A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Bentonville in the 1870’s—Don’t miss Peel Museum and Botanical Gardens

• Visit Bentonville • Season 9 • Episode 17

Share episode

Step back in time with us as we explore one of Bentonville’s most treasured landmarks—the Peel Museum and Botanical Garden, now celebrating its 150th anniversary. In this episode, take a journey through the rich history of the Peel family home, its decline and remarkable restoration, and its role today as a vibrant cultural destination.

Together, we’ll uncover the stories behind this iconic estate, what it reveals about Bentonville in the late 1800s, and how its beautifully preserved grounds and gardens continue to inspire visitors and locals alike.

What we discuss:

🏡 Welcome to the Peel Museum
 📜 The Origins of Bentonville's Historic Home
 🔨 From Abandonment to Restoration
 🎉 Celebrating 150 Years of History
 🌸 Museum Experience and Visitor Information
 🌆 Bentonville Culture and Staying Connected

A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.

You can listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, CastBox, Podcast Casts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Podcast Addict.

Natalie Stika:

Welcome to New American Town. I'm Natalie with Visit Bentonville. Today's guest is someone who brings the past to life in one of Bentonville's most beloved landmarks, the Peel Museum. The Peel Museum. We're joined by the museum manager, chelsea Stewart, to talk about the home's rich history, its thoughtful restoration and how this iconic house in the heart of a Walmart parking lot has become a symbol of Bentonville's charm, creativity and commitment to preserving our story. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Peel Museum and there's a lot to celebrate, from the home's free admission and beautiful gardens to the upcoming June 1st community picnic. Whether you're a history buff, a curious visitor or someone who just loves a good Bentonville story, this episode is packed with insight, character and a few surprises. Thank you for joining us, Chelsea. Thank you so much for having me. First off, I just really want to talk about what is the Peel Museum and can you give us a quick overview of the home, the grounds and the significance of this story? Absolutely.

Chelsea Stewart:

The Peel Museum or the Peel House was built in 1875 at the exact same time that a lot of building was also going on in Bentonville proper. So the house is only a few years younger than Bentonville itself. So the house really grew up with Bentonville and it kind of went along with that history of the town as well.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, oh my goodness. So was the house situated, I assume not in a Walmart parking lot originally. So what was kind of the surrounding area like?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so that entire area was actually not in the city of Bentonville, so it was outside the incorporated line. Just outside, obviously, across the street, you have the city cemetery, which is still there today. You can see it behind the Arvest Bank and the Chick-fil-A and other areas, and you know it was over 160 acres of farmland. They had huge apple orchards, which was their main crop, and you know they had three barns on the property, a windmill, multiple other outbuildings, so it was a huge area.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, oh my gosh. Yeah, Bentonville used to be a huge apple community. Was it the black apple that they farmed here?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, the Arkansas black. Exactly that was one of those heritage species that they farmed here and or varieties, excuse me, heritage varieties. Mr Peel was one of those large apple farmers in the area and a lot of people don't know that Benton and Washington counties. They were the largest apple producers at the turn of the century in 1900 in the nation.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, wow. That's an amazing fun fact. This home is so significant and honestly still very breathtaking with our amazing homes that we have now. I can't imagine seeing this home in 1875 with how big it is. I'm assuming that wasn't standard, absolutely not. So what is some contextual differences between that home and maybe homes that were built around the same time period?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so if you've ever been to the Peel Museum, or when you drive by or you're in the Walmart parking lot, when you look over the fence there's a small cabin there. The cabin is two rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs and that's going to be more typical of your farm, like country home of the time, compared to what Mr Peel built for his family there, the large house on the main street. So you know, you can kind of see the difference right there on the Peel property.

Natalie Stika:

Was he from here? Is that why he built that home?

Chelsea Stewart:

He was from Independence County.

Natalie Stika:

So he was born in Independence. He lived in Carroll County and then moved to Benton. Okay, yeah, wow. So when did you guys take this home into ownership and how long has it did it take to get restored?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so the Peel House itself had been abandoned for around 50 or 60 years in the middle of the 1900s, and so it was in really bad shape when people started to look at restoring this property in the early 90s. So there were a little bit of restoration efforts in the 80s, but nothing major. And then when the early 90s roll around, that's when Walmart acquires the property and Sam Walton builds number 100 behind there, helen Walton actually decides she wants to save the house, because the initial, I guess, reaction was to tear the house down because I mean truly it was falling in. I mean the porch was being supported by two, by fours, and there was a tree growing through the master bedroom upstairs. So if you can imagine that in your head, the first reaction is to really tear that down. But Held and Walton stepped in and kind of pulled the community together. They pulled in some conservationists and began to restore the home and it was restored within two years by 1993.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, oh my goodness, wow, yeah, I had no idea there was a tree growing through the master. Wow, that's a surprising story. Is there anything else that was surprising? Or that maybe is a favorite story of yours to tell guests?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so the woman that had lived there in the 80s. She had actually tried to start restoring parts of the house and had done a little bit and she was actually using it for an antique showroom. So she had been selling antique furniture and an interior. She had like an interior design business as well, so that was her goal to use it for that purpose. But then her health declined and she was not able to do that. So it had some pretty interesting wallpaper in it at one point from this interior design business. And it's been through a lot. The house is 150 years this year, so you know it's been through a lot of owners, a lot of changes, so there's always something interesting to find yeah, I can't imagine 80s wallpaper.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, wow. So you, I know you're always free admission, which is so amazing. Do you do the tours? Do you lead the tours? I do sometimes. Yeah, okay, I do sometimes. How does a visitor get to experience a tour at the Peel Museum?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so when you come into the property, you'll come in the main gate and you stop for a few moments in the cabin store, which is where we ask you to check in and that's where we just get the basic things like what's your zip code? How'd you hear about us? That sort of thing? Because those types of things help us as a museum to kind of see where our visitors are from. Yeah, but then we offer tours every 30 minutes, so you know you just wait for the next half hour to roll around, depending on when you get there, and then your tour guide meets you at the cabin and they walk you all the way up to the front of the house and you enter just like you were a guest in 1875.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, that's cool. Wow. What are some of the more unique features of the home that you think people might miss?

Chelsea Stewart:

So one of the most unique features of the home. I don't think people miss it because right in the front door is the grand staircase. When you open the front door and it is all hand carved out of Arkansas black walnut. It is native to Arkansas and we have several black walnut trees on the property so you can kind of see, like the trees on the property, that this you know staircase, like they likely got those trees from the property when they carved that staircase.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, yeah, oh my gosh. We haven't even hit on the fact that you are situated on top of a beautiful botanical garden which is like blooming insanely beautifully right now. So there's so much to experience when you go to the museum. You kind of touched on it this year as your 150th, which is so exciting. What does that mean to you?

Chelsea Stewart:

It's a big deal. I mean there are very few structures left in Bentonville that are that old, especially houses. You know we structures left in Bentonville that are that old, especially houses. You know we have some buildings around the square that are that old and a little bit older, but especially homes, and unfortunately, with the weather we've been getting lately last year we saw some of our historic homes impacted by that as well. So to know that this house has been here for 150 years and it has survived that long is just a feat really. And then it sort of grew up with Bentonville. I mean, you know, think about what that house has seen in 150 years when you think about Bentonville and then where we are today.

Natalie Stika:

That gave me chills. Yeah, the pride and honor that our community can have, standing on that foundation and looking at this amazing home and all that it's gone through and our community supporting that home still being here while we are also continuing to have all these new developments in Bentonville and the massive growth that we've seen that's really inspiring. I love that. I would love to talk to you about some programming so that our visitors or even locals can get involved with the one year or 150th anniversary. I know you have the picnic on June 1st. Do you want to talk about that or anything else you have in store?

Chelsea Stewart:

Absolutely so. On June 1st, which is a Sunday, from 11 am to 2 pm, we will be hosting just a traditional picnic on the lawn. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids. You will get a full meal of fried chicken and all the fixings, and there will also be activities based around what life was like in the 1800s and what it would have been like on the farm. So we will have a blacksmith, we will have someone there making candles and all sorts of other home goods that you would find on a farm and things that mr and mrs peel would have likely made themselves on their farm. Oh my.

Natalie Stika:

God, yeah, that's so cool. Whoa, you can't miss that. That's amazing.

Chelsea Stewart:

Of course, the house will be open for tours.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, and will your museum store be open as well? I love your museum store. Thank you you guys have such a great selection of everything and you highlight local creators.

Chelsea Stewart:

We try to highlight local as much as possible.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, it's really fabulous. Is there another specific part of the museum that maybe isn't the grand staircase, but you know each room has filled with so many little nuggets. What's your favorite?

Chelsea Stewart:

My favorite object in the entire museum is a little unassuming teapot in the dining room that you might miss if no one points out to you and it's a little, I guess, about a foot and a half high teapot made out of ceramics. And it was Mrs Peel's teapot and it's the only piece we have left of her original china set. So you can kind of see the teapot and then envision like how the dining room would have looked with her china set on the table, wow, okay, yeah, we need to hit on that, like it's not just the fact you go into this home and it's like spotless.

Natalie Stika:

It's so cool because you walk into each room and you guys have, you know, you have information for people to read about the objects that they're looking at. I've seen dresses, I've seen piano. You know, I've seen so many amazing artifacts. How have you guys gotten those artifacts?

Chelsea Stewart:

So quite a few of the artifacts are from the Peel family and we try to highlight those either throughout the tour or if you go in and do an audio tour. We have little cards that also sit by the artifacts so that you know this belonged to the Peel family and if they did not belong to the Peel family then everything else is of the time period and we get a lot of it on loan from Arkansas Heritage. So we work with the state department and they loaned us a lot of the like bigger pieces of furniture and things that don't, that didn't survive from the Peel family.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, so people can transform back into the 1870s. Oh that's cool. Wow yeah, bentonville is known for mixing the unexpected. How do visitors usually react to discovering this home if they've never heard about it before?

Chelsea Stewart:

You would be shocked the amount of people that are from out of town, that are just driving by or they're going to the Walmart to get something they forgot at home and they're like oh my gosh, there's a botanical garden and a huge house right here in the Walmart parking lot. Last year we went through the accreditation process and one of our reviewers actually called it an oasis in the middle of Bentonville, were their words.

Natalie Stika:

So we're really proud of that. Wow, oh my gosh, speak to that. How do you become the Oasis?

Chelsea Stewart:

Wow, that's so cool, absolutely. So you know, we went through the accreditation process. It took us over four years to do that. Less than 3% of all historic houses and museums are accredited in the nation, wow, and so it was a really long process. But it basically says that we are the leaders in the field. We are taking care of our objects, we are taking care of our house and we're kind of the standard.

Natalie Stika:

Ooh, the standard. I love that. What is maybe a reaction from a visitor that has just stuck with you? A good story. What do you always think?

Chelsea Stewart:

back to. So one of the things that I love the most like reactions that I get from visitors is when the kids come in, because you can talk about the history, you can talk about that in a classroom setting, but when a child actually walks through the door and they see, oh well, this is a house, there's a couch, like they had a couch, but it's different from the one that I have, it kind of makes that connection in their head, and especially in the girls and boys rooms upstairs, you know, we have clay marbles, whereas today the kids may play with glass marbles.

Natalie Stika:

It's just a different type and so it really is fun to watch it click on the kids' faces when they go through the museum, and that's really what it's all about, and that's why I love historic homes personally is because it does allow for that contextualization Right and realizing we have it so good and wow, and these people lived here at one point right in our town and it's changed so much and it's so beautiful to celebrate that as well. That's cool, okay. So for a visitor, we need to know what are your hours and how long do you think someone would spend at the Peel Museum and Botanical Gardens?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so we're open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am till 5 pm. The last tour leaves at 4 o'clock. So if you want to catch a guided tour, be there by 4 o'clock. Be there by four o'clock and you can expect to spend in the house on a guided tour 30 to 45 minutes depending, but other than that it's as long or as short as you want it to be. Outside of that, you know we always tell people please walk around the grounds. We are a botanical certified garden. We have seven different garden spots with historical like contextualization around them, and so you know we really want people to enjoy those while they're there.

Chelsea Stewart:

Some people come and just eat lunch, like they'll go get lunch at the Walmart and then they'll walk across the parking lot and just eat lunch in the gardens, and we love that.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, special, making their own picnic, exactly. So why should no one leave Bentonville without stopping by?

Chelsea Stewart:

I mean, first of all, it's just a really great architectural piece. It's Italianate, it's you know that was extremely popular in the South in the late 1800s and mid 1800s. But also, like I've said, we are part of Bentonville history. We are part of Northwest Arkansas history, if you think about the impact that the apple production had on this area. Mr Peel and his family and his farm were all part of that, you know, and people can really experience all facets of Northwest Arkansas history while they're there and it's just good to have that you know context while you're visiting.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, that's true. That's great. Aside from the museum, I always like to ask our guest what is on their Bentonville bucket list or what is one of your favorite parts about Bentonville. Do you have anything you want to share?

Chelsea Stewart:

I think it's probably a little obvious, but one of my favorite parts about Bentonville is the culture and the arts. As a museum professional and a historian, it's really nice being in an area where, everywhere that I look, I can see something historical, I can see the art, I can go to a museum and there's always new things to do. That's really my favorite part.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, that's so good. Well, how can people stay connected to you? What's your social media handles?

Chelsea Stewart:

Yeah, so we have social media handles for all of our different sites. For the Peel, compton Foundation, you can find us on Facebook, on Instagram, and we have one for the Peel Museum and Botanical Garden, osage Park, kohler Mountain Bike Preserve and Compton Gardens, so you can find us on all of the social media handles that way.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, awesome, love that. Visit Bentonville 2 is here for you so that you can have the best experience whenever you travel. If you want to learn more about Bentonville, go to visitbentonvillecom or follow us on social media at Visit Bentonville. We are here for you and can't wait to see you in the next episode. Bye.