A City Expands

North Little Rock is a city of small towns.

With colorful names such as Amboy, Baring Cross, Levy, Dark Hollow, Dixie, and Tie Plant, the city’s neighborhoods have distinct identities.

Although many of these communities were not governed by North Little Rock until later, they were integral to the economic and cultural development of the city.

The urban core from which the city grew is Argenta in downtown North Little Rock.

East of Argenta is the Shorter College neighborhood, known as Sherman Park. Out East Broadway, East Second, and Arkansas Avenue are some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Baring Cross, west of Argenta, had its own municipal government (1896-1905), as did Levy (1917-46), north of downtown.

The area north of Baring Cross, up to what is now Pershing Boulevard, never incorporated, until annexation to the city. East of Pike is the Holt neighborhood. Between Pike and Main, along Pershing is Military Heights.

Scenic Hill was part of Levy and was annexed in 1946. Belwood, west of MacArthur, is on the outskirts of Levy.

Neighborhoods north of Levy, connected by Pike Avenue and Camp Robinson Road, came into North Little Rock in the 1950s. These included the subdivisions of Arrowhead Manor, Tanglewood, and neighborhoods between Pike and Camp Robinson.

Amboy, located on the Missouri Pacific railroad line, near Camp Pike (1917) and Camp Robinson (1937), was a 1951 addition to the city. Ranch Estates in Amboy was developed in the 1950s and then expanded.

Two areas originally settled in the 19th century are Crystal Hill and Maumelle on the city’s west side. Crystal Hill lies between MacArthur and Interstate 430. Maumelle is west of the interstate.

On the east boundary is Rose City, which had a long history prior to becoming part of North Little Rock. Within Rose City are Baucum, Tie Plant, Glenview, Prothro Junction, Delta Lawn, North Shore, Willow Beach, Stone Links, Ashley Downs, Deer Meadows, and Cypress Crossing.

Dixie, Tie Plant, Meadow Park, and the area later developed as Glenview, were within or near Rose City.

Military Heights and several blocks of Dark Hollow were included in the incorporation of the Town of North Little Rock in 1901. The rest of Dark Hollow was annexed in 1946 by the City of North Little Rock.

Park Hill and Pike View were developed in the 1920s, north of the city. It might have become its own municipality. Justin Matthews, Sr., the developer, thought otherwise. He wanted it to join North Little Rock, which it did in 1946.

New houses started going up in Lakewood in the late 1940s. Most of Lakewood was annexed in 1951. Areas developed later, such as Overbrook, Bunker Hill, and Chimney Rock, eventually came into the city. Indian Hills started in the late 1950s, prior to annexation by North Little Rock in the early 1960s.

North Little Rock is mostly landlocked now by the City of Maumelle on the west, Sherwood on the north, Scott on the east, and the Arkansas River on the south. While there is some room to the east, the city’s residential and industrial growth primarily comes from within the corporate limits.

John Carnahan, a Cumberland Presbyterian, preached the first Protestant sermon in Central Arkansas in 1812 in what is now Maumelle. The earliest churches in Little Rock organized in the 1820s, but not on the north side until the 1870s. A brief article in the Arkansas Gazette on November 26, 1872, noted that a fire two nights earlier had “destroyed a colored church.” The identity and location of the church were not reported, however.

According to historian Evelyn Eubank, writing in the North Little Rock Times on November 25, 1982, Roman Catholics held the earliest church services on the north side. Walter M. Adams, author of North Little Rock: A Unique City said several Catholic families moved near the riverside around Magnolia and Locust streets in 1871.They became the nucleus of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church about 1880.

Worshippers on the north side previously crossed the river by ferry and walked as far as necessary to attend church in Little Rock. The same was true of schools, often started by churches.

St. Patrick’s built a church and school at East Jefferson (Broadway) and Magnolia in 1897, then built a larger facility at 705 Cypress Street in 1899. In 1931, St. Patrick’s moved to the 1900 block of Maple Street. St. Mary’s Catholic Church began at 16th and Parker streets in Baring Cross in 1901, ministering primarily to the Polish families supported by the railroads and related jobs. Founded in 1929, St. Augustine at 1419-21 East Second had a church and school to serve Black families.

Bethel African Methodist and Episcopal Church at 600 Cedar Street traces its beginning back to 1873. A small group of Black people joined together to worship in a “box structure” built near the river, west of today’s Broadway Bridge. An outgrowth of Bethel AME in Little Rock, the group acquired a lot on the east side of Argenta in 1884 from George and Julia Basham near Sixth and Locust streets. The congregants built a brick church building there in 1889, naming it Little Bethel AME Church, pastored by the Rev. J.W. Walker. In 1959, the Arkansas Highway Commission paid $46,000 for the property as right of way for Interstate 30. The church, now known as
Bethel AME, moved to 600 Cedar.

First Baptist Church in Sherman Park was organized by Father Brown and two other unidentified ministers and began meeting in 1874 at what is now 1408 East Washington Avenue. After the election of the Rev. Lawson, the meeting place changed to Green (Second Street) and Newton (Main Street). In 1880, the church moved to the West End community at Green and Oak streets. The 1887 directory listed the church at Wolf and Cox, where Lawson preached until 1896.

In 1907, First Baptist relocated again to Sixth and Orange streets in Argenta, but a fire on January 12, 1915, destroyed the building. A new brick structure was soon erected at Ninth (S.A. Jones) and Pine. In 1967, the church again moved to 822 Locust Street on land acquired from the city’s Urban Renewal Commission, staying there until May 1993 when a new church building opened at 811 S.A. Jones Drive.

Another Black congregation began meeting in 1893 as Second Baptist Church at Astra (Broadway) and Hickory, according to city directories. The Rev. Frank White was listed as pastor in 1893 and the Rev. Thomas H. Potts in 1895.

In the 1870s, Methodist “circuit riders” held services in brush arbors and at Henry Moore’s mill and gin at the end of Newton (Main) on the river. By 1879 the Rev. Z.T. Lindsey was preaching at probably the town’s earliest public school house at Fourth and Orange streets in Argenta.

The Methodist Church established its Argenta Mission in 1880. The Rev. G.A. Danley became pastor the next year. He was succeeded two years later by the Rev. John H. Dye, a Confederate Army veteran who attracted a large following. Before long, the church had the means to buy property in 1886 at Astra (Broadway) and Newton (Main), present site of City Hall, where building contractor W. H. Lamberson, a future North Little Rock alderman, constructed a chapel.

With a vote of the congregation, the church named it Dye Chapel (later Dye Memorial Chapel and then First Methodist Church). Based on an interview with longtime church member J.C. Carmack, published in the North Little Rock Times on March 3, 1983, Eubank wrote that “a rough business district” surrounded the chapel. Carmack said the “barrel houses” (saloons) attracted many of the people arriving on the trains. “Residents lived much to themselves, and the only people ever seen on the streets after the [9 p.m.] curfew bell had rung were those from out of town who frequented the saloons,” Carmack told Eubank.

The charismatic Dye made a name for himself in revivals on the north side. The Arkansas Gazette devoted four articles to his activities in 1885, reporting on September 20 that the Methodists had held a revival with about 500 people at Clendenin Hill. “It is a glorious work, and is going straight forward,” Dye said.

On September 23, 1885, the Arkansas Gazette published a letter signed by “Sinner” urging the people of Little Rock to hear Dye, who had moved the revival to Argenta down by the river. “His preaching is interesting and instructive,” Sinner wrote. “Whether you get religion or not it does you good to hear him, as an old man said to me yesterday.”

On September 29, 1885, the Arkansas Gazette reported that the revival had lasted 18 days. “The meeting received 100 professions of faith,” the paper said, “and 60 additions to the Methodist church with more to join yet.” After the city purchased the Dye Memorial church site at Third and Main in 1913, First Methodist built a new church a block west at 310 Maple.

In 1904, under the leadership of the Rev. N.E. Gardner, about 100 Methodists from Baring Cross and north of Argenta, who had been meeting at the Hillside school, built a new church at 18th and Pike streets, now known as Gardner Memorial Methodist Church.

In the North Little RockTimes on March 3, 1983, Eubank related a firsthand account from her mother, Clara Knight, who attended both the Hillside school and the church. “As the congregation grew,” she told Eubank, “Rev. Gardner saw the need for better facilities in a building more centrally located and asked for pledges toward a new church. There was a long silence. Then from the back of the room a young man, whose father had recently died, pledged $10. Then more pledges, large and small, were made that Sunday. Mary Miller and I were among those designated as ‘lady helpers’ and with my father’s horse and buggy started through the community to collect the pledges.”

A year earlier (1903), the Rev. Duncan William Nelson organized McCabe United Methodist Church — named for Civil War chaplain Charles Cardvell McCabe — at 13th and Magnolia streets. The church relocated to 1601 Pine Street in 1914 under the Rev. C.H. Brooks.

Those who started a congregation that became Leach Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church began meeting on the river bank between Cypress and Olive streets in late summer 1877. According to a history of the church, “a small, green edifice on the river’s bank was called ‘Little Green.’” Later, this Little Green Church — renamed in honor of benefactor Rose Leach — moved to 1012 East Broadway. However, fire consumed the church building in January 1978, prompting relocation to 307 North Palm.

First evidence of the Argenta Christian Church, another early congregation, was in the 1878 city directory. A dozen years later, the church named a new pastor, the Rev. Charles T. Monroe, a former lawyer and a newspaperman at the time, according to the Arkansas Gazette on October 5, 1890. Monroe issued a church newspaper, The Monitor, in late 1890, and he was listed in 1893 as editor of the North Little Rock Times, a weekly on Newton Avenue (Main Street). According to the 1897-98 city directory listings, Monroe was editor of the North Little Rock Times, as well as another weekly called the Little Rock Times, established in 1890. A “colored” Christian Church was also listed in 1893, and two years later, the Rev. H.E. Luck was pastor of both white and black Christian churches.

First Christian Church organized with 12 charter members in 1912. Dr. Frank Thompson was the first pastor and served until shortly before his death in 1942. The congregation met at Matthews Hall on Main Street until a fire destroyed the building in 1918. The congregation acquired property at 421 West Second the next year. Urban Renewal bought the property In 1967 and the church moved the next year to 2803 East Kiehl In Sherwood.

Presbyterians began meeting in Argenta in early December 1895 at the North Little Rock Methodist Episcopal Church, which became Olive Street ME Church. The ME church first appeared in the city directory in 1893. Presbyterians began meeting on the north side about 1895 as a mission of First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock. Eubank wrote in the North Little Rock Times on November 25, 1982 that C.F. Bossinger of the Little Rock church conducted Sunday school classes, crossing the river in a skiff or on foot over the railroad bridge.

The Rev. Charles R. Montgomery formally organized First Presbyterian Church in Argenta in 1899 and began holding services on November 2, 1902, at Fourth and Maple streets, according to a centennial history of the church in 1999 by congregant Carolyn Ringer. Among its charter members was William H. Ramsey, a justice of the peace and later municipal judge (1918-19).

First Baptist Church with 10 charter members had its start in 1889, moving around at first until constructing a small frame building at Astra (Broadway) and Woodruff (Locust) in 1891, with the Rev. J.G. Doyle as pastor. It later moved to Fourth and Poplar and then to 4500 North Hills.

In 1899, about a half dozen Black families and the Rev. D. Davis founded First Baptist Church in Military Heights. Baptists in Baring Cross first held a revival in the 1200 block of Pike Avenue, before meeting at Bauman Hall at Eighth and Pike. With help from the Rev. B.N. Brooks, pastor of First Baptist at Astra (Broadway) and Woodruff (Locust) in Argenta, 23 charter members organized Baring Cross Baptist Church in October 1903. The next month, the Rev. J.H. Crosby became pastor. Acquiring property at 10th and Vestal in 1905, the church erected a temporary tabernacle, which it replaced the next year with a larger frame building.

Baring Cross Baptist started a mission in Levy that in 1906 formed Levy Baptist Church at 35th and Pike. Calvary (now Central) Baptist Church, founded in 1910, was located for many years at 1600 Maple Street until moving to Fairway and Somers in Lakewood.

The organizers of King Solomon Baptist Church began meeting at 717 East 15th Street in spring 1904 with the Rev. C.H. Harris as pastor. King Solomon moved to the 600 block of East 13th Street in 1907, settling there until a fire in 1931 destroyed the building and most of the church’s early records, church member and historian Curtis Sykes said. For the next two years, prior to construction of a new church at the present site of 1304 Pine Street, the congregation joined the First Baptist Church, then at Ninth and Pine streets. The 1906 directory listed six Baptist churches in Argenta, two White and four Black, including four First Baptist churches.

–Cary Bradburn

A city of many neighborhood parks, North Little Rock also owns one of the largest municipal parks in the United States – 1,700-acre Burns Park.

Named for William M. Burns, a former mayor and parks chairman, Burns Park almost didn’t happen.

In 1949, the federal government offered to deed to the city some 870 acres of war surplus property for $20 a year. It became a political issue, however, in the 1949 mayor’s election. Incumbent Mayor Eldor Johnson favored the acquisition. His opponent, Ross Lawhon, a former mayor, argued against it, insisting that the land was too far from the city.

Johnson lost the election. As a lame duck mayor, he executed the deed anyway, envisioning the natural beauty of the expanse as a bounty for North Little Rock.

More land became available. In 1955, the Veteran’s Administration transferred an additional 700 acres.

Attractions at Burns Park include baseball diamonds, tennis and pickle ball courts, soccer fields, Funland, the Rocket Slide, disc golf links, hiking, horseback riding trails, picnic grounds, and pavilions, among other activities.

A tornado on March 31, 2023, devastated the park and nearby neighborhoods. Burns Park lost 10,000 trees. Homes were destroyed. With state and federal assistance, the city and property owners have worked to redevelop the weathertorn areas.

The Parks Department also maintains more than 30 neighborhood parks, plus North Shore Riverwalk Park and the Arkansas River Trail. Four community centers provide recreational activities for adults and children.

North Little Rock’s first park – City Park in the 400 block of Main Street – opened in 1904. It closed in 1931 with construction of the Post Office, now the Argenta Branch Library of the North Little Rock Public Library.

In 1929-32, developer Justin Matthews, Sr., commissioned the man-made Lakewood lakes and dams. His crown jewel was construction of T.R. Pugh Park in Lakewood. It features the Old Mill, the city’s main tourist attraction, which appeared in the opening credits of the 1939 movie, Gone With the Wind.

In 1985, the VA provided 85 acres on Big Rock Mountain. Developed by the city, Emerald Park overlooks Big Rock quarry and the Arkansas River. The former quarry features a pump track built in 2021 for bicyclists.