Two Arkansas cities very special to me are my birthplace of North Little Rock and my hometown of Sherwood. As city historian of Sherwood in the mid to late 2010s, I learned about a man who played an important role in making those cities into what they are today — Justin Matthews, a businessman, real estate developer, community leader and true visionary.
Matthews was born on a farm near Monticello in December 1875. The Matthews family was wealthy. His father, Samuel, was an attorney who owned a nursery and fruit business. He also served as a Drew County judge. He encouraged his son to study law, but Justin decided to pursue a career as a pharmacist.
Justin Matthews married Mary Somers in 1901. Around that time, he sold the three drugstores he owned in the Monticello area and moved to Little Rock.
In 1902, Matthews founded the Rose City Cotton Oil Mill in North Little Rock. Five years later he invested the money made from the business into real estate on both sides of the Arkansas River.
Within a short time of arriving in central Arkansas, Matthews began advocating for two major projects: one aimed at paving streets in North Little Rock and the other to build two bridges across the Arkansas River linking Little Rock and North Little Rock. In 1913, he began a petition drive to form two improvement districts to pave 152 blocks of North Little Rock streets. He also led a campaign to build the Broadway Bridge. Both of these projects, financed publicly through improvement districts, were crucial to his land development plans.
In North Little Rock, Matthews' company, the Matthews Land Co., developed the Park Hill community. Early development included construction of modest houses, built as efficiently and inexpensively as possible, aimed at first-time homebuyers.
In 1927, after six years of opening sections of Park Hill for development, Matthews decided the time was right for a grander development that would compete for the upper-income residents who were buying homes in several recently opened “restricted” additions in Pulaski Heights in Little Rock. He would call this upscale section of Park Hill "Edgemont."
At the same time, Matthews began building homes along the Ark-Mo Highway (now Highway 107) north of North Little Rock, in an area he named Sylvan Hills, which eventually became part of Sherwood. As part of his plans for this subdivision, Matthews began building the Sylvan Hills Country Club and Golf Course (now known as The Greens at North Hills) in 1926. In 1927, Matthews was appointed to the Arkansas State Highway Commission by Gov. John Martineau.
Unfortunately, the Great Depression complicated the Sylvan Hills project and the opening of Edgemont in Park Hill. Only 16 houses in Edgemont and a handful of homes in Sylvan Hills were built before construction came to a halt.
From 1931 to 1933, Matthews developed a park in the Lakewood subdivision, which he named T. R. Pugh Memorial Park in honor of his close friend, Thomas R. Pugh. Today, the park is more commonly known as “The Old Mill.” The park features a re-creation of an 1880s water-powered grist mill and other structures, which were designed and created by Mexican sculptor Dionicio Rodriguez. The Old Mill is the only surviving structure to appear in the movie “Gone With the Wind,” as it briefly appeared in the film’s opening credits. In 1936, Matthews’ company built a uniquely-shaped gas station for the Pierce Oil Co. on the old Highway 67 in Sherwood known as the Roundtop Filling Station.
Matthews died on March 21, 1955, at his residence on Cherry Hill in North Little Rock. He was buried in Little Rock’s Mount Holly Cemetery. An Arkansas Gazette editorial paid tribute to the man who, “on the high ground overlooking North Little Rock,” had “transformed an untamed wilderness into a great community with homes, stores, schools, churches and service establishments.”
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