The Royce-Fraser-Woods building was constructed c. 1910 as a single-story brick masonry commercial structure on a continuous stone foundation. The structure first serviced the town as an office. In the mid-1950s, it housed Frazier’s Cleaners, and then became the law office of Powell Woods for more than thirty years. Today, it sits vacant and mothballed, currently being used as storage.

Originally, the building possessed a traditional storefront with a recessed double-leaf entrance, wooden bulkheads, and transom windows. Its upper façade was composed of brick masonry and crowned with decorative brick corbelling. It appears that this structure and its neighbor at 205 S. Broadway were once mirror images. At some point, the upper façade and bulkheads were covered in stucco. The original corbelling is now visible as the stucco has flaked away. Stuccoing was a mid-century practice to streamline a façade; most often protruding decorative masonry was chipped away to aid in this process. Fortunately for this structure, the corbelling was preserved.

Within the last forty years, insensitive exterior alterations occurred to the storefront, including: boarding the transoms, restructuring and shrinking the display windows, attaching corrugated metal above the entrance, and restructuring and shrinking of the entrance. In addition, the wooden storefront framing is showing signs of neglect. 

Though these alterations make this building a non-contributing structure to the historic district, the integrity of the original storefront and masonry materials is still present. For this reason, this structure could be an excellent candidate for the Historic Preservation Restoration Grant, available through the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.    

For more information on this building’s history, contact the Siloam Springs Museum at Don@siloamspringsmuseum.com. For information on building improvement consultation, grants and tax credit opportunities, contact Main Street Siloam Springs at info@mainstreetsiloam.org. 

Glimpse of Royce-Fraser-Woods Building, c. 1960, Siloam Springs Museum. 

207 S. Broadway, d. 2020, Main Street Siloam Springs.