Springdale Poultry Industry Historic District - Springdale AR - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

"The period of significance for the nomination of the district ends in 1969 to reflect the year that Tyson Foods moved its main office from East Emma Ave. to Johnson Road and Jeff D. Brown and Company sold its hatchery building on East Emma Ave. The district consists of three buildings, located at 317 and 319 East Emma Ave. and 316 East Meadow Ave., and was added to the National Register on September 23, 2011.

Tyson Foods: 319 East Emma Ave. and 316 East Meadow Ave.
John Tyson was born in 1911 in Noel, Missouri. In 1931, John, his second wife, Helen, and their one-year-old son, Don, moved to Springdale. In the mid-1930s, Tyson realized that the chicken industry had outgrown local markets and that he could make money transporting the birds outside the state. The young entrepreneur began by hauling loads to cities such as Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis, Missouri, which were close enough that he did not have to feed or water the chickens during the trip. To make longer trips, Tyson devised an in-transit feeding system and constructed water troughs between the coops. Tyson’s trucking venture was so successful that he began to have difficulty obtaining enough chicks to meet the growers’ demands. Frustrated, he decided to start hatching chickens and milling his own feed. These were his operation’s first steps toward vertical integration—a business strategy in which a company owns every stage of production. This allowed Tyson to overcome competition from more established meatpackers such as Armour, Swanson, and Swift and grow into the largest supplier of protein in the world.

Retail poultry was not rationed during World War II, creating a sizable new demand for the meat. Tyson decided to try raising his own broilers, in addition to hatching, feeding, and transporting them. In October 1947, John Tyson founded Tyson’s Feed and Hatchery, Inc. The articles of incorporation announced the location of Tyson’s Feed and Hatchery’s new headquarters as “in the city (or town) of Springdale, State of Arkansas, and the address of the principal office or place of business shall be 319 East Emma Avenue Street.” This was the site of the former Springdale Produce Company building, which was built between 1914 and 1924. Tyson had purchased the building from I. J. Little on March 6, 1943, for $3,250. Assessor’s records, historical photographs, and Sanborn maps suggest that Tyson either heavily remodeled or demolished and rebuilt the building around 1947 to serve as his company’s new office.

Subsequently, Tyson bought some property just to the south on East Meadow Ave.. Ted Saum sold him the parcels—Lots 12 and 13 of Block 1 in the Brooks Addition—in March 1945 for $500. Historical records indicate that Tyson probably constructed a feed mill on the property the same year that he bought it and then built a brick building to support the feed mill around 1950. This structure has been painted white and still stands as of 2013. The feed mill was torn down in late 2008 or early 2009.

In 1957, the company built its first processing plant on the north end of Springdale, making it the first integrated broiler business in northwestern Arkansas. It now bred chickens, hatched eggs, grew broilers, sold feed, processed chickens, and delivered the birds to market. Because of the company’s close contractual relationship with independent growers, the growers were essentially employees of the company. Tyson Foods broke $1 million in net income for the first time in 1969, earning $1,559,000 for the year.

Moorehead’s Springdale, Arkansas, City Directory shows that the headquarters of Tyson Foods remained at 319 East Emma Ave. through 1969. In 1970, the directory listed Tyson’s Foods on Johnson Road, which is where their sprawling office complex is currently located."

Street address: 319 East Emma Ave. and 316 East Meadow Ave. Springdale, AR USA 72764 County / Borough / Parish: Washington County Year listed: 2011 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Business, Agriculture Periods of significance: 1943 - 1969 Historic function: Business / Agriculture Current function: Vacant Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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