El Dorado is a city in and the county seat of Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2020 census, the population of the city is 17,755.
The Ark-La-Tex is a socio-economic tri-state region where the Southern U.S. states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas join together. The region contains portions of Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, and South Arkansas as well as the extreme southeastern tip of Oklahoma, in McCurtain County, partly centered upon the Red River, which flows along the Texas–Oklahoma state line into Southwestern Arkansas and Northwest Louisiana.
The South Arkansas Arboretum is an arboretum and botanical garden owned by the local school system but operated as Arkansas's 50th state park by the South Arkansas College. It is located next to the former El Dorado High School in El Dorado, Arkansas, USA and open daily except for holidays.
Rock is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cowley County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94.
Arkansas Baptist College (ABC) is a private Baptist-affiliated historically black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. Founded in 1884 as the Minister's Institute, ABC was initially funded by the Colored Baptists of the State of Arkansas. It is the only historically black Baptist school west of the Mississippi River. The Main Building on its campus, built in 1893, is one of the oldest surviving academic buildings in the state, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
South Arkansas College (SouthArk) is a public community college in El Dorado, Arkansas.
The John Pearson Soda Works, also referred to as the Placerville Soda Works, is a historic rustic vernacular Victorian brick building in Placerville, El Dorado County, California. The building, in the Gold Country region, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on December 12, 1985. The building housed the Cozmic Café coffee shop and venue from 2003 until 2018.
The University of Arkansas Campus Historic District is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 2009. The district covers the historic core of the University of Arkansas campus, including 25 buildings.
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 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 El Dorado Commercial Historic District encompasses the historic commercial heart of downtown El Dorado, Arkansas. The city serves as the seat of Union County, and experienced a significant boom in growth during the 1920s, after oil was discovered in the area. The business district that grew in this time is anchored by the Union County Courthouse, at the corner of Main and Washington Streets, where the Confederate memorial is also located. The historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 includes the city blocks surrounding the courthouse, as well as several blocks extending east along Main Street and south along Washington Street. Most of the commercial buildings are one and two stories in height and are built of brick. Notable exceptions include the Exchange Bank building, which was, at nine stories, the county's first skyscraper, and the eight-story Murphy Oil building. There are more than forty contributing properties in the district.
The Henry Crawford McKinney House is a historic house at 510 East Faulkner Street in El Dorado, Arkansas. The 2+1⁄2-story red brick and stucco house was designed by Charles L. Thompson and built in 1925; it is one of the most elegant houses in the city, and is set on an elaborately landscaped parcel. The house was built for Henry Crawford McKinney, Sr., a prominent local landowner and banker, during the height of El Dorado's oil boom. Its interior decoration was done by Paul Heerwagen, best known for his murals in the Arkansas State Capitol.
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 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 house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
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 then reopened as a three-screen movie theater that operated until 2006. The main lobby and concessions area operated briefly as a bar called Marilyn's. In 2012, it was purchased by the Murphy Arts District, who announced plans to restore it in phase two of its plans for revitalizing downtown El Dorado. The theater, which will have floor seating for 850 in addition to a full balcony, will host a variety of musical acts, plays, comedy shows, and movies.
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.
Perry’s Funeral Chapel, known for many years as Rumph Mortuary, is a historic commercial building at 312 West Oak Street in El Dorado, Arkansas. Built in 1927, it is a two-story red brick building, with a three-bay facade topped by a crenellated Gothic parapet. Charles Rumph, known as “C.B.”, came to El Dorado in the early 1920’s after the passing of his mother Martha Proctor Rumph, one of the original owners of Proctor Funeral Home in Camden, Arkansas. C.B. Rumph originally partnered with W.F. McWilliams, a local banker and furniture store owner. Their first location was on the corner of Elm and Cleveland and went by Rumph & McWilliams Undertaking. Rumph was the mortician and McWilliams supplied the caskets through his furniture store and the ambulances through his Studebaker dealership. However, in 1927 Rumph opened on his own and died young, forcing his two sons Tom and Dudley to become morticians and take over the operation. Through those years the funeral home was known as Rumph Mortuary, Rumph Undertaking & Ambulance Service, Rumph Funeral Directors, and Rumph Funeral Home. The firm had several owners after Tom and Dudley Rumph handed it down and several name changes all including the original Rumph name. Then in 2003 the name changed to Perry’s Funeral Chapel. This is the oldest funeral home in Arkansas and it has remained mostly untouched and unchanged as a monument to the oldest and noblest profession: undertaking.
