Historic Museum to Get Touchup

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Ryan Anderson

June 12, 2023

An area near the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in northeast Arkansas is going to get a bit of a touch-up.

Workers will renovate grain bins across from the museum in Tyronza, work that would restore the historic character of the Tyronza Commercial Historic District.

The Arkansas State University board of trustees approved the renovation project at a meeting Thursday in Beebe.

“The grain bins will serve as a large-scale exhibit of agricultural history and methods that would add new depth to the interpretation of the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum,” according to the Arkansas State University System. The interior of the largest grain bin would house critical visitor services, including accessible restroom facilities.

ASU received a grant of $1,916,383 from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council, which will cover the renovation, according to the ASU System.

The museum — which has exhibits that focus on the farm labor movement in the South and the tenant farming and sharecropping system of agriculture — opened in 2006 in the historic Mitchell-East Building in Tyronza.