Dunbar neighborhood
The Dunbar neighborhood underwent extensive revitalization beginning in May 1951 under the Urban Progress Association's Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project. More than $2.2 million in federal money approved under Title I of the Housing Act of 1949 was spent on the effort.
The Dunbar "slum clearance project" was only the third of its kind approved under the 1949 Housing Act. One hundred and forty-two "slum shacks" (shotgun houses) were torn down in a ten block area encompassed by High Street, Izard Street, Wright Avenue, and Eighteenth Street. Wright Avenue was also upgraded and widened during the project. Only a dozen original shotgun houses remain in the neighborhood. One of the most prominent landmarks demolished during the project was the Lena Jordan Hospital, originally the home of Mosaic Templars co-founder John E. Bush. On the site of the hospital the city built the Dunbar Community Center in 1954.
References
- Matilda Tuohey, "Little Rock Has Massive Urban Renewal Program," Arkansas Gazette, February 17, 1963.
