The Butler-Matthews Homestead is a historic farm complex near the hamlet of
Tulip in rural
Dallas County, Arkansas. The property is historically significant for two reasons: the first is that it includes a collection of 15 farm-related buildings built between the 1850s and the 1920s (including two buildings pre-dating the
American Civil War), and it is the location of one of Dallas County's two surviving
I-houses.
The farm complex was established as early as 1853 by Alexander Butler (1807-1881), and it is a rare fragment of Tulip's economic height between 1840 and 1860. Alex Butler's daughter Mary Jane married into the Matthews family.
The house built by Butler was destroyed by fire in 1921, and it was replaced by the present I-house in 1922 by Ben Matthews. It has a main block two stories high, with a two-story shed-roof porch spanning its front. A single-story gabled ell projects from the rear of the house.
Outbuildings and ancillary structures include a
potato house
A potato house is a structure built for the storage of harvested potatoes or sweet potatoes. Such buildings were common in Sussex County, Delaware, and adjoining areas of Delaware, and Maryland in the early 20th century, when sweet potato producti ...
, corn crib, smokehouse, henhouse, cow barn, blacksmith shop, milk house, water well, servant's cottage,
overseer's house, and office.
The complex was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
See also
*
References
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas
Houses completed in 1850
Houses in Dallas County, Arkansas
National Register of Historic Places in Dallas County, Arkansas
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