Category Archives: History

LR Look Back: Mayor W. W. Stevenson

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On this date in 1797, future Little Rock Mayor William Wilson Stevenson was born in South Carolina.  In 1811, he came to Arkansas when his family settled in Batesville.  An ordained Presbyterian minister, he married Ruana Trimble in 1821 and had two children.  After she died, he married Maria Tongray Watkins in 1831 and had two more children.

In 1831, he ran for Mayor in the first election for the office but was defeated by Dr. Matthew Cunningham.  The next year he ran to succeed Cunningham and was elected.  After leaving the Mayor’s office on December 31, 1833, he continued public service.  He was State Commissioner for Public Buildins in 1839.

In 1849, he delivered the funeral oration at the ceremony for Hon. Ambrose H. Seveier.  Later that year, he was hired as a geologist for the Little Rock and California Association which was created to take advantage of the gold rush.  He and his two oldest sons moved to California and never returned to Arkansas. He died in 1888.

No known photograph of Mayor Stevenson is known to exist.

GEE’S BEND at Arkansas Rep

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Quilts are not just coverings for warmth, they often tell a story.  The quilts and quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama are the focus of the play Gee’s Bend, which opened on Friday night at the Arkansas Rep and continues through February 1

Gee’s Bend was written by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder.  It follows a group of women as they turn to quilting to provide comfort and creative expression to their lives. Pieced together from discarded clothes and seasoned with laughter and tears, the women sew a patchwork of inventive abstract designs in rich, blazing colors.

The play opens in 1939, with the beginning of the era of African-American land ownership. The story then advances to 1965, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement and the historic visit to Gee’s Bend by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The production concludes in 2002, on the eve of the unveiling of “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.

Gee’s Bend was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Southern Writers Project, where it received a staged reading in 2006 and premiered in January 2007. A graduate of the dramatic writing program at New York University, Wilder received the American Theatre Critics Association’s 2008 Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright.

Gee’s Bend is directed by Gilbert McCauley, who has directed several plays previously at the Rep.  The cast features Corey Jones, Nambi E. Kelley, Shannon Lamb and Monica Parks.   The design team includes Mike Nichols (scenery), Yslan Hicks (costumes), John Horner (lighting), Allan Branson (sound) and Lynda J. Kwallek (props). Robert Hupp is the Producing Artistic Director of the Arkansas Rep.

The Rep’s production of Gee’s Bend is supported and sponsored by The Design Group, Philander Smith College, Arora, Delta Airlines and the Little Rock Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.  It is also made possible in part by a grant from the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame Foundation, a component fund of the Arkansas Community Fund.

Celebrate Gen. Douglas MacArthur birthday on Saturday

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GenMacArthurOn January 26, 1880, Douglas MacArthur was born in the Arsenal Building while his father was stationed at the Little Rock Barracks.  Though he left Arkansas a few weeks later when his father was transferred, he returned to his birthplace on March 23, 1952. On that day he was greeted by crowds welcoming one of the USA’s most famous military figures.

On January 26, 2013, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will celebrate the five-star General’s 133rd birthday with a special program by Dr. Paul Fair.  Dr. Fair was the only Arkansan among the original members of the General MacArthur Honor Guard.  He is now one of the Honor Guards’ few surviving members.  He will share his reminiscences of guarding the MacArthur family in the Philippines and Japan.

There will be refreshments and birthday cake. This event begins at 12:00 noon, with Dr. Fair to speak at 1:00 p.m.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History was created to interpret our state’s military heritage from its territorial period to the present.

Located in the historic Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal–the birthplace of General Douglas MacArthur–the museum preserves the contributions of Arkansas men and women who served in the armed forces.

Exhibits feature artifacts, photographs, weapons, documents, uniforms and other military items that vividly portray Arkansas’s military history at home and abroad.

Little Rock Central High Band Marches Today in Inaugural Parade

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LR City Manager Bruce Moore presents a check to LR Central Principal Nancy Rousseau and members of the Central High Tiger Band to help defray their costs to go to 57th Inauguration.

The Little Rock Central High School Tiger Band will be marching today in the Inaugural Parade as part of the 57 Inauguration festivities.

Under the direction of director Brice Evans, the 103 member band was selected to participate in the Inaugural Parade today which will follow the second swearing-in ceremony for Barack Obama.

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is what the band will play at the inauguration on Monday, Jan. 21.

Central was the only school in Arkansas chosen to take part at the ceremony, marking the start of President Obama’s second term.

Bands which want to participate in the parade fill out an application online. Central’s application included the honors and awards the band has received. The school also submitted a history of the band and a letter of recommendation from Governor Beebe and Senator Pryor.

They were notified that they were chosen on Dec. 17, which gave them just over a month to raise over $100,000, which include travel expenses, hotel, food, and entertainment.

The band members raised money themselves and a community wide effort also took place.  The City of Little Rock and LR Convention and Visitors Bureau together donated $5,000 toward the goal.  The band achieved the fundraising goal and departed on January 17 by bus for the trip.

 

Mosaic Templars Celebrates Inauguration of President on January 21

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Today is officially Inauguration Day. But since it falls on a Sunday, the festivities have been moved to Monday, January 21. (President Obama is being sworn in privately today in advance of tomorrow’s festivities, as is the custom when events fall as they do this year.)

Tomorrow, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will host an event to watch the second inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama.  The doors will open at 10am.  There is no admission fee.

Also starting tomorrow and running through June 29, Mosaic Templars will be home to a traveling exhibit which celebrates the first inauguration of President Obama.

Commissioned by Doug Morton & Marilyn Brown of Denver, this life size memorial to the historic inauguration of the first African American President, is to record and place into our American political landscape this transitional event that is destined to transform our country. It is composed of the President, the First Lady, the First Daughters, and Chief Justice John Roberts administering the Oath of Office. 

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

LR Look Back: Mayor Martin Borchert

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Martin John BorchertOn this date in 1916, future Little Rock Mayor Martin Borchert was born in Stuttgart.  After graduating high school he moved to Little Rock.  He started work at ACME Brick and spent 21 years there before engaging in other business interests.  Among these businesses were Martin Borchert Co., ASCO Hardware, Dtection Systems Inc. and Component Systems Inc.  In 2005 he was inducted into the Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame.

Mayor Borchert was elected to the Little Rock City Board of Directors in 1964 and served from January 1965 through December 1968. He chose not to seek a second term.  In 1967 and 1968 he served as Mayor of Little Rock. During this time, he laid out the vision for what has become Riverfront Park along the Arkansas River.

Other civic achievements included being a member of the Board of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, being on the Governor’s Citizens Advisory Committee, a member of the Pulaski County Quorum Court, vice chairman of the Arkansas Planning Commission, and being on the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council. In 1967 he served on the President’s National Advisory Council to the Small Business Administration. Mayor Borchert served on the Little Rock Water Commission, including a tenure as chairman. In 1985, he was chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Policy Board and as chairman oversaw the transfer of the Central Arkansas Transit system to the Central Arkansas Transit Authority. One of the achievements of which he was very proud of was that he was one of the very first in Arkansas to receive an Adopt the Highway road.

Mayor Borchert was married for 57 years to Rosemary “Biddy” Branch Borchert.  They had two children, a son, John “Topper” Borchert and a daughter, Leslie Borchert Wilson.

Little Rock Look Back: First Council Meeting in Little Rock

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TowncouncilplaqueOn this date, January 16, 1832, the very first Town Council meeting took place in Little Rock.  It was held at the home of Dr. Matthew Cunningham, Little Rock’s first Mayor. (Prior to the establishment of a City Hall, the Mayor was responsible for hosting the Council meetings.)

Dr. Cunningham owned several properties in Little Rock.  His home was situated on a block at  the southwest intersection of Markham and what is now 3rd Street.  Currently Bennett’s Military Supply anchors that corner in the Fulk building.  The block also includes the Mann on Main project, which is comprised of the buildings originally constructed for the Gus Blass Department store.

Little Rock was chartered as a town in 1831 and elections were subsequently held.  Dr. Cunningham outpolled Rev. W. W. Stevenson to become the first Mayor.

Joining Mayor Cunningham at the first meeting were the original four Town Council members – Charles Caldwell, Benjamin Clemens, David Holt and John McLain.

In 1931 a plaque, as part of Little Rock’s Centennial, a plaque was erected to note the first meeting.  The plaque erroneously implies that the first meeting was in 1831. This mistake is understandable since the first election was in 1831.  The plaque also refers to the body as the City Council.  It was, in fact, the Town Council.  There would not be a City Council until 1835 when Little Rock was elevated to City status.

(Incidentally, the plaque is not the only incorrect date regarding City meeting places.  The date stone above the entrance to City Hall reads 1907. Though construction of the building was largely finished in 1907, City offices did not move in until 1908. The building was not officially dedicated until April 1908.  When the plaque was installed it was probably due to wishful thinking.)