Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History and Art

William Probst and Max Hilb, both German immigrants, purchased this property in February 1872 to operate their wholesale grocery and liquor distributorship, which had been in business for several years. When they planned a replacement building, the Concordia Association, a Jewish social club founded in 1864, approached them about adding a second floor to provide new meeting rooms for the group.

This building, designed by Joseph Willis, who had also designed the state insane asylum, was constructed in 1882 as a two-story building. The ornate space on the second floor was home to the Concordia Association until 1887.

Probst left the partnership in 1885, and Hilb eventually went into receivership. He lost the property to the Little Rock Building Association, which sold it to J. N. Harkey in February 1889. The building housed a variety of businesses, including Dickinson’s Carriage Repository, before Harkey’s heirs sold it in 1909 to F. M. Fletcher and T. J. McCarthy for the Fletcher Coffee and Spice Company.

In 1914, Fletcher and McCarthy engaged architect Charles Thompson to redesign the former Concordia Hall area into two floors to better accommodate their business. It is this three story arrangement that we see today. The Fletcher Coffee and Spice Company operated in the building until 1945.

In June 1945, the building was sold to Dwight Martin and John Poe, who leased it to W. C. Stewart. Stewart operated the coffee business, first under the Fletcher name and later as Stewart Coffee Roasters, which operated until 1950. Purchased by George Porbeck in 1951, the building housed the Porbeck food brokerage. George Porbeck died in 1952, and the property passed to his wife. In 1960, she conveyed it to her children: George Porbeck, Selma Porbeck (Mrs. Herschel A. Bowman), and Margaret Porbeck Smith. In 1971, Herschel A. Bowman leased the building to Budget Office Furniture Company, which occupied it until the Central Arkansas Library System purchased it in 2004.

The wood floor in Concordia Hall is made up of thirteen different woods representing the five geographic regions of Arkansas which the Arkansas River flows. Each region is represented with two different woods typical of the region.

The border surrounding the regional wood section is white oak. The wood floor inside the vault is persimmon. The Coastal Plain region is represented by pecan and ash wood. Crowley’s Ridge is represented by red gum and hackberry wood. The Delta region is represented by hickory and cedar. The Ouachita region is represented by cherry and red oak. The Ozark region is represented by black walnut and maple.

• Concordia Hall Stars
  • Visible on the western wall near the south door into Geyer & Adams and in the Porbeck & Bowman warming room
  • Part of the decorations from Concordia Hall
  • Not religious symbols; these are 5-point stars
  • Gaslights were centered in the large stars; you can see smaller stars on the points of the larger stars.
  • During the 1914 renovation, these stars were plastered over.
• Concordia Hall Hand-Decorated Wall
  • Visible on the western wall near the north door into Geyer & Adams
  • Hand designs and motifs from the 1880s
  • During the 1914 renovation, these decorations were plastered over. You can still see some of the over-plaster layer.
• Water Tower
  • Visible through the skylight in the 204 meeting room
  • There is no water inside this replica tank.
  • A similar tank topped the building, possibly used for fire suppression.
  • The original tank’s base shoots down into the building’s walls and is embedded in them, so we couldn’t remove them.
  • Cost $40,000
• Coffee Sacker
  • Located in the 204 meeting room
  • Used by Fletcher Coffee and Spice Company and Stewart Coffee Roasters
• Decorative Cornice
  • Located in the 204 meeting room
  • Came from the portico of the original Carnegie Library
  • Made of copper

• Pressed Tin Ceiling: New ceiling similar to the old ceiling that was removed
• Vault:
  • Made of glazed brick
  • Was added to the building sometime after the 1914 renovation
• Exposed Wood Beams
  • Visible throughout the building
  • Original to building
  • Made of cypress

John E. Geyer and John Dudley Adams were wholesale grocers who operated their business at 401 Markham (the current location of the CALS Roberts Library Rare Book and Manuscript Repository).  The partners purchased the property next door to their business in 1903 in order to expand their operation. The location had been home to Carl & Tobey, rival wholesale grocers (1881–1894) and a variety of other businesses.

In 1914, the original two-story building was replaced with the current Charles Thompson–designed three-story building. The Geyer & Adams Company, under the leadership of descendants of both Geyer and Adams, continued to do business at this location (and the adjoining building) until 1954. The two buildings subsequently stood vacant or were sometimes leased to various wholesale and/or storage businesses.

In 1972, the Geyer & Adams building at 401 Markham was torn down to make room for a parking lot, leaving just this building bearing the Geyer & Adams name. At some point, both the building and the empty lot were acquired by Fred Lyon, who sold it to Dwight “Buddy” Schaer in 1979. Farrell & Schaer Blueprint Co. occupied the building until 2004, when it was purchased by the Central Arkansas Library System.

Concrete Columns

• Located throughout the building
• Original to building

Radiators

• Located in the Research Room on the 2^nd floor
• Original to building
• They are older than the building (circa 1900)

North End Windows

• Located on 2^nd and 3^rd floors
• Original to building

Elevator Shaft: Part of the original elevator equipment is visible

Image Panels used throughout Geyer & Adams and 3rd floor of Porbeck & Bowman and on the exterior of the manuscripts repository.

• Used on railings throughout the building
• Fabricated by 3form; images are encapsulated within translucent resin panels

Full list of image panels available soon.

• Geyer & Adams building basement was under water and had been for many years. The water ate through the concrete, exposing the metal reinforcement bars; an underground stream ran below the building.
• Porbeck & Bowman building didn’t have a foundation. The building had to be lifted up and a foundation built underneath.
• The east wall of Porbeck & Bowman was collapsing. Much of the concrete between the bricks wasn’t concrete, but a mortar mix of lime, water, and river sand. You could carve it away with a fingernail. All the old mortar had to be scraped out, replaced with real cement, and sealed.
• The concrete floors of the Geyer & Adams building were sagging. The engineers had to beef up the structure with bonding tape that was strapped around columns and across the floor.
• Asbestos had to be removed.
• Lead paint had to be removed.