Yesterday’s Architeaser was a detail of brick designs on the old Heights Theatre, which was built as a single screen, 850 seat movie theatre. Opening in 1946, it was designed by Edwin B. Cromwell. The movie theatre closed in 1985. Since then the building has been repurposed and now houses shops and restaurants.
Today’s Architeaser starts a week of looking at shadows that architectural elements can cast.
Today is the annual Mt. Holly Cemetery RIP (Rest in Perpetuity) picnic. Today’s Sculpture Vulture feature is an obelisk in Mt. Holly which serves as a grave marker for Arkansas banker and author W. B. Worthen.
William Booker Worthen was born in Little Rock in 1852. In 1874, he entered the banking business which in 1888 became known as W. B. Worthen and Company. Later known as Worthen Bank, it survived through recessions, world wars and the Great Depression. Mr. Worthen also served as publisher of the Arkansas Gazette and wrote a history of the Arkansas banking industry. He died in 1911.
The obelisk is the tallest structure in Mt. Holly Cemetery and is likely the tallest monument in Little Rock. Though it is still a very impressive structure, the trees which have grown up along side of it now obscure the obelisk from view outside of the cemetery.
The obelisk is four-sided with largely smooth faces until the pointed top. At the base, in addition to Mr. Worthen’s name, there is some ornamentation for a couple of feet. But by early 20th century standards the ornamentation is simple.
Other members of the Worthen family are buried in the plot marked by the obelisk, as well as throughout the cemetery. Mr. Worthen’s granddaughter-in-law, Mary F. Worthen has been a member of the Cemetery Association since the 1950s. One great-grandson, George, continues in the banking business while another, Bill, is director of Historic Arkansas Museum.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was the latticework on the old Little Rock Public Library building. It opened in 1964 and was adjacent to the original Carnegie Library, which was torn down.
After the library vacated the space in 1997 for a River Market location, the building sat vacant. Several plans for developing it were floated and abandoned. In 2006, Entergy purchased the building and now uses it for a data services facility.
Today’s Architeaser again stars decorative brick work.
The Architeaser for yesterday was (like the previous day) a telephone company building. Though most people probably recognized the old Southwestern Bell tower building for its radar dishes and antennas atop the tower, the original building at street level has the decorative brickwork featured yesterday. That original building has been expanded, with both sides now surrounded by a newer building (including the aforementioned tower).
Today’s entry features more modern decorative work.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was the AT&T building on Capitol Avenue. Over the years, it has been called the Southwestern Bell Telephone Building, SBC Building and now the AT&T building. At a distance it appears that the off-white is a solid surface, perhaps a concrete — but most of it is composed of bricks.
Today’s Architeaser also features brickwork. This one, from an older building, shows off the creativity of a different patterns which can be used in brick.
The Arkansas Arts Center will present a “conversation” with Mia Hall as part of the Friends of Contemporary Craft annual lecture series on Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 6 p.m. in the Arkansas Arts Center Lower Lobby.
Mia Hall is an artist and educator based in Little Rock, where she is heading the Furniture Design Department at UALR as well as producing one-of-a kind works that are exhibited locally and nationally. She works with both conceptual, self-narrative sculptural forms and formal sculptures based on observations in nature, as well as functional furniture with an interest in concrete.
Though born in Sweden, Hall studied and graduated from the San Diego State University with degrees in Applied Design and Furniture Design. She has taught workshops at Arrowmont, OCAC and Marc Adams
and has been an artist-in-residence at the Oregon College of Art in Portland, OR.
Tickets to attend the “conversation” are $15 for FOCC members and $20 for nonmembers.
A light dinner will be served. Reservations are required. Call 501-372-4000 or email FOCC@arkarts.com to make reservations.
Friends of Contemporary Craft are Arkansas Arts Center Members share an interest in contemporary craft media. To become an Arkansas Arts Center member and to join the FOCC, contact 501-372-4000 or visit http://www.arkarts.com.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was the 501 Building. That is its imaginative name now – not taken from the fact that it is the area code of Central Arkansas, but taken from the street address on Woodlane Drive. Most Little Rock residents still refer to it by the name the building had when it opened in 1955 – the National Old Line Building.
Here is today’s Architeaser, also for a building which has changed names.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 