Arkansas School for the Blind

Asylum for the Blind, 1871. Drawn & published by A. Ruger. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

Location of School for the Blind at Rosewood.

Arkansas School for the Blind, 1886.

The Arkansas School for the Blind is a state-run co-educational institution for the visually impaired in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The school was founded in 1858 by Reverend Haucke as the Institute for the Education of the Blind in Arkadelphia. The school was removed to Little Rock in 1868 and founded at Rosewood, a former 1840s country estate owned by Arkansas Territorial Governor William S. Fulton. The school became known as the Arkansas School for the Blind in 1877. The architect of a new school building in 1886 was Benjamin J. Bartlett and the general contractor was C. W. Clark.

The school was moved to a new location on West Markham Street near the Arkansas School for the Deaf in 1939. The first building on the grounds was the Helen Keller Memorial Building. The new and long-serving principal of the school, James Max Woolly arrived that same year.

Superintendents

• Otis Patten (1882)
• Thomas A. Futrall (1906)
• S. D. Lucas (1907)
• John H. Hinemon (1918)
• George Thornburgh (1919)

External links

• Homepage of the Arkansas School for the Blind