Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Perry, AR

Perry is a small incorporated town in Perry County in central Arkansas, within the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway metropolitan area - and despite its name, it is not the county seat; that honor belongs to nearby Perryville.

Perry began as a railroad stop: the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad was built through the area in 1898, and the depot was first known as North Perryville before the name was shortened to Perry when the post office opened in 1899.

Railroad crews prized Perry's well water because its low mineral content was less likely to corrode their steam locomotive boilers.

By 1901 Perry had four hotels, several stores, a sawmill, a shingle mill, a bakery, a livery stable, a grist mill, and a millinery shop.

The railroad became part of the Rock Island line in 1904, and the town of Perry was incorporated on February 20, 1914.

A two-story red brick school was built in Perry in 1917, and around 1920 W. A. Halbrook's electric generator made Perry the first community in Perry County to have electric street lights - though the power ran only from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The Perry Bank survived the early Depression years before closing in 1940, and the Works Progress Administration built a gymnasium beside the Perry school in the 1930s.

Perry's population peaked at 540 in the 1920 census; the 2020 census counted 262 residents, compared with 314 people living in 119 households in 2000.

Perry's school district consolidated with Casa's in 1949, its elementary school closed in 1978, and the Perry-Casa district later became part of the Two Rivers School District.

The Rock Island Railroad ended service through Perry around 1980, but the Little Rock and Western Railway keeps an office in town today, overseeing about seventy-nine miles of track.