Crescent/Beard Building

301-303 South Summit Street

Ernest L. McDowell was one of Arkansas City’s pioneer merchants. He was eulogized by the Traveler newspaper on June 25, 1930, the day after his death.

“Forty-six years of continuous service as an Arkansas City businessman have brought E.L. McDowell, veteran jeweler who died last night, tributes of admiration and regard from other business and professional men who have known him continuously since being in Arkansas City.”

McDowell started in business in 1884 at 205 S. Summit St. He moved several times before he occupied the two-story brick building at 301 S. Summit St. in 1905, the year it opened.

It was referred to as the Crescent Block, after the original name of McDowell’s business, Crescent Jewelry.

“Crescent” appears on the entry tower that faces the intersection of Summit Street and Washington Avenue.

In 1913, McDowell made the news when a wireless time-receiving station he had installed above the entry tower of the building went into operation. McDowell’s Jewelry continued in business until about 1970.

E.L. McDowell’s son-in-law, William Benedict “Ben” Curtis, took over the business after McDowell’s death and ran it until his own death in 1960. The Curtis family continued to operate it through the 1960s.

The Crescent Block also was known as the Beard Building, and “Beard” is inscribed on the building above the 303 S. Summit site.

Another early-day merchant, George L. Beard, had started a small store in an iron-clad building at the 303 location. As his sporting goods business grew, Beard enlarged it, and in 1905 it was replaced with the two-story brick building he shared with McDowell. George Beard & Son sporting goods was listed in the 1910-1911 city directory and continued to operate at 303 S. Summit St. until at least 1938.

In May 1946, C.H. Sanderson opened Sanderson’s Smart Shoes store at the 303 address.

Sanderson’s changed names to Hobie’s Shoes in December 1970 and the shoe store continued to occupy the building until 1974.

A local photographer, P.A. Miller, opened a photography studio on the north side of the building in 1905. He had a skylight installed on the roof. Miller’s Studio, at the southwest corner of Summit and Washington, is listed at 107 W. Washington Ave.

In 1926, Mr. and Mrs. George Brill purchased the photographic studio and operated it until their retirement in 1968.

The McDowell’s Jewelry building reopened in January 1975 as Brick’s Restaurant, and owner Brick Vining continued to develop that property and the adjacent storefront to the south, plus other downtown properties.

Accents Too, a gift shop that opened in 1995 in the 400 block of South Summit Street, moved to 303 S. Summit St., adjoining Brick’s, by 2000. It closed in 2020, but Brick’s remains open today as one of Ark City’s most popular eateries.

Built with elements of Italian Renaissance influence, as well as the Richardsonian Romanesque and Romanesque Revival styles, this building features arcaded block, grouped arched windows, elaborate molded and corbeled brick ornamentation, and a pediment.