Title

The Need for Establishing an Historic District in the city of Little Rock

Creator

Files

Date Original

1964 February 28

Description

Three page, black and white document, printed on carbon paper. Authored by James Hatcher of the Quapaw Quarter Committee, the document explains why the city of Little Rock should protect historic structures through historic district regulations. This draft copy was for John Truemper (name in pencil, top right corner page 1) a member of the Little Rock Historic District Commission. This document includes quotes from the book Historic Preservation Law by Jacob H. Morrison, an advocate for the creation of historic districts in New Orleans to protect historic structures from demolition there.

Biographical/Historical Note

The City of Little Rock began a policy of redeveloping land through demolishing older structures in Downtown Little Rock, known as Urban Renewal, in 1962. A group of Little Rock citizens formed the Quapaw Quarter Committee, to educate the city and urge it to create the Quapaw Quarter Historic District to help protect older structures in downtown. The proposed district included an area from Cumberland Street east to Interstate 30, north of 15th Street and south of 6th Street. The Little Rock City Council passed an ordinance establishing the Historic District Commission in May, 1963, to create the Quapaw Quarter Historic District. Some property owners in the proposed district opposed its formation fearing that increased regulation would decrease the value of their property. This opposition resulted in the abandonment of creating the Quapaw Quarter Historic District in January, 1965.
The Quapaw Quarter Association was incorporated to promote the preservation of Little Rock's historic structures in 1968. The proposed Quapaw Quarter Historic District was included in the MacArthur Park Historic District, listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The MacArthur Park Historic District became a local historic district, governed by the Little Rock Historic Commission in 1981.

Physical Description

Documents, three pages, 14" x 9"

Subjects

Historic buildings; History

Contributor

James Hatcher

Geographical Area

Little Rock, Pulaski County (Ark.)

Language

English

Identifier

SMC.00031.002

Resource Type

Text

Collection

Small manuscript collection

Publisher

Arkansas State Archives

Contributing Entity

Arkansas State Archives

Recommended Citation

The Need for Establishing an Historic District in the city of Little Rock, Small manuscript 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.

Disciplines

United States History

Comments

This document provides arguments for why the preservation of historic structures is culturally, aesthetically, and economically important when the city of Little Rock was razing older structures to construct new ones. I like the quote Mr. Hatcher used from Mr. Morrison in the last paragraph on the first page that describes the impact that historic preservation has on other parts of the community. This argument made in 1964, is still relevant in 2015.

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