The location of W.D. Green’s “old, dilapidated storehouse,” where a fire started on the night of July 3, 1875. An alarm was sounded around 3 a.m., but by sunlight a western wind had helped the fire spread eastward through 4½ blocks of Washington’s business district, on either side of Franklin Street. Almost two dozen businesses were affected, with the fire stopping just short of the 1836 Courthouse. The Washington Telegraph was evacuated of equipment and materials, but the building was spared. According to the Washington Telegraph, both men and women fought the fires with the aid of the Victorian version of a hook-and-ladder truck.
The Odd Fellows is a fraternal order like the Freemasons that was founded In England. The most popular theory for the name comes from the 1700s, when men of a certain trade would join a guild; for workers whose small ”odd” trade wouldn’t garner a large local membership, they formed their own lodge, the “Odd Fellows.” The American lodge separated from the British lodge in the 1800s. The Washington lodge, co-founded by Bernard F. Hempstead, sat on Conway Street, two blocks from Block 6 and the 1836 Courthouse. In 2006, it was discovered that artist Edward Payson Washbourne, best known for painting The Arkansas Traveler, was listed as renting a room as a studio on the third floor of the building in March of 1856. The building itself was lost to the 1875 fire.
A large wood building that housed W.P. Hart’s drug store. Hart was also a practicing physician, and he opened his office to several young men who were learning medicine, including Alexander L. Purdom and Samuel M. Carrigan. It was also the starting point of the 1883 fire that destroyed ten businesses and caused $50,000 worth of damage. Coupled with Hope’s rapid growth as a railroad town, the fire was the start of many businesses relocating to Hope, beginning Washington’s decline as the county’s business center.
This Tour is a Virtual Museum or Site Tour.
Get a QR Code for this tour
Washington was home to the "Washington Telegraph" newspaper. The first issue left the presses in February 1840. The Washington Print Museum is dedicated to printing methods and equipment from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Guided tours are available of the building. Visit the Historic Washington State Park Visitor Center for more information.
