Today’s February Frieze Frame Friday is the entrance to the old Little Rock City Jail.  This building, which sits behind City Hall, was the jail from the 1930s through the early 1960s.  It now serves as a parking garage, Parks & Recreation maintenance area, and city employee fitness facility.

Though the entrance below the frieze has long been bricked in, the jail bars are still detectable above the frieze.

This building was constructed by the WPA. The classical meets deco style of the frieze is typical of the works from that era.

For decades a metal awning bisected the frieze making it undetectable to people who walked by it.  But in 2007, as part of some renovations to the building (spearheaded by city employee Susan K. Langley), the awning was removed and the frieze became more prominent.  (As prominent as can be when the frieze is right at Broadway street level and is blocked from Broadway traffic by balustrades.