Project Background:

The construction of Woodruff’s Print Shop represents the culmination of years of research and archeology for the purpose of improving the museum’s ability in interpreting early Arkansas history.  Indeed William Woodruff, one of the City’s earliest inhabitants, was also one of the State’s most important and prominent historical figures.  Thus, telling the story of Woodruff’s enterprises, and even understanding the early history of the Arkansas Gazette, means telling the story of Arkansas’ early history.  Within a larger context, the story is about a young man from New York looking for opportunity in the American West.  At the time, Arkansas was still just a territory, just a small piece of the enormous Louisiana Purchase transaction that was completed barely 20 years earlier.

The original brick print shop, small in footprint, only 1,000 s.f. in total including two floors, was Federal style, common in the period.  It was mistakenly torn down in the late 1930’s when the Historic Arkansas Museum (formerly the Arkansas Territorial Restoration) was established.  However, there was much information left to us from previous generations through the written record (printed in the Arkansas Gazette), tax documents, early photographs and measured architectural drawings completed by Max Mayer, an architect.  Archeology also shed light on what was original along with careful study of the adjacent wood frame building.  With all of this information in hand, a re-construction project could be attempted.

To assist in the reconstruction project, the team included Mark Wenger, an architectural historian from Williamsburg, Virginia who has decades experience in understanding 1820’s period construction.  Examples of commercial buildings of the era were carefully studied so informed decisions could be made about what would have been appropriate.  Thus, where specific information was lacking, such as what the interior layout might have been like, decisions were based on empirical models.

Construction began in the Fall of 2009 by V.R. Smith & Sons, the successful bidder, with previous construction experience at the Historic Arkansas Museum.  Though small in scale, the construction involves materials and details all but forgotten by modern-day builders, including hand-made brick, hand-forged hardware, hand-mixed paint and salvaged, virgin growth long-leaf pine, a species of wood that was the structural material of choice during the early building of America, but now practically extinct.  Additional consultants were added to the team during this phase to assist in getting the details correct.  Peter Post, a builder in Richmond, VA, specializes in the restoration of pre 1850’s structures and has worked on historic buildings such as Montpelier, Mount Vernon and the Cupola House, a 1758 structure in Edenton, NC.  Raymond Cannetti is a master mason from St. Mary’s City, Maryland and is involved at Colonial Williamsburg and has also worked on significant historic buildings such as Montpelier, the White House, Washington Cathedral and the WWII monument in Washington, D.C.  Both of these men understand appropriate period details such as proper tooling techniques, jointing and sense of proportion and method.