Oct 7, 2021 THROW BACK THURSDAY - HILLCREST HOUSING

THROW BACK THURSDAY - HILLCREST HOUSING Plus Class News

Wonder if any of our Tigers lived in one of these homes!!!!

Hillcrest Housing

Honors Returning Soldiers

When James Hendrix was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War 2, he was a skinny farm boy with 13 siblings from Lepanto, Arkansas who had never before left our state. When he returned from General Patton’s Third Army in Europe, he was among Arkansas’ most decorated heroes. President Truman had pinned on his uniform, the Congressional Medal of Honor - for capturing two German gun crews singlehandedly and disabling two machine guns while armed only with a rifle, saving innumerable lives of American soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge.

Sgt. Hendrix was invited to central Arkansas in the winter of 1946 for a ribbon cutting for new homes designed for our returning soldiers and their families. President Roosevelt had vowed to honor our war veterans with an opportunity for home ownership, through guaranteed low-interest mortgages and minimal down payments. Sgt. Hendrix was handed oversized scissors by Buford Bracy and Paul Leird, partners in Bralei Homes, which was among the first contractors to offer our soldiers new housing in central Arkansas.

Bracy and Leird did it right and did it creatively. Speed was the essence of the national effort. A grave housing shortage had developed due both to pre-war depression years and war-time construction moratoriums. Fifteen million soldiers were on their way home and somebody had to make up for that housing shortage. Bralei hired four top local architects, Ginocchio & Cromwell, Burks & Anderson, Bruggeman Swaim & Allen, and Yandell Johnson to design nine prototypes. They built their own concrete plant to bypass national materials shortages and they set up off-site production lines to pre-build foundation components. They also pre-built wall, floor and roof panels which were then trucked to the site. The homes were “in the dry” in an unbelievable five hours and were ready for move-in 18 days later.

While new post-war homes were built around the country in large suburban tracts, Bralei built on scattered sites in areas like Hillcrest, the Heights and Kingwood. It has been a treasure hunt to spot post-war housing in Hillcrest, including the Bralei brand which has a telltale unique precast concrete foundation wall. (See photos).

Though they don’t have the high style of the English Revivals nor the large porches and shady overhangs of the Craftsman bungalows, post-war housing usually has quality materials (such as real hardwood floors), well-designed foundation systems, and is sized for the singles, couples and small families of Hillcrest. Their efficient plans have often been expanded successfully to the rear, to meet changing family needs while maintaining the integrity of the homes which greeted our soldiers of the 1940s.

Arkansas war hero James Hendrix might be real pleased to find current owners who have chosen to preserve post-war houses of Hillcrest, such as those pictured here.