Martha Mitchell Home
Built circa 1887
Restored by Bob Abbott & Family
National Register of Historic Places
The house at 902 West Fourth Avenue has a nostalgic silence about it that borders on loneliness. The rooms are quiet, as if waiting for the return of the Fergusson and Beall families that once filled the house with a happy and energetic atmosphere.
This house was the birthplace (and later residence) of the outspoken Martha Beall Mitchell, wife of former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell of the Nixon Administration.
There was once an outspoken young girl living within its walls who filled the place with the sounds and activities of children. Vivacious and friendly, her friends filled the house with childhood laughter.
Out back of the house, there is still a playhouse that was so popular with these young girls. Strangers trod its hardwood floors, drawn to the house by the memory of a controversial figure who burst upon the political horizon like a colorful rocket a decade or two ago.
The house was built around 1887 by Martha's maternal grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. C.M. Fergusson, who moved to Pine Bluff from Chester, South Carolina. Mr. Fergusson established one of the first wholesale grocery firms in this area.
Martha was born in the old house on September 2, 1918. She grew up and graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1936. She then attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. When she returned home on the eve of World War II, Martha went to work at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, then under construction.
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