Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project

The Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project was begun in 1961 as a joint effort of the Urban Progress Association, the Little Rock Housing Authority, Downtown Little Rock Unlimited the City of Little Rock, and local architects. The project's roots lay in the Main Street 1969 plan created by the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in the spring of 1957. The Central Litle Rock Project became a national model for urban revitalization in the 1960s (then called "slum clearance"), and was bolstered by a $18.8 million loan from the federal Urban Renewal Administration secured in large part by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright in June 1962.

The Central Little Rock project swiftly became a nationally-recognized for leadership in slum clearance in the 1950s and 1960s. The city received $282,928 to engage in urban renewal activities in the Philander Smith neighborhood, $2.2 million for the Dunbar neighborhood, $1.3 million for slum clearance in the Granite Mountain neighborhood, $1.3 million for renewal in the Livestock Show Area, $1.4 million in Westrock, and $2.5 million in the East End neighborhood. Local dollars supported an additional High Street Urban Renewal project on 283 acres beginning in 1961. The Housing Authority, led by executive director George Millar Jr. purchased sixty-five properties in the University Park neighborhood for another $832,486. In all, fifteen percent of the land area of the city underwent significant renewal activity. Five hundred and eight acres of downtown were demolished, including 471 buildings, which displaced 296 businesses of varying size. Raymond Rebsamen, the president of the organization, claimed the group’s goal in the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project was to have "the first capital city in the national where no child will come out of a slum to go to school."

The renewal project included proposals for an Arkansas Exchange market for good manufactured in the south-central part of the country, a sports center (the proposed "Arkansas Sports Center") and marina along the Arkansas River, a downtown local and interurban bus terminal, a convention center, a Variety Lane pedestrian district for retailing in an area bounded by West Capitol, West Eighth, Spring, and Center streets, underground fallout shelters, parking ramps, upscale apartments, and plazas across from the new Tower Building and along Main Street. The renewal project also had a special committee designated for work on a proposed Quapaw Quarter of historic homes just south of downtown. The plan included projected razing of 2,292 houses and tenement units. In all, more than five hundred acres of the central business district fell under the jurisdiction of the renewal project, and fifteen percent of the city as a whole.

The total cost of the project was around $50 million. The project was occasionally deemed "socialistic," politically corrupt, and a "white preserve" maker by commentators and members of the public. One of its lasting reminders was a hotly contested McDonald's restaurant at the corner of Capitol and Main, which replaced a number of exiting local downtown eateries, including Breier's, Tom and Andrew's, the Courthouse Cafe, Canton Tea Garden, and Buddy's Cafe. The clearance made room for Worthen Bank and Trust Company, Union National Bank, Quapaw Quarter Apartments, the Sheraton Little Rock Hotel, the Camelot Inn, the Federal Reserve Bank, a Continental Trailways bus terminal, Parkview Towers, the One Spring Building, and the offices of the Arkansas Bar Association. Linchpin features of the plan eventually became widely known as the Main Street Mall and the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock.

This vast urban renewal project came to an official end in 1977 as the federal government began turning to the Community Development Block Grant program for street improvements and housing rehabilitation in lower income neighborhoods.

References

• "Bright Promise Lies in Central City Project," Arkansas Gazette, June 13, 1962.
• "11 More Properties Acquired for University Park Project," Arkansas Gazette, December 2, 1964.
• Ernest Dumas, "Mid-Little Rock Renewal Plan Wins Approval," Arkansas Gazette, June 12, 1962.
• John L. Fletcher, "Little Rock Leads in New Endeavor of Urban Renewal," Arkansas Gazette, November 19, 1961.
• Jimmy Jones, "Downtown Plight: Only Big Business Can Afford Land," Arkansas Gazette, April 12, 1970.
• Jimmy Jones, "LR Held Out Hand and U.S. Filled It With $6,526,897," Arkansas Gazette, December 18, 1966.
• "More Goes On Than Meets the Eye in Urban Renewal," Arkansas Gazette, June 27, 1965.
• Bette Orsini, "Renewal in Little Rock: 'Dedicated to People,'" Arkansas Gazette, October 1, 1965 (reprint from St. Petersburg (FL) Times).
• Bob Stover, "Sweeping 'Renewal' Ending Quietly," Arkansas Gazette, November 2, 1977.
• "Outward and Upward for Downtown Little Rock," Arkansas Gazette, March 5, 1973.
• Matilda Tuohey, "Little Rock Has Massive Urban Renewal Program," Arkansas Gazette, February 17, 1963.