughes building was built by the National Youth Administration with funding assistance from the Smith-Hughes Act in 1938-1939. Local African-American youths were employed as labor for the project, which was directed by local stonemason Silas Owens, Sr.


The Solomon Grove community, located in northwestern Faulkner County, was settled by African- American families from Memphis in 1880's. The Solomon Grove Baptist Church was founded in 1883, and a one- room log schoolhouse for children from both the Solomon Grove and Zion Grove communities was built shortly thereafter. The Solomon Grove community was very successful during its early period, attracting African- American families from as far away as North Carolina after the Civil War. However, the population in area gradually declined, leaving only the names of the early families in the cemetery near site of the original church.

The original schoolhouse burned in the early 1930's, and the community was assisted in building a new school for their children by two federal programs recently created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration in response to the Great Depression, the National Youth Administration and the Smith-Hughes Act. The Smith-Hughes Act provided for the funding of vocational education projects in rural areas nationwide. The National Youth Administration, managed by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, was a public works program that employed young people in community projects and taught them valuable skills for their future employment.

The new school, which included a main school building and a "shop" were built in 1938-1939. The main school building was lost in a fire in the 1960's. The "shop" was a multi-use facility that held regular classrooms when school attendance was high, as well as being a center for vocational education including agriculture and brickmasonry. Many of the men currently living in the Solomon Grove vicinity still earn their living as brickmasons and practice the agricultural skills taught to them and their fathers in the "shop".

The primary craftsman involved in the construction of the new school was a local stonemason named Silas Owens, Sr. Owens was known statewide for his skillful, artistic work. His family had owned the land on which the school was being since 1903, when his father, H. W. Owens, had been granted ownership of the property in a court decision. The land was sold to the school district by Silas Owens, Sr. in 1937.

The Solomon Grove Hughes-Smith building is the only building of such artistic stone construction that remains unaltered in Faulkner County. Its association with the local African- American community, representation of Depression-era public work construction, and distinctive artistic stone construction make this building locally significant under Criterion C.


Research provided by Albessie Thompson

Faulkner County: Its Land and People

Contributed on 2/3/12 by hawkindonna
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Record #: 644508

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Additional * CHURCH Surnames in FAULKNER County

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Submitted: 2/3/12 • Approved: 4/23/12 • Last Updated: 9/4/14 • R644508-G0-S3

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