Hooker Road redux

Click on the old home for our original March. ’09 post. See more angles and details.

By March 2009, I had driven past this old home on Hooker Road off US Highway 425, south of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, but it was not until then I stopped for more than a quick snapshot.

After the first day, shooting in the afternoon, I returned the next morning for a 180 on the light from the previous day. Click to see our original Hooker Home post.

Once on the premises, my best guess was,  that in a few years (it has now been a few years), the old structure would have fallen to a pile of kindling. To our good fortune, I could not have been more incorrect in my conjecture. The old structure, as of a few weeks ago,  is still standing, perhaps a little worse for wear given the climatic beating it takes, but still upright.

Click on the house for another picture and more information.

The old home follows the typical rural southern home. It started smaller than it was before final abandonment. The inhabitants added rooms, nooks, and crannies to suit their life style.

Evidence of livestock enclosures and out buildings hint that there was prosperity at some time. You can lay your eyes on another picture of the house and soak up more information and observations on the March 22, 2009 edition of the Photo of  Week page at Corndancer dot-com.

Thanks,
Joe Dempsey

Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind.

http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

 

Advertisement

Hooker home

You are in the back yard of the old home on Hooker Road in Jefferson County, Arkansas. This story began on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot com. To see the front yard and get in on the start of the story, click here and go to Corndancer, a cool and informative thing to do.

It’s on Hooker Road, in a not-very-well-traveled area, not in a red light district. The empty area to the right is a former room, sans outside wall. In the background is a small outbuilding used for storage and animal shelter. There is a lean-to on the opposite side, large enough to hold a cow or perhaps a few goats. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing this residence dates back to the first part of the last century. It is on its last legs.

The old home is the only structure for miles on either side of its location. My guess is that the residence dates to the early part of the last century. The home place was on a spacious lot and consisted of the house, a small storage house / barn and a larger barn. The place smacks of reasonably prosperous residents. One wonders if the neighbors were as thin as they are now in the days when families called the structure home .

The south side view of Hooker home reveals its second highest and best use after being abandoned for the first time, to wit: storage of hay, a not uncommon fate for abandoned rural residences in these environs. You can also see what appears to have been a "picture" window,

The square “picture” window on the side perhaps gives evidence that the home was occupied as late as the late forties or fifties. That is about the time “picture” windows became the rage. I say "perhaps." This is pure conjecture on my part. Maybe this side of the house was for storage. The "awning" above the window is sheet metal cut from an old sign and fabricated to serve as an awning. There are similar awnings on windows on the other side of the house.

The awnings indicate that someone cared about the residence. There also are some construction details such as door trim and porcelain door knobs which show some concern for quality and appearance. Next to the hay storage, there appears to be a closet which had outdoor access. See the picture below,

Near the hay storage area on the same side of the house is this homemade door which would be of little use against the elements. The other entrance doors to the home are solid. What the shelves stored is a mystery. The homemade door could have been to a closet with outdoor access. Since walls are falling down in the structure, it is hard to tell what might have been.

Damage is more evident on the other side of the house. Part of the outside wall has fallen away and some of the interior structural planks are splayed like a fan. It makes one wonder what is holding the old house together.

The north side of the house seems to have taken the brunt of Mother Nature's poundings. On many occasions, I will cautiously step inside an old structure to satisfy points of curiosity and take a shot or two. Hooker house is the exception. Fear and trepidation are the rule here. I am purely chicken on this one.

The last picture, resplendent red buds, are an offering to one of my grade school buddies, Betty Ann W.  nee Betty Ann C. (I use initials due to privacy concerns). Betty Ann alleges that during early years of grade school, that I was inordinately mean to her. Sort of an early male chauvinist pig behavior or on the fringes of sexual harassment. Since neither of those terms had seen the light of day in the forties when the alleged offenses occurred, I suppose I can plead boyish innocence to those charges. However, since Betty Ann is a woman of impeccable integrity and honesty, I must now presume the original allegations are true. That being so, amends are in order. A few weeks ago, Betty Ann, a denizen of Texas for what seems to be forever, lamented on the absence of spring blooms endemic to the environment of her early years — in her current environment. She specifically mentioned red buds. So Betty Ann, these Weekly Grist red buds are for you.

Betty Ann's red buds, shot on the bayou running alongside Hooker Road.

Thanks for dropping by,

Joe