Statement of Significance (as of designation - December 9, 1997):
From 1912 to 1916, the Arkansas State Board of Health, in partnership with the University of Arkansas Medical School, worked from this building on successful campaigns to control or eradicate hookworm, a scourge of the South, and malaria, a disease that plagued much of the planet. Arkansas's drive against malaria was a model of success, long acclaimed in the history of public health, which was used to eradicate malaria in the rest of the United States and the world. Carried out in the town of Crossett, Arkansas, the office of the Surgeon General distributed nationwide a full report of the Crossett Experiment as Public Health Bulletin No. 88, and this detailed description became the formula for sanitation workers around the world. After restoration work is completed, the building will be open to the public.