Join the Old State House Museum’s “Arguments For Freedom,” today at 11 am.
Living History Interpreters will reenact the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States. Learn about the reasons Arkansas ratified the 13th Amendment and the concerns the political leaders faced at the end of the Civil War. Arrive early to meet the statesmen and find out their views on this topic.
The Old State House Museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
On April 17, 1891, Benjamin Harrison became the first sitting president to visit Arkansas. He was on a cross-country railroad trip having left DC on April 13.
The morning of the 17th he spoke in Memphis and then took the train to Little Rock. Accompanying him from Memphis to Little Rock were a delegation which included Governor and Mrs. James P. Eagle, Mayor H. L. Fletcher and Col. Logan H. Roots. Also in the party was Mrs. W. G. Whipple, a former first lady of Little Rock.
They arrived in Little Rock in the afternoon. A parade took them from the train station to the State House (now the Old State House Museum) where the Governor formally welcomed the President and his party.
In his brief remarks, President Harrison spoke of the hospitality and the natural resources available in Arkansas. He also touched on the Civil War, which at the time was less than 30 years in the past. He noted “The commonwealth rests upon the free suffrage of its citizens and their devotion to the Constitution and the flag is the bulwark of its life. We have agreed, I am sure, that we will do no more fighting among ourselves.” These remarks were met enthusiastically by the crowd assembled.
The President concluded is brief remarks thanking the State officials and the citizenry. He then took the train to Texarkana where he made his third remarks of the day.
Benjamin Harrison was on the Presidential ticket two times. The first time he lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College defeating incumbent Grover Cleveland. The second time he lost both the popular and electoral votes to Cleveland. He did not carry Arkansas in either election. Though he was the first sitting president to visit Little Rock, there is nothing here named for him. Since there was already a Harrison Street named after his grandfather, he is skipped between Cleveland and McKinley in the presidential streets.
107 years ago today, Little Rock City Hall officially opened at the corner of Markham and Broadway.
On April 15, 1908, the Italian Renaissance Revival style building, which had been designed by local architect Charles Thompson, played host to an open house. Staff had started moving into the building in March of that year. This was, as often is the case, behind schedule. The date in the cornice toward the top of the building is 1907, but the building was not completed until 1908.
In 1903, W. E. Lenon became Mayor of Little Rock. Back then, the terms were two-year terms. By the start of his second term in 1905, he realized that the City was outgrowing City Hall, which was, at the time, on the northeast corner of Markham and Louisiana – where part of the Statehouse Convention Center sits today.
In February 1906, Mayor Lenon appointed a committee of five aldermen to over see the planning for the building of a new City Hall. In July 1906, the City Council approved plans, which called for a City Hall with an municipal auditorium wing. There was some hue and cry about wasteful spending and a resulting lawsuit, so, in September 1906, those plans were scrapped and a simpler City Hall was approved for the cost of $175,000.
The last resolution in the old City Hall called for the banning of smoking in the new Council Chambers – while the Council was in session. This may well have been the first smoking ban in a public government building in the history of Arkansas.
When the building opened, the third floor was not finished out. The space was not needed. When the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities (now the Museum of Discovery) moved into City Hall in 1929, they had to finish out their space.
In 1913, the new Central Fire Station, designed in the Beaux Arts style, was constructed adjacent to City Hall. During the 1930s, as the City grew, more space was needed. A garage, designed in the “austere, utilitarian” style was built in 1936 and a City Jail Annex, built by the WPA in the modified Art Deco style was built in 1938.
By 1955, the copper-clad dome which sat on top of City Hall needed severe repairs. The wooden supports and the copper cladding were both in dire shape. Mayor Pratt Remmel set aside money for the dome to be repaired. After defeating Remmel in his bid for a third term, Mayor Woodrow Mann scrapped plans for the repair and, indeed, scrapped the dome.
Following the lead of County Judge Arch Campbell who had removed the tower at the County Courthouse, Mann proposed removal of the dome. He had an informal survey which had three options: repair the dome, replace the dome with an aluminum one, or remove it. This was open to anyone to respond – voting eligibility or Little Rock residency did not matter. By a slim margin, remove the dome won – so the dome was removed.
In 1960, as air conditioning was installed, windows were bricked in to promote energy efficiency. At the time, the feeling was that a new City Hall would be constructed in the 1970s somewhere more central to the growing city. Relocation talk persisted throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. By that time, City Hall had been modified a great deal – with no thought about historic preservation. When the Police and Fire Department had moved out into their new facilities, their old spaces had become storage.
By 1984, the decision was made to stay at Markham and Broadway. An extensive renovation and restoration effort was undertaken. In 1988, the building reopened, and the interior had been restored to its 1908 appearance.
Today at noon at the Old State House Museum, the next installment of their regular “Brown Bag Lunch Lecture” will take place.
This edition features Micah Roberts discussing “Fulbright’s Balancing Act: How Domestic and International Politics Converged in 1959.”
Senator J. William Fulbright’s 1959 “Face the Nation” interview is used to assess how the Arkansas senator prioritized the Civil Rights agenda in Arkansas with his ambitions as a Cold War statesman. Response letters from Arkansans following the interview and also used to assess the importance of domestic vs. international politics for Arkansans.
Micah Roberts is a graduate student at the University of Arkansas where he studies United States foreign relations and politics during the Cold War, with special attention devoted to the Eisenhower-Khrushchev relationship and their use of personal and public diplomacy.
The Old State House is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
On April 15, 1880, former president Ulysses S. Grant spoke in Little Rock as part of his world tour. While here he made a couple of appearances and participated in a parade. It was Grant’s first visit to Arkansas either as a soldier or a politician.
At his outdoor speech, his remarks followed brief comments by Governor William R. Miller and Mayor John Gould Fletcher (erroneously referred to as John C. Fletcher in the Memphis Appeal story the next day). Grant’s comments were brief and flowery. He thanked Arkansans for a warm welcome, praised the future prospects of Arkansas and discussed the demise of what he termed “sectionalism” which was undoubtedly a reference to the division between the Union and and former Confederate states.
Also that day, Grant addressed a banquet in Concordia Hall (now part of the Arkansas Studies Institute complex on the Central Arkansas Library downtown campus). His was one of fifteen toasts that evening. It was simply “The United States of America, forever United.” He expounded briefly on the theme of unity of citizens from all states. He also discussed immigration noting, “All foreigners find a welcome here. We make them American citizens. After we receive them, it is but one generation until they are Americans.” He noted that he could speak much more on the topic, but that since he was but one of fifteen toasts and that there was to be music after each toast, “It will be to-morrow (sic) morning when we get through if we all take as much time as the subjects admit of.”
Not everyone was thrilled to have the former commander of the Union Army in Little Rock. The story goes that when he was parading down the street, some Little Rock women (in a display of Souther un-hospitality) sat in chairs with their backs to the parade route. But all in all, it appears to have been a successful visit for the man who was the only Republican in the 19th Century to win Arkansas’ Electoral votes.Grant arrived in Little Rock on the night of April 14 and lodged at the Capital Hotel. He undoubtedly enjoyed some whiskey and cigars while at the Capital. Grant had originally planned on departing in the afternoon of April 15, but Little Rock leaders pled with him to stay so that he could be honored at the banquet. He assented.
Incidentally, there is an urban myth that, while in Little Rock, General Grant rode his horse in the oversized elevator of the Capital Hotel. This is a relatively recent story. The oversized elevator was not installed until the 1980s, over 100 years after Gen. Grant was a guest of the facility.
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) will join the Arkansas Civil War Commission in “Let Freedom Ring,” a ringing of bells 13 times at 13:00 (1 p.m.) on Tuesday, April 14. Staff and volunteers will ring bells and read the 13th Amendment.
Locations
“Let Freedom Ring” honors the 150th anniversary of the amendment, and is a statewide initiative sponsored by the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
The 13th Amendment reads as follows:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission is part of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources.
On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia. Along with Benjamin Franklin, he was one of the first American multi-hyphenate Renaissance men. Author, musician, inventor, diplomat, epicurean, architect, educator, and President. Certainly his writing of the Declaration of Independence was of paramount importance to the US, even if he had never served as President.
It was during his Presidency that Thomas Jefferson actively pursued the Louisiana Purchase which brought what is now Arkansas into the United States. While he never visited the area, he did send explorers to chart out the Louisiana Purchase. The subusequent surveying which took place during the Madison presidency was based on standards developed by Jefferson for the surveying of Ohio.
In Little Rock, Jefferson is remembered with Jefferson Elementary and Jefferson Street. He is also the eponym for Bill Clinton’s middle name.
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