Johnny Cash’s childhood home has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The ‘Ring of Fire’ hitmaker lived in a five-room farmhouse in Dyess, Arkansas, from the age of three right through high school and now the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program have announced the 1934 property will be recognised as a historic site.
The house is currently owned by Arkansas State University, who spent $575,000 on buying, furnishing, and landscaping the property, which was built as part of the Dyess Resettlement Colony by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
The abode was nominated for the register in December but it was sent back by a National Register historian, who advised more emphasis should be placed on the influence of Dyess on Johnny – who died in 2003 aged 71 – as a musician, rather than the original submission, which focused more on the architecture of the property.
Historian James Gabbert said: "The original nomination form presented a wealth of information about Cash and his family, and simply needed to be tweaked to justify listing it for that significance.
"The property has two separate but related and intertwined areas of significance — the association with the FERA and the Dyess colony, and the effect that being a part of that colony had on Johnny Cash’s development as an artist."
In the title of the original nomination,it was submitted as ‘Farm No. 266, Ray and Carrie Cash Home (Johnny Cash Boyhood Home)’, but the new submission listed it as ‘Farm No. 266, Johnny Cash Boyhood Home.’
Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas State University’s Heritage Sites, is "thrilled" about the National Register listing.
She said: "People who visit this site typically leave with the comment, ‘Now we understand where his music came from’.
"Clearly, who Johnny Cash became as a person and as a musician was shaped by his time in Dyess."
Johnny Cash’s childhood home declared historic site
