600 Main Street, Van Buren Arkansas
Dave Fant W5SWL

Return to W5SWL Website, click here
 

Anheuser Busch Ice House

Circa 1892 Historic Building

The Anheuser Busch Building is located in the Historic District of Van Buren, Arkansas, just west of the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad Depot. 600 Main Street, right on the corner at 6th & Main.

The building is on the National Historic Register and according to sources, was built in 1892. Paperwork conflicts and we can show some evidence of construction in 1898. It is said to be one of the last remaining Anheuser Busch Ice House left standing. Originally intended as a three story structure, the building was only completed to two stories. A year long endeavor of rehabilitating the interior was substantially completed. The outside still maintains the last known A and Eagle emblem of the Anheuser Ice Houses on the front and large letters spelling out "Anheuser Busch" are on the 6th street side of the building. The front entry way is adorned with Anheuser Busch tiles. Upstairs has original doors and transoms and beautiful woodwork. Visible, but not working of course, is the original tube wiring and sockets, along with the original breaker boxes. Downstairs finds a magnificent vintage 1843 front and back bar in mint condition which was kept as part of the building along with a large safe. Originally, the lower rear street level part of the building had a horse stable and loading dock.

While my wife and I owned the building, we took great effort to ensure that no materially damaging construction was done as Dave's Hobby Shop was placed into operation in the building. All wood work was done by hand and all cases and fixtures custom fitted to the floor plan. All walls, ceilings and floors were maintained in the condition found or revitalized as needed. The lights in the building were all energy efficient florescent bulbs and fixtures except for a few small incandescence specialty applications. Specialized lighting was used to high light the magnificent ceiling and floors. A gentle mix of old and new blends the atmosphere very nicely. The building was a center piece building in Van Buren, Arkansas. Sadly a lot of that work has been undone at this time and we feel a lot of the charm of the building is no longer present.

This website remains today to allow visitors the opportunity to enjoy the Anheuser Busch Building in Van Buren, Arkansas and how it looked as we had our store in the building in 2005. The website will serve as placement for further updates such as images and history for this building.


This is how things looked in June of 2004.

View the interior as you would see it walking in the door in September 2005. The images are still captioned as we used them in our hobby shop.  

ENJOY !

This website is sponsored by