This is the last stop on DeWitt, Arkansas’ historic downtown square. The building housing DeWitt Publishing was constructed in the early 1950s for a farm co-op, which was unsuccessful. In 1954, Harold Young opened his department store in the building. Young’s “…really defined the 1950s and 60s in DeWitt” (History of the DeWitt Square). The store sold toys, clothes, furniture, and appliances; a service station and meat market for butchering was located in the back.
DeWitt Publishing moved to the building in 1981 when Young’s Department Store closed, and it became home to the DeWitt Era-Enterprise. The Enterprise was founded in 1916, and absorbed the New Era–founded in 1882–in 1929. They claim never to have missed an issue (History of the Square).
The building to the right was constructed circa 1925. Harry Lipman Dry Goods was in the storefront on the left, and Snarr Drug Store in the right. Buildings to the right of what currently houses Big Time Rentals, down to the corner building, were lost in a major fire in 1930 that destroyed several buildings on the square.
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