OPINION | Rex NeLson: “Momentum in Osceola”
December 2, 2023 at 3:07 a.m.
by Rex Nelson
Original story: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/dec/02/momentum-in-osceola/
We're gathered on the square in downtown Osceola, and it feels like a pep rally. I'm here to research a story on the steel industry, but I also asked for a small meeting with a few people involved in downtown redevelopment. It's not just a few in the room. Dozens of Osceola residents have shown up.
Jerry Halsey Jr. of the well-known real estate firm Halsey Thrasher Harpole in Jonesboro is among those in attendance. What's he doing here?
"Mississippi County is about to take off, and we want to be a part of it," he says.
Guy Pardew of Olympus Construction, who was raised in Jonesboro, moved to Osceola because of the opportunities here. He's also in attendance.
"I saw what was happening with the steel industry and said that's where I need to be," Pardew says. "I was eager to get here. This town is a diamond in the rough, but there's a need for workforce housing. I believed we could come here and build not just a good house but the best house in Arkansas in its price range. Osceola was the right place at the right time to do that."
Mississippi County Judge John Alan Nelson talks about six families he has met in the past two years who moved here from California. Nelson says: "I don't think you could stop it now if you wanted to."
I walk across the square and visit with Michele Vachon, who's transforming a downtown lot into an upscale beer and wine garden known as Copper Garden. Vachon came to Arkansas in 2016 as an environmental manager for Big River Steel. She wasted no time getting involved in the community, leading the planting of trees on Arbor Day and other activities.
Vachon also purchased the building that once housed the Osceola Times. Vachon, who grew up in Michigan and has a father who was involved in historic preservation, is turning the 1901 structure into a restaurant.
"We're trying to save downtown one building at a time," she says. "There are other buildings down here that we have our eyes on. In the Times building, we're shooting for a restaurant with a rooftop dining area and maybe even apartments on the second floor. People are excited. They're always stopping to ask what's going on. This is a childhood dream. I've long wanted to do something like this."
In the middle of the square is my favorite courthouse in Arkansas. The building with the copper dome was built in 1912 on land donated by W.J. Driver. According to the marker out front: "Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building houses much of the history of Mississippi County, including contentious political battles to implement a drainage system, thus enabling the area to become the largest cotton-producing county in the world."
What once was Fred Patterson's general store on the square now houses the Mississippi County Historical & Genealogical Society Museum, one of the best local museums in the state. The 1904 building contains many of the original fixtures, and displays are incorporated into those fixtures.
There are numerous historical markers around the square. There's hope that others will follow Vachon's lead and fill empty downtown buildings with restaurants and retail establishments.
"When steamboats made their appearance on the Mississippi River, the Delta was opened to expanded activity and commercialization," Lonnie Strange writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Osceola became an important landing. Timber was cut from dense forests to fuel steamboats, rich Delta land was planted in cotton, and a cotton culture emerged. Planters from nearby Southern states brought their lifestyle with them.
"The golden age of steamboats on the Mississippi River came to an end as the last quarter of the 19th century approached. Towns that were dependent on steamboats for their existence declined and died as railways took over. Osceola, well positioned with both cotton and timber industries and with transportation by both river and rail, expanded. By 1890, Osceola began a sustained growth era because of the industries."
Osceola's population soared from 458 in 1890 to 5,006 by 1950.
"By 1900, Osceola was in a boom time," Strange writes. "Railroads had taken the place of steamboats, and Osceola was on the main line of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. Downtown Osceola flourished with businesses that included an opera house, electric and water utilities, two ice plants, two bottling works and a wagon factory. ... The Bank of Osceola was built in 1909. By 913, Osceola was served by a telephone system and six daily passenger trains.
"Cotton was still the top crop, and farmland sold for $100 to $200 an acre. Many buildings constructed in that era are still standing and are noted for their beauty. ... The Planters Bank Building was constructed in 1920, and the Florida Brothers Building was built in 1936. Osceola's relationship with the Mississippi River remains a close one. The river still defines Osceola, even though the city sits a few miles west of the river due to the relocation of downtown buildings from Old Town to New Town and the meanderings of the river. The Port of Osceola, once busy with steamboats, consists of a landing and grain elevators at Sans Souci that load barges with soybeans and rice."
Osceola suffered the same type of population losses as other Delta towns in recent decades. The population fell from 8,930 in 1990 to 6,976 in 2020. The losses, however, appear to have stopped. Mayor Joe Harris says there are now more than 7,000 residents with more newcomers on the way.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
