Ward 1

Dark Hollow is a community in North Little Rock that spans generations. A community of historical impact to Central Arkansas, Dark Hollow lies at the intersection of Interstate Highways 30 and 40, one of the major Interstate crossroads of the nation. It is bounded on the east by the Missouri Pacific Railroads electronic classification yard, and on the south by low- and middle-income residential areas and by Shorter College, predominantly but not totally African American.

Dark Hollow is a topographic depression and has no natural drainage. It collects drainage water from a basin of 6,700 acres, including the Park Hill area, the adjacent Interstate Highways 30 and 40 and even from the federally owned lands at Fort Roots on the west side of the city, where the Veterans Administration Hospital is located.

Prior to any attempt at drainage, Dark Hollow was a dense swamp. In 1905, the first Drainage Improvement District in Arkansas was organized to provide drainage for the Dark Hollow area. In 1909, construction of a drainage system was started. The system constructed at that time is still in use. It is essentially a system of open drainage ditches converging into the main ditch on Redwood Street. In Cary Bradburn’s book: On the Opposite Shore: The Making of North Little Rock, he stated that 100 years ago, the area we called Dark Hollow was not a Black neighborhood. It wasn’t a neighborhood at all. Before 1908, Dark Hollow was more than 3000 acres of homeland, forests and cypress breaks.

Bradburn dismisses a theory that an old Indian name for the area translated as Dark Hollow. He says the Corps of Civil Engineers named it, most likely because the swamp was gloomy. Earlier maps had labeled it Loomis Swamp. The Arkansas Gazette remembered it as Loomis in a long report in 1909 on a massive engineering project to drain Dark Hollow. The swamp had been known as Loomis Lake for 25 years, named for a lumber mill on the hill north of Dark Hollow. The man was a brother to ex-governor Loomis of Rhode Island. He ran the mill until he died. Before then, he cut down many of the 100-foot cypress trees that had kept the swamp perpetually dark.

The search of old newspapers finds Dark Hollow in use as early as 1895. When The Gazette North Side gossip column reported that one Mr. Echols had caught an otter in there, measuring 5 feet, 9 1/2 inches. And in 1897, the paper described a forest fire.

From 1909 to 1911, while crews with steam powered dredging machines worked to install six miles of ditches and concrete culverts to drain the swamp, spectators turned out to watch 100-foot-tall trees uprooted with roots running in every direction.

“In the memory of many citizens here that have lived in Pulaski County for more than a half century there has never been a time that the swamp has not contained water,” the Gazette noted. “Some places being five to 20 feet deep and during a wet season, the water is much higher than this. As the water receded children rushed into the teeming shallows to bash trap fish on their heads and carry them off.”

In February 1911, the club system opened in Dark Hollow Drain. The land was sold to cotton farmers and developers. Over the course of decades, the neighborhood we know today grew up with churches, small businesses, and houses.

“Chris” Huie a Chinese American photographer whose photographs of Dark Hollow and other areas in North Little Rock, is at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Chris was born and raised in North Little Rock, Arkansas. “I grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas in the ’40s and ’50s,” he said. “I grew up in a particularly impoverish section of North Little Rock nicknamed “Dark Hollow”
because it was too poor to even have electricity. Our store sold a lot of kerosene for lighting.”

William J. Johnson became the first African-American general in the history of the Arkansas National Guard. Curtis Henry Sykes was a pioneering educator, community leader, and historian from the Dark Hollow community

–Belinda Sykes Burney

Maps in the early 1900s show the 600 to 1000 blocks of West 23rd Street as part of the Henry H. Julian tract. Julian was a prominent Argenta businessman who co-owned the Julian-Sullivan Furniture Company at 303 Main Street. He also served as president of the
Valley Savings Bank at 223 Main in Argenta. During this time and earlier, farms and pastures dominated the landscape around what is now West 23rd Street.

The area was historically an unincorporated part of Pulaski County situated north of Argenta. The town of North Little Rock incorporated in 1901, but didn’t include the Julian tract (or what we know today as the 600 to 1000 blocks of West 23rd Street) until the next year when North Little Rock annexed all the remaining territory within an area bounded by Olive Street on the east, Pershing on the north, Pike Avenue on the West and 15th Street on the south. The Julian tract then became a part of Argenta after the secession from Little Rock and merger with North Little Rock in 1904.

A 1913 map of Argenta indicates there was no West 23rd Street between the railroad tracks and Pike Avenue. Addresses for the 600 block appear in the city directories in the 1920s and the 1930s for the shotgun houses on the south side. One address is listed on the south side of the 900 block in the 1920s and 1930s. Addresses for the 700 and 800 blocks began to show up in the early 1940s. The Sanborn map (1939) confirms these additional dwellings with paste-ups representing development in 1942. Housing was at a premium in the early 1940s in North Little Rock with the military buildup at Camp Robinson before and during World War II.

Architecturally, there are a few Craftsman style homes, one distinctive stone house and one brick that have architectural integrity. Their setting detracts from any integrity they have and they are not unique, as North Little Rock has numerous other examples of this style of house. The commercial building on the south side of the street that was constructed in the 1940s also has some visual architectural integrity.

The most interesting architecture on this section of 23rd is concentrated IN a few houses in the 600 block on the west side that appear to be similar to “shotgun” style homes. These are said to have been barracks from Camp Pike that were split in half and moved to this location after the army camp geared down following the end of World War I in 1918. These houses do have some historic and architectural significance, due to their association with Camp Pike. It is unknown how many other former Camp Pike barracks exist in the city, but it is likely there are other examples.

Houses on the west end of this section of 23rd have no architectural integrity, nor no known historic significance. A number of the houses along this part of 23rd, particularly on the western end, were not constructed until the 1940s or later. The 600 block of 23rd seems to be the only block that contains early housing, largely the former Camp Pike barracks.

–Cary Bradburn and Sandra Taylor Smith

Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture

The Park Hill Historic District in North Little Rock recognizes the city’s first planned suburban development and its growth inspired by businessman Justin Matthews Sr. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, following a survey by historian Sandra Taylor Smith, the district includes 568 properties from two distinct periods of development: 1920s Craftsman Bungalows and Period Revival styles, and 1940s Minimal Traditional. The historic designation is strictly honorary; not subject to regulations regarding architectural change.

In 1921 Matthews acquired significant acreage in the sparsely populated, wooded “high country” north of the city limits. With the Broadway Bridge under construction and the time being ripe for development, Matthews announced the debut of Park Hill in 1922. He advertised the community as a “second Pulaski Heights” but with higher elevation, better views, cooler temperatures and health benefits. Unlike Pulaski Heights, well-paved and accessible by streetcar, Park Hill was remote and lacking in streets. With the growing popularity of automobiles, Matthews set about improving roadways in and around Park Hill.

To jump start his development, Matthews’ Park Hill Land Company financed home sales with 10 percent down and pay outs for construction costs that ranged from $3,000 to $7,000. Lots of 2.5, 5 and 10 acres at $50 each were offered as miniature country estates.
The Arkansas Gazette reported on April 30, 1922, that “streets are being laid out and arc lights are to be installed. Yesterday workmen were digging holes for street light poles and in a few weeks Park Hill will have all the modern conveniences of a regular suburb.”

Electric lines were installed, a new bus line was in service and work began on a water system in 1923. Matthews built Park Hill Elementary School, which opened in 1925 after he donated it to the North little Rock School District. Matthews sat as commissioner on
improvement districts for the Broadway and Main Street bridges and North Little Rock’s Main Street viaduct, facilitating traffic northward to Park Hill. Matthews also served on Arkansas’ first Highway Commission and saw to the paving of the Arkansas Missouri
Highway which ran through Park Hill.

Matthews employed about 200 people, including an architect, brick mason, road engineer and landscaper. Craftsman architecture, nationally popular in the 1920s, is predominate in Park Hill. Also found are English Revival cottages with steep gable roofs, gable porches and tapered chimneys. Spanish Revival styles feature stucco walls, flat roofs, terraces, patios and decorative ceramic tiles. More than 200 homes had been built by 1927 when Matthews launched a high-end development known as Edgemont in Park Hill. Listed on
the National Register in 1992, Edgemont includes 11 grand-scale homes built from 1927 to 1931.

While the Great Depression halted most Park Hill housing construction until the 1940s, public projects forged ahead. Construction of the Park Hill Fire Station and Water Company buildings at a cost of $8,000 in 1938 was a joint effort by Park Hill and the Works Progress Administration. Designed by the Brueggeman, Swaim and Allen architectural firm, the Mediterranean style Fire and Water Company buildings feature red tile roofs, arched windows and decorative cast concrete detailing. Located in the 3400 block of Magnolia Street, the complex was listed on the National Register in 1993. A theater, pharmacy, grocery and post office were among the first tenants in a community shopping center that opened in 1941 in the 3400 block of the Arkansas Missouri Highway (renamed John F. Kennedy Boulevard in 1963). Although Park Hill had a fire department in 1939, the unincorporated subdivision had no fire truck or equipment until 1944 – two years before annexation to North Little Rock. Its water company, managed by Edward A. McCain, merged with North Little Rock in 1959.

More than 100 homes were built in Park Hill in the early 1940s with the influx of soldiers at Camp Robinson in World War II. Demand intensified with the return of veterans and readily available government-backed loans. Small, affordable homes were popular, including 84 prefabricated houses manufactured and moved on site by Bralei Homes Inc. Street widening and commercial development on JFK Blvd. in the 1960s razed historic houses that were replaced by fast food restaurants. Subsequently, Park Hill residents and business owners have explored ways to boost economic vitality and promote the area’s historic appeal. A federal grant awarded to the North Little Rock History Commission in 2010 supported a branding and marketing campaign for the benefit of historic Park Hill.

Cary Bradburn
North Little Rock History Commission