Join the QQA for our annual Members Reception at the Mills-Davis house (523 E. 6th St), January 30, 2019 , 5:30 pm. The Mills-Davis House was first occupied starting in 1878 by Abraham Anderson Mills and his family. Jennifer Carman and Donna Thomas rehabilitated this beautiful Italianate home through 2016 and 2017. It now serves as the offices of J. Carman, Inc. Fine Art Advisory and Appraisal Services and Norton Arts, Inc. and a small Airbnb apartment.

This reception is only for current QQA members, but memberships will be sold at the door.

RSVP is required. Click here to RSVP. Click here to purchase a QQA membership.

On February 20, 2019 the QQA, Preserve Arkansas, and other supporters will host a legislative reception at Curran Hall. This biennial reception gives preservationists from throughout the state an opportunity to connect with legislators and administration officials to advocate for historic preservation during the legislative session.

In this upcoming legislative session, we have proposed a modification to the state’s historic rehabilitation tax credit. Our proposal would lower the minimum expense threshold for non-income producing properties to qualify for the tax credit from $25,000 to $5,000.  

QQA Executive Director, Patricia Blick, said in an article published the Arkansas Times that “this change will assist historic homeowners with basic repair and maintenance projects, like roof repair or replacement, upgrading their electric, even repair or replacement of their HVAC systems; necessary property maintenance whose costs simply do not rise to the current minimum level for the tax credits. By taking advantage of the tax credits and following the treatment standards, there is an assurance that the work will not diminish the historic integrity of the property or historic district.”  

Working with our partners, we will monitor activity during the session and keep an eye on legislation that has the potential to impact historic resources.  

Beginning in 2000, this award has been presented sporadically by the QQA Board of Directors to recognize a member of the board for outstanding service. 

The 2018 winner was retiring board member Laura Sergeant.

Laura Sergeant, a Peg Smith Award Winner in 2015, is the embodiment of an outstanding QQA Board member. Since joining the QQA Board of Directors, she has gone above and beyond her duties as a board member. Laura joined the QQA Board of Directors in 2010 and has served three complete terms. She has served as Board President-Elect, as well as two full terms as board president, and is currently serving as the Vice President of Advocacy.  

She’s volunteered with the Spring Tour in nearly every capacity since she moved to downtown Little Rock. She chaired the tour in 2011 and 2012, and has stepped in to assist whenever called upon. She was part of the team that hosted a very successful 50th Spring Tour and helped with the important task of recognizing former tour chairs at the Sunday brunch. The Mother’s Day Brunch at Curran Hall is masterfully orchestrated by Laura and her co-chair Marcella Dalla Rosa each year, and has become so popular that it is regularly a sold out event.

Laura was instrumental in getting the Summer Suppers program started, has chaired the series since inception in 2015, and consequently raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the work of the QQA. She makes the time to attend nearly every QQA function, and is usually responsible for food, decorations or flowers. She won’t hesitate to ask for anything when the QQA needs donations, and she always offers to help out when she can. She’s the kind of board member and volunteer most organizations can only dream of.    

QQA members Joann and Garth Martin exemplify the spirit of the organization. They attend several events every year, they volunteer, and they remember the QQA when they think about their own legacy. At the QQA Membership Meeting & Greater Little Rock Preservation awards on November 14, the Martins gave the QQA a gift of their memories: a print of the Villa Marre signed by the cast and crew of the sitcom Designing Women .   

Long term QQA members know that the organization’s headquarters were located at the Villa Marre, 1321 Scott Street, from 1979 to 2002. It was built in 1881 by a notorious saloon owner and liquor importer Angelo Marre and his wife Jennie. The house has maybe the most nationally well-known in the SoMa area because it was used as the façade for the fictional business of Julia Sugarbaker and her sister Suzanne Sugarbaker in Designing Women , which aired on CBS from 1986 to 1993.  

The Martins gift is particularly important to them because Joann had a small role in the sitcom. The role was a silent auction item during a 1987 fundraiser at the Villa Marre benefiting the The Arkansas Repertory Theatre . Garth Martin purchased the role for his wife. In January of 1988, Joann went to California for five days where she was given her own trailer and driver. 

“It was great fun and I enjoyed every minute of it,” Joann said.   

Joann appeared on Season 2, episode 19 titled “The Incredibly Elite Bona Fide Blue-Blood Beaumont Driving Club.” The part was supposed to just be a walk-on, but when the cast discovered that Joann had some theater training, they rewrote the script to give her a small speaking part. She portrayed “Muffin Farenholdt,” chairperson of membership for the Beaumont Driving Club, patterned off a club in Atlanta. When the Sugarbaker sisters applied to the club, only Julia was accepted. Joann’s character’s job was to tell Suzanne Sugarbaker that her membership application was rejected.

A picture of the Villa Marre was given to the show’s producers by Deborah Phillips, with the promise that it would be on the set. At the end of her week on set, the cast and crew signed the print and gifted it to Joann. 

Fourteen years ago, the Martins moved to the Rainwater Flats and became more involved in the QQA. “At 83 I’m beginning to think about what will go where,” Joann said. “I wanted to give the print to the QQA because the Villa Marre was a big thing for the organization.”