The house stretches the length of a football field, 14,778 square feet of generation-old controversy that covers an Ozarks mountaintop like its former baron once dominated Arkansas politics.
It is The House that Orval built - and sold for $318,000 this year.And now the Harrington, Del., couple who bought it have borrowed some memorabilia from Orval E. Faubus' six gubernatorial terms, added their own antiques and are planning to develop the 65-acre property.
Faubus, 79, tried a decade ago to persuade the state to buy "The House" - as a promotional booklet refers to the wood-and-stone edifice on Governor's Hill east of town - as a historic site.
Upkeep, taxes and debt service had been a financial drain for years.
"I would have been pleased to spend the rest of my life in the house, but that was not to be," said Faubus, who lives in Conway with his third wife, Jan.
Faubus said he had $18,678.97 left from the sale, after paying banks in Little Rock, Jonesboro and Huntsville and the balance on two cars.
"My finances and obligations were in thousands instead of millions, but they are satisfied," Faubus said. "And I can put on my tombstone, `His debts were paid.' "
Faubus moved into The House in July 1967.
Construction and controversy started in 1965, a year into Faubus' final two-year term.
With Faubus' $10,000 annual salary, critics asked, how could he afford such palatial digs?
"It was not terribly complicated," recalls James O. Powell, who spent 25 years directing the Arkansas Gazette's editorials. "It was done by a lot of gifts from a great range of friends of his.
"There was an open solicitation for funds. As I recall, we referred to them as `love gifts.' They were large gifts from people he had done a lot of favors for, and at the time, he was still in a position to do more favors for them."
Faubus said it it was built by contributions from friends as he was leaving office.
Some charged the house's cost would soar to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The new owners say one estimate was $3.5 million.
"It was just the baldest kind of conflict of interest to be a governor in office and receiving gifts, huge gifts, for the construction of a house," Powell said.
Ken and Lorraine Howell, who bought the house, said they know little about Faubus' administration, best known for using the Arkansas National Guard to block nine black students from entering all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957. President Eisenhower ordered soldiers into Little Rock, the first time federal troops were used to enforce desegregation orders.
"We can't defend his politics because we weren't there," said Lorraine Howell, 32. "I know him as a nice, honest, decent person."
About their new purchase, Ken Howell, 46, said: "I understand it was always a controversial home, and at times, we have had people come in and say, `Boy, I see where my tax money went now.'
"But on the other hand, I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of folks who say, `I donated $2,500,' or, `I donated $10,000,' and one of the fellows who told me he donated the native stone for the chimney."
Faubus laughs at the suggestion that tax dollars were mingled with donations to build the house. "When you are a public figure, you have to endure a lot," he said.
The Howells have a neon "OPEN" sign in a front window, and have held weddings, a 50th anniversary party and played host to several hundred guests since they took over Feb. 12.
Guests may view Faubus' gubernatorial desk, customized chief executive's license plates and scores of plaques and campaign materials. An enlarged black-and-white campaign photograph of Faubus awaits mounting over a fireplace.