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The Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society has wrapped a major phase of restoration work on the 1858 Casey House and is now seeking $15,000 in donations to replace the home’s aging back porch with historic white oak.
The completed work includes a new front porch, a new cedar shingle roof and additional features Baxter County Historian Vincent Anderson said the public will recognize when they visit.
“It is the place where Mountain Home actually became Mountain Home, when it was once called Rapp’s Barren,” Anderson said in a video update from the site.
The remaining back porch is still pine. The society wants to swap it for white oak to match the home’s original materials.
“We have the opportunity to actually get this porch changed out to good old white oak,” Anderson said. “And so the pine that we have here back to historic white oak, and we’re looking for donations.”
Anderson said donors can send a message through the society’s Facebook page or contact the Baxter County Historical Museum at 300 Bomber Blvd.
Years in the making
The current restoration has been years in development. Baxter County set aside $100,000 in its 2025 budget for the work, and the Historical Society secured a $68,000 state grant after initially requesting $142,000 for phase one.
A pre-bid walkthrough drew eight contractors last fall, and bids came in significantly lower than expected. The low bid of $91,000 from Born to Roof prompted architect Gary Clements, who also helped restore the Wolf House in Norfork, to call the result a “home run” in an email to county officials and Historical Society President Kevin Bodenhamer.
Officials had initially estimated phase one at $214,172. The favorable bid opened the door to expanding the project scope through addendums.
Clements has cautioned that historic preservation funding has grown more competitive as the state shifts money toward other priorities, including the planned Franklin County prison that could cost up to $825 million.
“We’re going to keep applying. We’re going to keep doing that,” Bodenhamer said previously.
A piece of pioneer Arkansas
Built by Col. Randolph DePriest Casey in 1858, the Casey House is the oldest standing structure in Mountain Home. The two-room dog-trot cabin sits at the corner of East Wade and Arena streets, adjacent to the Baxter County Fairgrounds on land that was once part of Casey’s farm.
The home served as the site of the first county court and Mountain Home’s first post office. Casey was Baxter County’s first representative to the state legislature after the county was formed in 1873.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It has survived the Civil War, a near-devastating tornado in 1985 and 167 years of Arkansas weather.
The Baxter County Historical Society meets the fourth Tuesday of each month. For more information, visit the society’s Facebook page at Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc., the website at www.BaxterCountyHistory.org or the Baxter County Historical Museum at 300 Bomber Blvd. The museum is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The phone number is 870-425-2551.
