Participants in the Red River Heritage Symposium, held at Historic Washington State Park, toured the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA) as part of their itinerary on Friday, July 20. This year’s symposium focused on the 200th anniversary of the formation of Hempstead County, which originally encompassed all of southwest Arkansas.
The SARA
building originally served as an elementary school for the town of Washington, before the district went through its final consolidation with the Hope School District
in the 1990s. Historic Washington State Park purchased the building in order to
house its Collections Management Facility as well as provide a new location for
SARA, which was previously located in one wing of the 1874 Courthouse.
The Hempstead
County Historical Society founded SARA in 1978 and stationed it in
Washington because it had served as the county seat of Hempstead County from
1824 until 1939. Though still located at Historic Washington State Park, SARA is now a branch of the Arkansas State Archives, a division of the Department
of Arkansas Heritage.
SARA welcomes
donations of original materials that focus on the twelve counties that were
originally part of Hempstead County. For
more information, please contact Archival Manager, Melissa Nesbitt, by email at southwest.archives@arkansas.gov,
by phone 870-983-2633, or stop by at 201 Highway 195, Washington, Arkansas.
