History of Warren

Warren grew up near the Saline River in southeast Arkansas. Hugh Bradley and his party settled east of the future town around 1825. When the Legislature created Bradley County in 1840, the county court met at Bradley’s home, and in 1842 a new county seat was laid out on 40 donated acres. How Warren got its name is disputed: a 2015 courthouse time capsule and local family tradition point to Warren Bradley, a man Hugh Bradley enslaved, while the Encyclopedia of Arkansas also cites evidence for Bradley’s friend Edward Allen Warren, a Camden lawyer and congressman.

The railroad reached Warren in 1880, and big lumber mills followed around 1900. Farmers began shipping pink tomatoes in 1923, and the town has held its Pink Tomato Festival since 1956. This page collects dated photos, maps and public records from that history, with a link to every source.

Maps through the years

Sanborn fire insurance maps show Warren building by building: pink for brick, yellow for frame. Here is the first sheet of each edition in the Library of Congress collection, from 1907 to 1920, followed by a recent photo. Swipe or scroll sideways to see them all, and select a map to open it full size.

Business and industry

• Cotton town: In 1890, Goodspeed reported that Warren shipped about 6,000 bales of cotton a year and had a steam gin and grist mill and the incorporated Merchants & Planters Bank. The Warren News, published by John H. Page, was then the only newspaper in the county. Goodspeed, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas (1890)
• Fair: The South Arkansas Fair Association, organized in 1887, held its annual fair at Warren on grounds about half a mile from the square, according to Goodspeed. Goodspeed, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas (1890)
• Lumber mills: By 1941 the WPA guide called Warren one of Arkansas’s leading lumber towns. It said the Bradley Lumber Company mill at Wheeler Avenue and Martin Street employed about 1,100 workers in five units, including a hickory products department and a flooring plant, paid in cash and did not require workers to live in company houses or trade at the company store. The Southern Lumber Company mill at the west end of Pine Street employed about 400. Arkansas: A Guide to the State (Writers' Program, WPA, 1941)
• 1935 strike: After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the National Recovery Act in 1935, about 500 Warren mill workers were idle for more than a month after an unsuccessful demand for union recognition, according to the WPA guide. Arkansas: A Guide to the State (Writers' Program, WPA, 1941)

Landmarks

• Bradley County Courthouse and Clerk's Office, courthouse square: The 1903 courthouse by Frank W. Gibb and the 1890 county clerk’s building. Listed on the National Register in 1976. National Register file
• Warren Commercial Historic District: About ten blocks of downtown around the courthouse square, with buildings from 1890 to 1966. Listed in 2016. National Register file
• Warren Brick Streets: Brick streets laid around 1927 on parts of Cedar, Myrtle, Chestnut, First, Walnut, Elm and Cypress streets. Listed in 2007. National Park Service
• Warren and Ouachita Valley Railway Station, 325 W. Cedar St.: Its National Register record gives key years of 1909 and 1911. Listed in 1977. National Park Service
• Warren Post Office, 236 S. Main St.: A Colonial Revival post office with design credited to Louis A. Simon; its National Register record gives a key year of 1935. Listed in 2004. National Park Service
• Blankinship Motor Company Building, 120 E. Cypress St.: Listed in 2001. National Park Service
• New Zion AME Zion Church, Myrtle and Neely streets: Listed in 2000. National Park Service
• St. Luke's Catholic Church, 508 W. Pine St.: Listed in 1998. National Park Service
• Historic houses: Bailey House, 302 Chestnut St. (listed 1975); Adams-Leslie House, south of town (1979); Ederington House, 326 S. Main St. (1984); Dr. John Wilson Martin House, 200 Ash St. (1990); Davis-Adams House, 509 N. Myrtle St. (1999); Wilson-Martin House, 511 Bond St. (2006). National Register database

Notable people

• Josiah Gould: Lawyer, circuit judge and longtime state senator from Warren. In 1858 he wrote the first digest of Arkansas statutes, known as “Gould’s Digest.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas
• John Milton Bradley: Confederate colonel of the Ninth Arkansas, listed among Warren’s famous residents. Encyclopedia of Arkansas
• John Lipton: State highway commissioner and speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, listed among Warren’s famous residents. Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Last checked Oct. 18, 2026.