Joe Tollett spoke before a crowd at the Saline County History and Heritage Society on June 20th, 2019. He has been restoring the historic home at 510 W. Sevier Street in downtown Benton for many months. The home was built by the Smith family, James and Mary, in 1885. Tollett spoke before a crowd of members and visitors of the Saline County History and Heritage Society. (Video via Shelli Poole) In the video, note that the slide show wasn’t cooperating at first, but you should still listen to the narration. The visuals are straightened out at about the 25 minute mark. Worth the watch, and worth driving by a some point to take in the beauty of this home.
Tollett managed to get it listed on the Arkansas Register of Historic Places in November 2018, and is working on getting it listed on the National Register. He has been documenting the restoration process as he works on the house. Very recently, he obtained the photo below from a Smith relative, that he believes is from around 1910-1920. The last photo is from 2019. View more photos of the project at https://www.facebook.com/joe.tollett.9/media_set?set=a.397979383995353&type=3.
(Photos via Joe Tollett)
