A Letter of Welcome…
As the fourth owner and caretaker of Magnolia Hill, the Dr. Morgan Smith estate, a job we do joyously, the history of this estate was recently the focus of the November Pulaski County Historical Society meeting. Dr, Morgan Smith was born in El Dorado, Arkansas on March 8, 1868, the son of a planter and state senator with considerable influence in Union County and South Arkansas. His father was a colonel in the Confederate army. Married in 1890, he and his wife moved to Little Rock and reopened his practice. Dr. Smith was charming, sympathetic, and humorous as he sported a goatee.
The Dr. Morgan Smith house was built in 1918 in the Craftsman style. Dr. Smith as a well respected and successful physician in the state built and used the home for both his living quarters and an office. The home sits on a hill overlooking one of Arkansas’ oldest roadways. During the Civil War, Union Forces occupied the Ten Mile House which is a few miles down the road. Stagecoach Road was then known as Military Road. On the Smith grounds, a few bullets and even a cannonball has been found, believed to be from the nearby Battle of Brodie Creek.
Embracing a Jeffersonian ideal, Smith constructed his ample home on a large property in a rural setting surrounded by farms. The architect is believed to be John Parks Almand. The stonework on the home was recovered from cobblestone streets in downtown Little Rock as they prepared to brick them. The house is noted for being the best example of Craftsman architecture in this area of the South.
Dr. Smith graduated from Tulane University. Considered by many to be Arkansas’ first Pediatrician, he was Dean of the Medical School from 1912 to 1916 and noted for obtaining the Old State House for use of a medical school as the legislators moved into the brand new Arkansas State Capitol building.
In 1947 the house was sold to Dr. Lester M. Hill. In 1960, Atley and Betty Davis purchased the house, and asked carpenter Cooley Mason to update the kitchen cabinets…never knowing that his daughter would someday be the owner. We the current owners, Alda and W.G. “Buddy” Ellis purchased it in 1980 and have raised our two boys underneath the cloak of history. It is our joy in sharing this bit of heritage with you, as the Dr. Morgan Smith house whispers of a time gone by, and yet offers a bridge to the future.
