Take a look just ahead and you’ll spot a large, two-story brick house painted white, with a rounded turret on one end and a lovely patch of red flowers out front.
Standing here, you’re about to meet one of Jonesboro’s oldest architectural celebrities, the Berger House, which has been watching over Main Street since 1896. Imagine the clatter of wagon wheels and the hum of early electric lights when Morris Berger, one of Jonesboro’s first Jewish businessmen, decided to build this grand home. If its walls seem a bit proud, it’s probably because the place once doubled as the town’s public library for over a decade-meaning it’s seen more overdue books than a high school backpack. Picture fancy parties of the late 1800s swirling through the high-ceilinged rooms, then fast-forward to the 1950s, when children tiptoed through the same hallways in search of adventure stories and fairy tales. The house might have lost some of its original frills, like its decorative porch and chimney details, but its two-story turret still rises like a magician’s hat topped with colorful slate tiles. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Berger House is a living reminder of Jonesboro’s changing story, waiting patiently for each new chapter.
