Title

Main Street Looking North from Third Street, Little Rock

Creator

Files

Description

This color postcard depicts a view of downtown Little Rock in the early 20th century. It looks North along Main St. from the junction of Third and Main. The postcard was never mailed.

Biographical/Historical Note

In 1819, the year Arkansas became a Territory, Little Rock was home to a handful of settlers and just a few crude buildings, including four log "huts" and three larger structures. By the late 1820s, the city consisted of about 400 residents and 60 buildings, only about a fourth of them wood frame or brick; the rest were built of logs. It had a newspaper, the Arkansas Gazette founded in 1819 and the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi; schools, and churches. In 1826, the first stagecoach line in Arkansas was established between Little Rock and Arkansas Post. In 1836, Arkansas became a state and Little Rock, in turn, the state's capital.
In 1860, 40 years after it was founded, Little Rock's population was just 3,700. In the Reconstruction years following the Civil War, the city grew rapidly - by 1870 the population was at 12,380.
By the end of the 19th century, modern amenities like electric lights, telephones, and a public water system were being introduced, and growth continued, transforming Little Rock from a frontier town to a modern city. At the turn of the 20th century Little Rock had nearly 40,000 residents, more than 170 businesses, six rail lines, streetcars, one seven-story building, a public library with 3,200 books, 75 churches and more than 60 social clubs. Though the Great Depression would slow its progress, the city's population would more than double in the first three decades of the twentieth century.

Physical Description

Color postcard, 5.5" x 3.5"

Keywords

Postcards; Streets; Business districts

Geographical Area

Little Rock, Pulaski County (Ark.)

Language

English

Identifier

ASA postcard collection, G5251.2b

Resource Type

Image

Collection

ASA postcard collection

Publisher

Arkansas State Archives

Contributing Entity

Arkansas State Archives

Recommended Citation

Main Street Looking North from Third Street, Little Rock, ASA postcard collection, Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Rights

Use and reproduction of images held by the Arkansas State Archives without prior written permission is prohibited. For information on reproducing images held by the Arkansas State Archives, please call 501-682-6900 or email at state.archives@arkansas.gov.

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