Little River Area Chamber of Commerce
Clutter Hill Subdivision
A new housing addition is being constructed on the west edge of Little River. This addition is named The Clutter Hill Subdivision.
Click here for the Preliminary Platting Plan
The History
This tract of land was in use well before the incorporation of the city in 1886. Little River (so named for the tributary the M&M Branch Line of the Santa Fe railroad crossed) was a town site platted by the The Arkansas Valley Town and Land Company in November, 1880. The railroad was completed in the Spring of 1880 and the first train passed through from Florence to Ellinwood on June 1, 1880.
During the construction phase of the railroad, many of the laborers boarded at a ranch house on a hill just west of the new town site. The house was occupied by the H.B. Hodges family and they fed the railroad workers before there was a town of Little River. In the late 1880’s, Cyrus Clutter purchased this farm and buildings. Upon Mr. Clutter’s death, the farm passed on to his daughter, Edna Clutter Perry and her husband Percy Perry. This tract has been known as Clutter Hill since 1900. Percy and his son Paul deeded off tracts of this property for the construction of Sandstone Heights Nursing Home, a grass airstrip used in the 50’s and 60’s and later for two homes built by Bill Hicks and Clair Cordell. The original boarding house had been converted to a barn and was still standing along with a granary until these homes were being built. A large portion of Clutter Hill to the north was deeded to Sentry Underground for the purpose of hydrocarbon storage. This property is currently owned by Ferrell Gas.
The name Clutter Hill has some historical significance for Little River and to sustain that historical naming, two primary streets in the subdivision are named for well known philanthropists, George Hoffman and W.H. Burke (Hoffman Court and Burke Lane). Their contributions to Little River were many with the most notable the Burke Hotel (still standing) built in 1921, and the Hoffman Memorial Hospital now the site of City Hall.
In January of 2006, what remained of the original Clutter Hill tract was obtained from the Perry family by the Little River Development Group (LRDG), with a vision for an expansion of home building sites in Little River. A grant from the Little River Community Fund was awarded to the LRDG on (various smaller grants for engineering at various times, $700,000 commitment in November of 2008.) The parcel was subsequently annexed by the city, bids were obtained for construction and a final award was granted on May 24, 2010. Construction started on July 1, 2010 and a projected completion date is December 1, 2010. The Subdivision has concrete streets, curb and gutter, city sewer, gas and water, and is served by state-of-the-art fiber optics communication lines.
This first phase of the Subdivision consists of 25 lots varying in size from 0.23 acres (10,058 sq. ft.) to 0.64 acres (27,841 sq. ft.) and priced from $9,000 to $19,000. Two homes are currently under construction in the new Subdivision. Oswalt Realty is marketing the lots for the Development Group.
