Rector Commercial Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

From the record

“The Rector Commercial Historic District encompasses the original 1882 central business district of Rector, Arkansas. It includes a roughly triangular area of the city, bounded on the west by Main Street, the north by 3rd Street, and the southeast by the railroad tracks.”
Wikipedia article Rector Commercial Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Clay County · listed in 2009 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Bounded by St. Louis and Southwestern Railroad tracks on the E. and S., S. Dodd on the W., 3rd St. on the N., Rector, 72461
When was it listed? June 2009
Category. district
Township. East Oak Bluff-Blue Cane township
National Register reference number. 09000369 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

4 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Rector Commercial Historic District between 1997 and 2017, burning about 117 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
25 August 1997	Debris and open burning	40 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
3 February 1998	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
28 November 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	60 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named
11 November 1999	Debris and open burning	15 acres	Arkansas Forestry Commission	not named

Every fire recorded in Clay County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Rector Commercial Historic District: 6 past producers, 5 unknowns, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Guy Bucy	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
I Golden	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
I Stahl	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Johnson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Melvin Copeland Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Stahl Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Stahl Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Stahl Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Tri-County Pit & Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Trs Trucking Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Clay County

Storms near this property

46 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rector, the town this property stands in, in 46 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 23 thunderstorm wind, 18 hail, 4 flash flood, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
January 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$250,000	Straight line winds damaged a couple farm buildings and overturned two irrigation pivots.
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$75,000	A farm shop collapsed. A hangar and an airplane were damaged at the Rector Airport. A portion of the roof was damaged at Crockett Oil Company. Some trees and power lines were knocked down.
August 2024	Flash Flood	Rector	$50,000	Several bridges were washed or under water between Rector and Greenway.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$50,000	Some sheds were destroyed and several trailers were damaged. Numerous trees were knocked down.
April 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$50,000	One house was destroyed. A barn was spread out over a one-half mile area. Numerous trees were blown down.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$25,000	A barn was destroyed. Several farm shops and barns were damaged. A car and a truck were also damaged. A patio cover was blown away. Some trees were uprooted and some utility poles were blown down.
November 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$25,000	A barn was destroyed. A church steeple was torn off. Several trees and power lines were blown down.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$25,000	A crop duster flipped over at the Rector airport. Several trees were knocked down.
January 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$20,000	no account filed
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$15,000	An outbuilding was destroyed, and a second one was partially damaged near the intersection of South Dodd Street and West 13th Street. Several trees were also downed.
June 1999	Tornado (F0)	Rector	$15,000	A tornado briefly touched down just east of Rector. An airplane was turned over. Several large tree limbs were blown down as well.
April 2006	Hail	Rector	$10,000	no account filed
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$5,000	Trees down in Rector.
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$5,000	Several power lines were blown down.
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$5,000	Several power lines were knocked down.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$3,000	Numerous large tree limbs down and a downed power pole in Rector.
March 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$2,000	Power lines down in Rector.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$2,000	Tree down close to the town of Rector.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$2,000	Several trees were blown down.
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	$1,000	A couple of trees were knocked down.
April 2008	Hail	Rector	$1,000	no account filed
May 1995	Hail	Rector	$1,000	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Rector	$250	no account filed
April 1998	Hail	Rector	$100	no account filed
March 2002	Hail	Rector	$20	no account filed
July 2006	Flash Flood	Rector	$10	Flash flooding caused 3 to 4 inches of water on roads in the town of Rector.
June 2005	Hail	Rector	$10	no account filed
July 2005	Hail	Rector	$10	no account filed
March 2001	Hail	Rector	$10	no account filed
April 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	-	Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph near Rector.
March 2025	Hail	Rector	-	Quarter sized hail, 2 miles north of Rector, AR.
October 2021	Flash Flood	Rector	-	Highway 49 was flooded between Rector and Greenway.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	-	A few trees were knocked down in Rector.
July 2012	Hail	Rector	-	Quarter size hail fell north of Rector.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	-	Straight line winds destroyed a shed in Rector.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	-	Straight line winds knocked a few trees down and flipped a trampoline in the town of Rector.
August 2009	Flash Flood	Rector	-	Heavy rain produced flash flooding in Rector. A few streets were flooded as a result.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	-	Winds were estimated at 60 mph in Rector.
August 2024	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
June 2023	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
April 2020	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
March 2015	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
April 2010	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Rector	-	no account filed
December 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Rector	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Clay County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

2 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Rector Waterworks Building	0.2 miles	2009
	Scatterville Cemetery	1.6 miles	1995

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 09000369 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Clay County	All 19 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.