The Building
420 Cherry Street is sandwiched between the Malco Theater (to the North) and the "Graber Building" (to the South). It is a partial 2-story building: the West-most 25 feet of the building has a 2nd floor and the remainder is just attic space and roof. Click on the diagrams below.
 420 Cherry Street 2005 |
 420 Cherry Street 1904 |
   Click to enlarge |
History
420 Cherry Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a "Contributing Structure to the Cherry Street Historic District". Throughout its history, 420 Cherry Street has been many things. It has burned down and been reconstituted. Based on the Sandborn Maps it appears that the current version came to be sometime around 1927.
Sanborn Maps
For more information on Sandborn Maps, click here.
Sanborn Maps of the 400 block (East Side) of Cherry Street. Open
(You identify the building in the early maps by the address "31". It didn't become "420" until 1907.)
| Date on Map | Building Usage |
| 1887 | General Store |
| 1892 | Plantation Supplies |
| 1896 | Plantation Supplies |
| 1900 | Saloon |
| 1907 | Saloon |
| 1913 | Meat and Restaurant (Building is divided down the middle) |
| 1918 | Photographer and Restaurant (Building is divided down the middle) |
| 1926 | No information give |
| 1950 | No information give |
Abstracts of Title
| Date | Description |
| 1800s | Property is part of 640 acres along the Mississippi River owned by Patrick Cassidy |
| 1821 | William Russell and Sylvanus Phillips divide 300 acres of land originllay owned by Patrick Cassidy into 701 lots which "shall be forever called 'The Town of Helena'..." Lot number 146 is declared as measuring 131' 6" by 66'. |
| 1822 | William Russell sells lot 146 to Robert M. Desha for $3355.00 |
| 1825 | Robert M. Desha dies and William Richey purchases the lot at public action for $19.50 from George W. Ferebee (administrator of the estate)./td> |
| 1826 | William B. R. Hornor purchases the lot for $40.00 William Richey |
| 1826 | Sylvanus Phillips purchases the property for $25.00 from the Hornors |
| 1830 | Sylvanus Phillips sells to Austin Kendrick and Arnold Fisher for $1000 |
| 1833 | Kendrick and Fisher sell to Eli J. Lewis for $2666.58 |
| 1833 | Eli J. Lewis dies and leaves the property to Mary Lewis (daughter) |
| 1844 | Mary Rutherford (formerly Lewis) and Archibald Rutherford sell to Harold Stillwell and Terence Farrelly for $1.00 with the promise to pay $1247.17 within 12 months |
| 1848 | Mary and Archibald Rutherford sell to John Preston Jr. for $60 "...time having expired as the provisions of selling..." |
| 1854 | John Preston Jr. and wife Mary sell to John C. O. Smith for $500 |
| 1869 | John C. O. Smith dies and leaves the property to ... |
Thank you to David Solomon for providing the The Abstracts of Title and Tommy Jameson for the collection of Sanborn Maps.
