The Jay Lewis House is a historic house at 12 Fairview Drive in

McGehee, Arkansas McGehee is a city in Desha County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,219 at the 2010 census. History The history of the city of McGehee and the history of the railroad through McGehee are intricately interwoven. The history of th ...

. The two story wood-frame house was built in 1955 to a design by

Edward Durell Stone Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...

, an Arkansas native and a leading proponent of

new formalism New Formalism is a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels an ...

. It is the only Stone-designed house in

Desha County Desha County ( ) is a county located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of Arkansas, with its eastern border the Mississippi River. At the 2010 census, the population was 13,008. It ranks 56th of Arkansas's 75 counties in terms of populati ...

, and one of only five in the state. The exterior of the house is clad in vertical cypress boards, with a porch that wraps completely around the house, and a breezeway connecting to a carport, built at the same time. The porch roof is supported by six

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

beams. The interior of the house is based on Stone's modern reinterpretation of the traditional Arkansas dog trot form, with the central living/dining/kitchen area acting as the central element of that form. Other rooms of the house connect to this section, and are separated from it by

Shōji A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque ''fusuma'' is used (oshiire/ ...

screens. The house's basic design is similar to that of another house Stone designed in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

. The house is largely unchanged since its construction; one chimney has been replaced due to storm damage. 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 2005.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Houses completed in 1955 Houses in Desha County, Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Desha County, Arkansas 1955 establishments in Arkansas {{DeshaCountyAR-NRHP-stub

See also

References