2025.02.13 THROW BACK THURSDAY - ARMISTEAD ROAD PLUS CLASS NEWS
THROW BACK THURSDAY - ARMISTEAD ROAD PLUS CLASS NEWS
Dick Hogan, whose father built this Armistead Road home in the Heights in 1930, was a Hollywood actor best known for his scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 movie
“The Rope.” He opens the film with a marriage proposal to his girl friend in Central Park in New York. We never find out if she was accepting of his offer as he is soon strangled to death by rope, and actor Jimmy Stewart spends the rest of the film solving the crime. In the mid-1930’s, following his graduation from Little Rock (Central) High School, Hogan had gone to Los Angeles to compete in the finals of a nationwide singing contest in which he was a regional winner. He did not win the national contest but stayed in Los Angeles and received offers from the Glenn Miller Orchestra and other singing venues. After a period singing in clubs as a handsome and talented young crooner, Hogan signed a movie contract with RKO Studios, and he made 35 films over the next fifteen years.
Hogan’s Little Rock family were road builders and the Ben Hogan Company, named for his uncle, constructed many of Arkansas’s major highways over most of the 20th Century. It is likely that the Hogans did the unusual paving job on Armistead Road, which, with adjoining Edgehill Road, was dyed a bright pink.
Others who have lived in the home through the years were the Bill Williams family, which included legendary civil rights advocate and community activist, Brownie Williams Ledbetter. The Paul Heerwagen family, which produced several generations of artists and designers, spent much of the 1950’s and 60’s in the home. Paul Heerwagen’s grandfather painted the semi-circular murals above the grand stairs in Arkansas’s State Capitol. Paul’s wife’s family helped develop Sherrill Heights and that neighborhood, with fine river views, was named for his daughter, Sherrill Heerwagen, a talented designer herself.
The Hogan home was designed by San Antonio-born architect, Max Mayer. Educated at Texas A & M University and Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Mayer designed many nearby homes in the Heights, Hillcrest and the Quapaw Quarter. His major legacy was the Arkansas Territorial Restoration, now known as the Historic Arkansas Museum. Oddly, family members recall that what is now the “front door” (pictured) of the Hogan home was once the “back door.” The original front door (now the back door) had been accessed by a long driveway over an adjacent lot purchased by the Hogans. The lot was later sold and developed as #1 Edgehill, and the secondary entrance (shown), became the official front. Subsequent owners have altered the entrance with granite surrounds and an art glass door. Fenestration is simple and minimal, respecting the northern exposure. According to neighbors, Mayer and Hogan planned the house out of the Jackfork Sandstone which was available in the spoils remaining from the blasting and paving of Cantrell Hill, though it could have come from quarries on the nearby Rivercliff or Rock Crusher sites. Jackfork is considered a highly favorable building material of considerable strength and it has handsome color variations depending upon its content of iron, quartz and other minerals. This sandstone, which is exposed in the Heights in Little Rock and Big Rock area across the river, represents the first significant outcrop of building stone encountered by explorers as they ventured up the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers from New Orleans. Ben Hogan, grandson of the builder, speculates that his grandfather’s selection of rock as a building material may have been influenced by his position in the road building industry. The architect Mayer, also a concert-quality violinist, likely hit it off with young Dick Hogan who by that time was deeply involved in music, and would soon be recognized nationwide.
During the post-World War II years, there were many changes in the film industry, and Dick Hogan, then with two young kids, opted to take advantage of business opportunities back in his hometown of Little Rock. Like many of us, he “came back” and enjoyed a long business career and a happy life in Arkansas.
My husband, Gary France, did an addition and remodel on this house in the mid 1990's. 1997, I think. for then owner and designer,
Anne Darby Kosinski. Saw Sherrill at the Hall High School Class of '66 50th Reunion this past weekend! I did not know that neighbor
hood was named for her!!
Jim Pfeifer did it again. Thank you, Jim, for these wonderful articles about the places and people we grew up with.
1956 CLASS NEWS
We've just learned of the death of Corine Cheshire on May 14, 2010. Because of the length of time since her death, no obituary was available.
However, it is possible that she and her husband were involved with Google in the high tech industry in Atlanta.
Our condolences the Bill Wagner's wife, Florence. Bill passed away October 11, 2024. No obituary was available.
I appreciate hearing from a Classmates spouse when there is a death or illness.
Our condolences to Joyce Moore in the death of her husband James.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EDWINA!!!!!!! You are now a year younger!!! We've gone forward enough!
1955 CLASS NEWS
In last week's TBT I listed birthdays for your class and one of them was DANA LASKER. Well, guess what, she responded!
o.k.! You wrote “you’d like to hear from me before my birthday” so here I am!! I have been living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
since 2005 after spending 48 years in Denver raising my 3 daughters. I started my own business in 1980 called Travel By Dana.
After 9-11 ,etc,., I was able to sell my company which by then was a $39 million dollar company and Colorado’s second largest
women owned business. Knowing how much I loved sports, during all that time, early on I was a bowler with a 172-bowling
average and then fell in love with golf and ended up with aa 7 handicap. Oh, how I wished they would have had competitive
sports for women back in our day!!! I LOVE your Weekly Throwback Thursday newsletter. Your coverage regarding the death
of our beloved Brooks Robinson was fabulous….. Thank goodness I got to see him in Baltimore in his 1st “World Series” where
he was voted the MVP of that series. We went to his house after each game, and he was just Brooks….. Also got to pick him up
at the Denver airport now and then when he came to Denver to play in the “Oldtimers game” where he hit a home run his 1st
time at bat and my kids went crazy……Or when he came for a “card signing” afternoon at some sport or department store.
Overall, life has been wonderful to me, and I am most grateful for EVERY blessed day I get to enjoy! I even work now. Am the
hostess at a small Chicago Hot Dog place her at the Gardens and I love the people…… They all know Brooks when they ask where
I am from!!!!!!! Hope all is well with all of you in Little Rock….. I remember my life there with lots of love and wonderful memories!!!!
Keep those Thurs. throwbacks coming…… Much love being sent to all!!!!
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