Jan 27, 2022 - Throw Back Thursday

THROW BACK THURSDAY - CAROL GRIFFENHAGEN'S MIRACLE ON HARRISON STREET Plus Class News

�Jane Jacobs, author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” was a thorn in the side of 20th century city planners. She led a successful movement to defeat an expressway which would have wiped out Greenwich Village in New York. She recognized a diverse collection of historic and new buildings and a lively mix of activities in the Village, which would be greatly missed if this area were demolished and gone forever.

Jane Jacobs would love North Harrison Street in the Heights. There we can find a historic fire station, a community garden, shops and professional offices within eyeshot, and housing of all ages and sizes. The 1800 block of North Harrison still has a fine collection of historic homes which have housed mostly singles,couples and smaller families for the past century. Photos of three of these historic Harrison Street homes are shown here, along with a miraculous story from the past of one of them.The home at 1818 North Harrison is a well-preserved example of Craftsman architecture with wide roof overhangs supported by thick wood brackets and a deeply shaded porch with rusticated sandstone columns. Its first of many occupants, was postal employee B.F. Barnes in 1919. By 1949, a quiet family of German descent had moved into the home. Dr. Henry Griffenhagen was a radiologist, educated in what became East Germany, and his wife Herta Keifer, was the daughter of an industrialist from Worms, Germany. During the earlier 1940s, Henry had a practice on Park Avenue in New York and he and his wife had often enjoyed concerts at Carnegie Hall and other cultural offerings in Manhattan. Following World War 2, the Veterans Administration was in need of physicians to care for returning soldiers, and recruited Henry to take a position at their Little Rock facility. The couple, with daughter Carol, left Manhattan and moved into the Harrison Street bungalow.

“It was an adjustment from New York City,” Carol Griffenhagen Dallos admits seventy years later, "but we made good friends and I still stay in touch with my former classmates in my 1956 class at Central High. My mother enjoyed volunteer work for the community concert program.” Dr. Henry Griffenhagen was a quiet man who dutifully went to work each day at the old Veterans’ Hospital on Roosevelt Road. What few knew was that Henry was a Holocaust survivor. He had been arrested twice by the Nazi’s solely due to his religion, and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, the infamous brutal work camp where tens of thousands were murdered.

After bribing Nazi leaders for his release, Henry’s parents searched out a family in New York who arranged for visas for his family of nine. After great efforts too involved to describe here, they escaped Hitler’s grip and came to America in 1938.

The Griffenhagens eventually returned to New York, where Carol, a clinical social worker with three children and five grandchildren, remains. She knocked on the door of her family’s bungalow on Harrison Street a few years ago when she returned for her Central High reunion. “A very nice young couple answered the door and showed me around. The people of Little Rock were always very welcoming to my family.” Buchenwald was liberated by US forces in 1945, and General Eisenhower personally visited the site. Our army filmed the emaciated survivors of Buchenwald to document Nazi crimes against humanity.

Appreciation for research assistance is due to Carol Dallos, Mary Lou Cabbiness, and The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies/Central Arkansas Library System.

I loved walking through this home with Carol. It is a beautiful home. This was Carol's first trip back to

Little Rock since we all graduated from Central in 1956. We drove by Hammond Satterfield's so

Carol could say hello to one of her old neighbors! ML

I love this! Carol was a friend and classmate. My home was 5111 Cantrell. Jean Kizzia

1956 CLASS NEWS

Thnx so much for helping all of us aware of so many unknown facts and stories of our esteemed

classmates. I am wintering in beautiful San Miguel Allende, Mexico. Am loving every minute learning about a new culture, learning Spanish, and being surrounded by a vibrant arts community. - Carol Griffenhagen Dallos

Warren Thompson and Dian are hanging in there although experiencing some health problems. Dian is having some minor heart problems plus Diabetes. Warren runs most of the errands for her. He is having some problems after two strokes and the removal of his right femur. However, they are holding out hope for attending our Reunion in September. You Memphis peeps need to get together for transportation!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY, JANUARY 26, CONRAD PRIVETT AND ALICE ANN LONG!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW, JANUARY 28, BOGIE AND GWEN SHEPHERD!!!

GWEN IS LEADING A GROUP OF US TO THE ELTON JOHN CONCERT SATURDAY NIGHT FOR HER BIRTHDAY!!!

1955 CLASS NEWS

Hello MaryLou, Memories~~ The Way We Were; Please add me to the link. - Betty Houchin Winfield ‘55
Thanks for doing a super job with TBT and keeping us in touch with one another. -  Gene Pfeifer  ‘55

Surely more than one of you have had or are having a birthday in January!!!!

Let me hear from you!   Got 4 of you listed for February.

Thanks to Lana Douthit, here are a couple of pictures from your Reunion in 2021:

Betty Chandler Ward Combo, playing at Pleasant Valley Country Club Saturday night

Nikki Polychron, Lana Douthit and Yours Truly having a ball:

ML