Timeline -- 1950s

1950
The federal census shows Fayetteville’s population to be 17,071, more than double the population of 1940. Washington County’s total population was 49,979.

Claude W. Faulkner, an associate professor of English, publishes Writing Good Sentences: A Functional Approach to Sentence Structure, Grammar, and Punctuation. The textbook, printed by Charles Scribner's Sons, was used across the nation to teach high school and college students the elements of sentence structure.

August 28 — Washington County Hospital opens as an acute care facility with 50 beds near the intersection of Park Avenue and North Street. George Berryman of Dallas is named as the first hospital administrator. From August 1950 to August 1951, 499 babies are born at Washington County Hospital.

1951
The Fayetteville City Council approves the city's first zoning ordinance, setting development regulations for buildings in variously zoned parts of the city.

1953
August 14 — The first polio patient is admitted to the recently opened polio ward at Washington County Hospital. Washington County Hospital’s first auxiliary is also formed, with a nucleus of 11 women and Benny Carlisle as administrator.

1954
Harold A. Dulan, a University of Arkansas professor of finance; E.J. Ball, a UA law professor; and Lewis Callison, a graduate of the business administration college, create the nation’s first commercial variable annuity life insurance company. The company was later bought by Aetna.

The Fayetteville public high school is peacefully integrated in September. The school district’s board was the first in the Old South to vote for integration of its high school. Integration of the elementary schools didn't occur until the 1960s.

1955
Washington County Hospital has 60 employees with an annual payroll of $120,000. There are 33 physicians and 38 nurses and nurses’ aides.

1957
Cable television is installed in patient rooms of Washington County Hospital.

1958
Baldwin Piano company opens a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on Beachwood Avenue. The plant in Fayetteville as well as two more in Arkansas were managed by Stan Krueger.

1959
A new two-story wing of Washington County Hospital was built to the east, and a second floor over existing hospital was completed to add 100 new beds, which more than doubled the hospital’s capacity.

Comments

[Gene Vinzant]

Fayetteville High School was desegregated in September 1954, not 1955.

[Charlie Alison]

Thanks. We've corrected that in the timeline. Appreciate the note.