City of Little Rock

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Seal of the City of Little Rock.
Little Rock Skyline from North Little Rock. Photo by Phil Frana.
Skyline of Little Rock at night. Photo courtesy of Spencer Smith.

The City of Little Rock is a public entity that governs Little Rock, Arkansas. City government is divided into a number of city departments, citizen services offices, commissions, bureaus, and task forces. Little Rock is led by the Little Rock Mayor's Office, the Little Rock City Manager's Office, and the Little Rock Board of Directors. Services provided by the City of Little Rock are funded by a series of bonds, and accomplished by approximately 2,500 employees. The city has an extensive municipal code.

Little Rock City Hall is located at 500 West Markham Street.

Departments

The City of Little Rock operates out of City Hall. The building once had a dome. Photo by Phil Frana.

The City of Little Rock has fourteen departments dedicated to four areas of service: public safety, infrastructure, economic development, and quality of life.

Commissions, Bureaus, Task Forces

Other Offices

Early History

The site of the present city of Little Rock was first visited by European explorers in 1722, when Frenchman Jean-Baptise Bénard de la Harpe made note of La Petite Roche ("the little rock"). The first squatter on Little Rock land may have been William Lewis, who built a shelter at the present location of the Old State House in 1812. Six years later the Quapaw Indians ceded their lands west of the present Rock Street to the United States in preparation for a move of the seat of government to Little Rock from Arkansas Post near the mouth of the Arkansas River. Little Rock was surveyed in 1821, was briefly known as "Arkopolis," and became an incorporated town in 1831. It received its city charter in 1836.

The first Little Rock school opened under Jesse Brown in 1823, and the first hotel - the Anthony House - opened in 1841. By 1850 the city, expanding rapidly during the cotton boom, held about 2,000 denizens. The population grew to 3,727 in 1860. By 1870 the number of residents had tripled to 12,380.

Little Rock at War

During the American Civil War the city observed much military activity. On February 8, 1861, the Federal Little Rock Arsenal was attacked by Confederate forces and its store of ammunition, cannon, and other weapons seized. Under the leadership of Major General Samuel R. Curtis 22,000 Union soldiers feigned an attack on Little Rock in May 1862, causing the state to establish a government in exile in Jackson, Mississippi.

The city was captured in September 1863 by fourteen thousand federal troops under the command of Major General Frederick Steele. C.S.A. Major General Sterling Price attempted to defend the city with eight thousand men and miscellaneous cavalry. Steele bypassed this installations by crossing the Arkansas River on a pontoon bridge erected at Terry's Ferry. Confederate cavalrymen under the leadership of Brigadier General John Sappington Marmaduke met Union cavalry under Brigadier General John W. Davidson at Fourche Bayou east of the city (site of the present Port of Little Rock). The Confederate stand at Fourche Bayou gave Price time to evacuate all of his troops before the city surrendered for the duration of the war.

City Government History

Little Rock had long been controlled by the mayor-alderman form of government. On November 11, 1957, voters turned control over to a city manager. Local historian James Bell has suggested that the change was made in part because of the turmoil roiling the city during the Little Rock Crisis: "Possibly because of state intervention in the Little Rock school crisis, which in turn caused Federal intervention, the city's voters favored a stronger municipal government."

Development of Main Street and the Central Business District

At the turn of the century Little Rock was called the "City of Roses," for its long tradition of civic gardening. In 1914 the Arkansas State Capitol was completed in midtown Little Rock, precipitating a building boom that culminated with the completion of the fourteen-story Donaghey Building in 1926. Downtown retail development, spurred by flagship stores Blass Department Store and M. M. Cohn, grew until 1957 when the first suburban shopping center (Village Shopping Center) opened its doors at the corner of Asher & University.

Revitalization Efforts

The City of Little Rock has taken a number of steps since the 1960s to restore downtown to its former position of prominence and hospitality. The city has focused on some of the same goals driving other revitalizing cities like Portland, San Antonio, and Baltimore. These goals include improving the quality and number of downtown entertainment venues and attractions, adding green space buffers, beautiful streetscapes, and waterfront attractions, improving walkability and transportation options, creating safe living spaces for a twenty-four hour resident population, revisiting zoning laws, and not least of all forging significant public-private partnerships and cooperative ventures.

Redirecting attention back downtown has not been easy. In an attempt to recapture some of the trade draining into the western suburbs the group Little Rock Unlimited Progress inaugurated the ill-fated $4.5 million Metrocentre Mall which replaced Main Street from Third Street to Seventh Street with a brick-lined pedestrian mall in 1975. More successfully in 1982 the Statehouse Convention Center opened near the corner of Main and Markham next to the new Excelsior Hotel. The shuttered Capital Hotel reopened after $10 million in renovations the very next year. Also in 1983 the Little Rock Department of Parks and Recreation opened the $2 million Riverfront Park, an idea on the drawing board since 1914, and kicked off the inaugural Memorial Day weekend event known as Riverfest. By 1988 the city hosted 600 conventions and 220,000 visitors due in no small part to the efforts of downtown city leaders.

The apparent success of Metrocentre Mall encouraged investors to sink $13 million into city revenue bonds to fund the Main Street Market project, which brought an enclosed shopping center to the downtown district in 1987. Five buildings were connected along Capitol and Main streets to form an indoor mall. The oldest escalators in the state, once owned by JCPenney, were refurbished as well as 177,000 square feet of office, restaurant, and retail space. Main Street Market was connected to the Arkansas Repertory Theatre and a parking deck by skywalks. Within four years, however, the Market failed as a retailing and entertainment destination. Today it is exclusively used as office space. Metrocentre Mall failed as well. Main reopened to vehicular traffic around 1995. Barry Travis, former executive director of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, has blamed a lack of free parking as a major reason for the decline of both revitalization efforts. The 1994 HBO documentary Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock also reinforced the public imagination of downtown as an unsafe destination. Much of the east side was composed of aging or derelict warehouses.

A "critical mass" may only have been reached in 1996 when Ottenheimer Market Hall reopened in the River Market District to great fanfare. The Market Hall almost immediately helped renew retail opportunities and bring nightlife back into the city center. By 2001 the city was hosting 700 conventions and 300,000 visitors who spent an estimated $100 million. A five-year effort to site the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in the city was capped by the 2004 dedication of the Clinton Library, bringing an estimated $1 billion in additional investment into the historic River Market District.

Demographics

Little Rock is the capitol city of the state of Arkansas. The city encompasses 122 square miles of incorporated land. In 2003 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated population of the city was 184,053, with 55.1% Caucasian, 40.4% African American, and 2.7% Hispanic. More than half a million people live in the Greater Little Rock Metropolitan area.

Population:

  • 1820 - 13 (est.)
  • 1830 - 430 (est.)
  • 1833 - 665 (special census)
  • 1836 - 726 (special census before Arkansas statehood)
  • 1840 - 1,531
  • 1850 - 2,167
  • 1860 - 3,727
  • 1870 - 12,380
  • 1880 - 13,138
  • 1890 - 25,874
  • 1900 - 38,307
  • 1910 - 45,941

See also

Attractions:

Amenities:

Events:

Organizations:

Government:

Transportation and Trails:

Downtown Headquarters:

People:

References

Jay Harrod and Kerry Kraus, "Capital Improvements: A Look at Little Rock's Past and Future Downtown Revitalization Efforts," Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, April 9, 2002, unpublished.

  • Letha Mills and H. K. Stewart, Greater Little Rock: A Contemporary Portrait (Chatsworth, CA: Windsor Publications, 1990).

External links

Retrieved from "https://honors.uca.edu/wiki/index.php?title=City_of_Little_Rock&oldid=6440"