The following is a special to Saline River Chronicle:
FAYETTEVILLE – The Historic District Commission and the Fayetteville’s Mayor’s office recently announced the winners of the 12th Annual Historic Preservation Awards.
Top photo: Mayor Lioneld Jordan and Maylon Rice
Maylon T. Rice, a native of Warren, received a Letter of Acclamation for his social media promotion of Fayetteville’s history.
Rice has included hundreds of daily social posts highlighting the people, places, and events that make up the collective story of Fayetteville on his personal Facebook page, the Washington County Historical Society’s Facebook page and on Instagram.
The award was one of 12 given out by the City of Fayetteville’s Historic District Commission at its meeting in May.
Rice also chaired the third year of the WCHS’s “This Place Matters” social media awareness campaign in 2024, during the month of May, which is National Historic Preservation Month.
The “This Place Matters,” social media campaign has won awards from Preserve Arkansas, for Historic Education in 2023, the Arkansas Historical Association, for an Award of Merit in 2024, and the Mayor of Fayetteville’s Historic Awareness Promotion Award for 2023.
Rice was also a part of the city awarding another Letter of Acclamation to the Washington County Historical Society for the refurbishment of the historical markers at Headquarters House and The Stone House, both pre-Civil war houses that are some of the oldest extant structures in Fayetteville. In receiving the award, Britin Bostic with the City of Fayetteville said: “Signs often fade over time making them difficult to read, and the new paint highlights both the markers and the stories they tell.”
The Evergreen Cemetery Board also received an award for restoration work and the stewardship of the Evergreen Cemetery, dating back to 1840, and is one of the oldest cemeteries in Northwest Arkansas. Rice is the secretary of the Evergreen Cemetery Board.