Kramer Elementary School
Kramer Elementary School at 715 Sherman Street in the MacArthur Park Historic District in Little Rock is a former elementary school that has been turned into artist lofts and exhibit areas.
The school, named after the district's first school board director Frederick W. Kramer, was constructed in the Romanesque Revival style in 1895. The school is located on the site of the prior Sherman School. Kramer Elementary housed the nationally-recognized Center for Early Development and Education created by Professor Bettye Caldwell of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1969. The elementary shut its doors in 1978.
In the mid-1990s the former school underwent a $3.5 million historic preservation/renovation effort, turning the structure into a 38,000 square foot residential complex with twenty-two individual units targeted at the artist's community near the Arkansas Arts Center. The building was rededicated in November 1997. The current owner of the building is the Kramer School Limited Partnership. The developer is the Vanadix Investment Group. The design firm on the restoration effort was Fennell Purifoy Hammock Architects. The school is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
