The law firm of Duty & Duty was established in 1911 in a rented suite of second floor offices in the Golden Rule building, located on north First street in Rogers, Arkansas.
Emerging from the 1929 crash mostly intact, they had regained sufficient prosperity by the early 1930s to begin construction of their own office building. They purchased land on a tree-shaded quarter block at the southwest corner of the intersection of south Second and Elm streets at 206 S. Second Street, in Rogers, Arkansas, and built a highly distinctive building, completed in 1935, that still stands today (although considerably modified).
The firm’s new building was immediately notable among locals for its unusual exterior brickwork created with used bricks purchased from The Frisco Railroad after a local roundhouse had been demolished. It was inspired by Claude’s recent visit to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia where admired its old brick buildings built with a “skintled” brick design featuring an unfinished rough mortar effect appearing to ooze between the bricks. (The building now has significant historical value as one of the few remaining examples of skintled brick design in northwest Arkansas.) Claude also purchased a set of blueprints in Colonial Williamsburg that he brought back to Rogers and from which the new Duty & Duty office building floorplan was designed.
Unfortunately, John R. (as he was known) died suddenly of a a ruptured pulmonary aneurysm in 1936, at nearly the same time the new building was completed. John R.’s son Jeff (who had joined the firm in 1930) continued to practice with his uncle Claude and was later joined by his brother Ralph. Jeff left the firm in 1941 after being elected to serve as prosecuting attorney for the old Fourth Judicial District.
By 1947, Ralph was still serving in the US Marine Corps after enlisting for WWII, Jeff had been appointed Arkansas Assistant Attorney General and moved his family to Little Rock, and Claude was left on his own to run the family firm. No longer needing so much space but wanting to keep the building in the family, he sold it to his nephew Dr. Lee Dean (son of his sister Laura Dean Duty) who had just returned from WWII after serving as a Navy physician.
Dr. Dean and a group of young doctors (Hollis Buckaloo, John William Jennings, Stuart Wilson, and Larry Collette) established what later became known as the Rogers Medical Center, eventually changing the distinctive appearance of the building when they enclosed the front porch to add an extra room, obscuring the original entrance, front windows, and small second-floor balcony. Dr. Dean ran the Rogers Medical Center in the building until 1968 when it was sold to another business. In more recent times, the building was sold to the city to house city offices. After several years, it became home to the Friends of the Library Book Store, now known as The Friendly Bookstore. Today, the building is home to a variety of different business offices.
After selling the building in 1947, Claude continued to practice law in rented offices in Rogers. In 1953, Jeff had moved back to Rogers and opened his own law firm. In 1957, he and Claude decided to resurrect the Duty & Duty law firm, renting larger offices in the Golden Rule building, located on north First street, in the same suite occupied by Claude and John R. before moving into their own building. Claude and Jeff continued to practice together until Claude’s death in December, 1961.
Jeff’s son Jeff Davis Duty, Jr. (known as “Davis Duty”) had also become an attorney and worked for the United States Department of Justice under Robert Kenney. After Claude died, he resigned his position and moved with his new wife back to Rogers in 1962 to join Jeff in the family business. The Duty & Duty firm, now headed by Jeff and his son Davis, operated out of various rented office suites during this time. They continued to practice together until Davis left to accept an appointment as an Administrative Law Judge with the United States Social Security Administration in 1975.
From 1975 until 1997, Jeff practiced law alone. When he retired in 1997 at the age of 91, he officially passed the firm on to his son Davis, who had moved to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and established a law firm there, which became the new Duty & Duty law firm. In 1998, Davis built his own building for the firm based on the blueprints of the original office building in Rogers, where he still practices law as Duty & Duty today.
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