The Henry Clay Mills House was a historic house at 425 North 15th Street in

Van Buren, Arkansas Van Buren ( ) is the second-largest city in the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area and the county seat of Crawford County, Arkansas, United States. The city is located directly northeast of Fort Smith at the Interstat ...

. This modest frame house was built in 1892 by Henry Clay Mills, an African-American former slave turned businessman. Mills was born into slavery in 1847, and after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

worked for many years as a laborer on a plantation near

Mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...

. He eventually developed a moving and shipping business in Van Buren, typifying advancement of African-Americans of the period from agricultural to non-agricultural economic opportunities. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1977. It has apparently been demolished, and was delisted in 2018.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Houses completed in 1892 Houses in Crawford County, Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Crawford County, Arkansas Buildings and structures in Van Buren, Arkansas Former National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Demolished buildings and structures in Arkansas 1892 establishments in Arkansas {{CrawfordCountyAR-NRHP-stub

See also

References