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Continuing on my journey of Bentonville Arkansas, I stopped at the Walmart Home Office – located on Walton Blvd and 8th Street. The home office is located about a mile or less from the downtown square.
I was able to go inside the home office, but unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures.
So I’ll just have to share what sights are around the home office area itself!
There is a giant sign on the corner of those streets that shows us 24/7 how much $$ Walmart has saved it’s customers so far this year. It has an automatic counter that continually updates this information.
Here is the very first 5 and dime store Sam Walton opened up on the Bentonville Square. It is now a visitor’s center that just underwent the process of having its façade maintained and its museum expansion into the adjacent building. It is a very popular tourist destination here. The museum houses Wal-Mart artifacts, Sam Walton's old truck, and a tribute to his bird dog Ol' Roy. In 1886, this Bentonville building included a Post Office, drug and grocery store and insurance office. It was purchased by Walton in 1950 and became the location of Mr. Sam's original Bentonville variety store, Walton's Five and Dime. The center traces the origin and growth of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
These next pics are just to the west of the home office, right across the street from it on Walton Blvd.
Of course, there is a Walmart store just across the street from it! It’s not, however, the very first Walmart store. That’s located just the next town over in the city of Rogers. It is no longer a Walmart store, but it’s fun to drive by and point it out to people.
At the front of the land that the Walmart store across from the home office sits on, is the Peel Mansion.
Some facts from www.peelmansion.org:
In 1875, Colonel Samuel West Peel built a marvelous villa tower Italianate Mansion on the outskirts of Bentonville, Arkansas.
It was a working farmstead surrounded by 180 acres of apple orchards.
Colonel Peel, pioneer businessman, legal representative (appointed by the President) to the five civilized tribes in Indian Territory and Confederate soldier, was the first native born Arkansan elected to the United States Congress. He and his wife, Mary Emaline Berry Peel, raised nine children here.
The interior of the house was furnished with authentic antiquities and artifacts of the era, generously loaned by the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Old State House
Behind the Walmart home office is the city’s cemetery in which Mr. Sam Walton is buried.
I stopped to pay my respects.
