El Dorado, founded by Matthew Rainey, is a city in, and the county seat of, Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 18,884.
Florence is a city in Marion County, Kansas, United States. The city was named after the daughter of the third Governor of Kansas Samuel J. Crawford. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 394. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 50 and U.S. Route 77 highways.
Rock is an unincorporated community in Cowley County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the community and nearby areas was 94.
The Masonic Temple of El Dorado, Arkansas is located at 106-108 North Washington Street, on the west side of the courthouse square. The four-story masonry building was built in 1923–24 to a design by Little Rock architect Charles S. Watts. It is one of a small number of buildings in Arkansas with Art Deco styling influenced by the Egyptian Revival. This particular styling was likely influence by the 1922 discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun.
The Charles H. Murphy Sr. House in El Dorado, Arkansas, was built in 1925. The 2+1⁄2-story house was designed in Tudor Revival style by architect Charles L. Thompson, and built in 1925–26, during El Dorado's oil boom years. Charles Murphy was a major landowner, originally in the lumber business, who benefitted greatly from the oil boom due to the increased value of local real estate. He founded the predecessor company to Murphy Oil, which is still headquartered in El Dorado.
The First Presbyterian Church is a historic church at 300 E. Main in El Dorado, Arkansas. The single story brick building was constructed in 1926 for a congregation which was organized in 1846. The Collegiate Gothic building was built during El Dorado's 1920s boom occasioned by the discovery of oil, and its ensuing rapid growth. It was designed by the architectural firm R. H. Hunt and Associates.
De Graff is an unincorporated community in Butler County, Kansas, United States. It is located on U.S. Route 77 approximately 7.7 miles (12.4 km) north of I-35
The El Dorado Apartments in El Dorado, Arkansas are a historic apartment house at 420 Wilson Place. The two story brick and limestone building was designed by Louisiana architect Cheshire Peyton, and built in 1926 in response to the discovery of oil in the area and the ensuing economic boom. It houses 24 small efficiency units, designed for use by the transient but wealthier workers and managers of the oil-related economy. The building has limestone window sills, and rows of brick-inlaid limestone squares between the windows. The cornice of the flat roof is decorated with brick dentil moulding and modillions.
The El Dorado Confederate Monument is located on the grounds of the Union County Courthouse in El Dorado, Arkansas, near the corner of North Main and South Washington Streets. It consists of a statue of a Confederate Army soldier in mid-stride, mounted on top of a temple-like structure supported by four cannon-shaped Ionic columns. The columns support a lintel structure bearing inscriptions on three sides, above which is a tiered roof with cannonballs at the corners. The temple structure is 15 feet (4.6 m) high, and 10 feet (3.0 m) square; the statue measures 76 inches (1.9 m) by 28 inches (0.71 m) by 28 inches (0.71 m). Both the statue and the temple are constructed of gray/blue striated marble.
The El Dorado Junior College Building is a historic academic building at 300 South West Avenue in El Dorado, Arkansas. The three story brick building was built in 1905 as a public school building for the county's white students. From 1925 to 1937 the building house El Dorado Junior College, the first such institution in southwestern Arkansas; it has seen a variety of public and private academic uses since then. The building is shaped roughly like a swastika, and has retained most of its external and internal Classical Revival style.
The Exchange Bank building, formerly the Lion Oil Headquarters, is a historic commercial building at Washington and Oak Streets in El Dorado, Arkansas. Built in 1926–27, the nine story building was the first skyscraper in Union County, and it was the tallest building in El Dorado at the time of its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It was designed by the Little Rock firm of Mann & Stern, and is an eclectic mix of Venetian-inspired Revival styles. It was built during El Dorado's oil boom, and housed the headquarters of Lion Oil. It was included in the El Dorado Commercial Historic District in 2003.
The Griffin Auto Company Building is a historic automobile sales and service facility at 117 East Locust Street in El Dorado, Arkansas. It is a single story structure built out of reinforced concrete, with a full basement. The main floor housed the sales and showroom area, and the service area was in the basement. The building also includes a filling station area, which is the most decorative portion of the otherwise utilitarian structure. This area has pilastered columns that frame the automobile entry area, and the walls above the shelter entrance is decorated with bands of terra cotta and brick ornamentation. The Griffin Auto Company was established by three brothers from North Carolina, beginning as a livery stable business in 1899 before branching out into the new world of the automobile in 1915. They moved out of the building in 1960, since when it has been used by a variety of other sales-oriented businesses.
The J.H. McWilliams House is a historic house at 323 West Oak Street in El Dorado, Arkansas. This two story brick house was built in 1925–26, during the city's oil boom years. It is the last surviving house out of a row of "oil boom" mansions which originally lined Oak Street. The house is built out of buff brick, and has Mediterranean styling. It was in the McWilliams family until the early 1970s, and then saw a variety of commercial uses, declining in condition. In the early 2000s it was restored.
The W.F. & Estelle McWilliams House is a historic house at 314 Summit Avenue in El Dorado, Arkansas. The two story brick house was built in 1922 for William and Estelle McWilliams, early in El Dorado's oil boom, which was prompted by the discovery of oil in 1921. McWilliams was a prominent local businessman who operated a number of retail businesses, was a local bank director, and built the Rialto Theatre. The McWilliams house is a stylistically eclectic combination of Craftsman, Classical Revival, and Mission/Mediterranean styling. Based on stylistic evidence, it may have been designed by the Little Rock firm of Kolben, Hunter and Boyd.
The Municipal Building, or City Hall, of El Dorado, Arkansas is located at 204 North West Street.
The Smith-McCurry House is a historic house on Arkansas Highway 15, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east of El Dorado, Arkansas. The oldest portion of the house is a single-story dog trot house that was built in 1867 by Lawson Smith for his son David Carroll Smith. The house was inherited in 1919 by Mamie Smith McCurry, notable as a prominent investor in early oil exploration in Union County. The third well in the county, a successful gusher, was drilled on her land. She then invested further in oil exploration, forming a partnership with Bruce Hunt, a geologist, and the drillers Hensy and Zoda, and eventually participating in exploratory drilling operations in seven states. She used proceeds from her oil successes to expand the homestead and add then-popular Craftsman details to it.
The Rialto Theatre is a historic performing venue at 117 East Cedar Street in downtown El Dorado, Arkansas. Built in 1929 during El Dorado's oil boom years, the theater is one of the best local examples of Classical Revival architecture, and is one of the largest and most elaborately decorated performing spaces in southern Arkansas. It was designed by the local firm of Kolben, Hunter and Boyd, and seats 1400. Its main entrance has Egyptian Revival details, and is flanked by storefronts. The brick of the front facade is laid in a basketweave pattern, and is topped by a stone frieze, cornice, and parapet. The interior of the theater is elaborately decorated. The theater was owned for many years by the McWilliams family. It was closed from 1980 to 1987, and was operated as a three-screen movie theater until 2007. It has since been reconverted for use as a live performance space after being completely empty for several years and serving as a bar for a time.
The Newton House Museum, also known as the Matthew Rainey House, is a historic house museum at 510 North Jackson Street in El Dorado, Arkansas, United States. The house was built sometime between 1843 and 1853 by Matthew Rainey, El Dorado's first settler, and is the oldest building in the city. It is a vernacular two-story wood-frame structure with a central hall and rooms on either side. It stands at the edge of a 4-acre (1.6 ha) parcel, having been moved from its center in 1910.
The Randolph James House is a historic house at 1212 North Madison Avenue in El Dorado, Arkansas. The two-story stuccoed house was designed by Mann & Stern, and was built in 1927 for Randolph James by his father George, a principal in the local Exchange Bank who benefited from the city's oil boom in the 1920s. The house is a fine local example of Spanish Mission Revival styling, with wrought iron balconies, tile roof, stucco walls, and varied windows.
The Murphy–Hill Historic District encompasses the oldest residential portion of the city of El Dorado, Arkansas. It is located just north of the central business district, bounded on the north by East 5th Street, on the west by North Jefferson and North Jackson Avenues, on the east by North Madison Avenue, and on the south by East Peach and East Oak Streets. Six of the 76 houses in the 40-acre (16 ha) district were built before 1900, including the John Newton House, one of the first buildings to be built in El Dorado. Of particular note from this early period is a highly elaborate Queen Anne Victorian at 326 Church Street.
