Westrock

Westrock (or "West Rock") was a black neighborhood just east of Alsopp Park, near where Cantrell Road intersects with Rebsamen Park Road today.

The neighborhood underwent $1.4 million in controversial urban renewal (then called "slum clearance") activity under the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project between 1959 and 1964. In all, 53.9 acres of land and one hundred structures, many tar paper shacks, were bulldozed in the revitalization effort. Eighty-three families were moved elsewhere. No black families moved back in because of an escalation in land values. Some called it "Negro removal" at the time. Private developers constructed a thirty-eight lot subdivision in the area beginning in 1961, and eliminated a treacherous curve on Cantrell Road. The Cedar Hill Corporation, led by J. Wythe Walker, also built a new luxury apartment building called Westriver as part of the redevelopment effort.

References

• Bill Lewis, "Downtown Unlimited Honors Strauss, Reviews Progress," Arkansas Gazette, January 23, 1964.
• Bob Stover, "Sweeping 'Renewal' Ending Quietly," Arkansas Gazette, November 2, 1977
• Matilda Tuohey, "Little Rock Has Massive Urban Renewal Program," Arkansas Gazette, February 17, 1963.