Ward 3

Amboy, on our city’s northwest side, has a history tied both to the Trail of Tears of the 1800s and to the expansion of railroads and the military in the early 20th century. Exiled Native Americans came through the area on a road, now Highway 365, on their way to Fort Smith and then on to Indian Territory. Later, a railroad was built through the area and then came Camp Pike (1917) and Camp Robinson (1937).

The community grew as workers, soldiers, and families settled along the railroad and near the camps. The area remained unincorporated for decades. It officially became part of North Little Rock in 1951. After the annexation, the community enjoyed steady residential growth, including the development of Ranch Estates. The Amboy Overpass, a twelve‑span bridge built in 1941 to carry MacArthur Drive over the railroad tracks, became one of the community’s most-recognizable landmarks. The bridge was demolished in 2017 due to structural deficiencies, but remains an important part of the community’s history, having been listed on the National Register of Historic Places from 1995 until it was delisted in 2022.

North Little Rock’s Crystal Hill neighborhood has a name connected to some of the earliest settlement in this part of the state. Located on the city’s west side, it is part of a larger area of that same name, mostly rural, that drew families displaced by the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812.

The name “Crystal Hill” was inspired by a bluff overlooking the Arkansas River. The bluff contained iron‑pyrite deposits, which glittered in the sunlight and was visible to travelers on the river.  

The area was sparsely populated well into the 1900s, but changed considerably after World War II. Factors in this change were North Little Rock’s acquisition of nearby land that was developed into Burns Park, and the construction in the 1960s and ’70s of Interstates 40 and 430, which brought residential and commercial growth.

Taking its name from the higher terrain upon which it sets north of our downtown, the Scenic Hill neighborhood evolved as part of the Levy community. Levy operated as an independent town from 1917 until 1946, when it was annexed into North Little Rock. Scenic Hill was part of that annexation. This incorporation marked Scenic Hill’s transition from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Levy into an official part of the expanding city.

Scenic Hill is part of a system of ridges adjoining the iconic Big Rock Mountain, an essential element in the development of Central Arkansas. The higher elevation made it attractive to residents who wanted excellent views of the countryside as well easy access to streets and highways to Levy, Baring Cross, Park Hill, and downtown North Little Rock. 

Scenic Hill is also near historic Fort Logan H. Roots, sitting just to the west on the same ridge. Dating the late 1800s, the post gave the area a military presence. The fort eventually transitioned into a Veterans Administration hospital.

Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture

Levy in North Little Rock – named for a prominent Jewish merchant — originated as a campground for farmers and drovers traveling the Fort Smith road to markets in Little Rock. In 1892, Levy founder Ernest Stanley opened a general store near the campground north of Argenta. A settlement of industrious working-class people emerged with the opening of Camp Pike in 1917. War preparations at Camp Robinson in 1940 further fueled Levy’s growth. A municipality from 1917 to 1946, Levy has retained its identity and the Levy Day political rally put it on the map in the 1950s. Today, a growing Latino population, plus nearby Camp Robinson and resident associations contribute to Levy’s economic and cultural vitality.

Ernest Stanley, Levy’s first postmaster in 1905, named the new station after dry goods merchant Morris Levy. Historian Evelyn Eubank said Levy loaned Stanley $50 and credit to start his store. Walter Stanley, a grocer and one of Ernest’s brothers, said the community would have been called Stanley if that name hadn’t already existed elsewhere. Brothers William F. “Flake” Stanley and Oscar Stanley opened Stanley Hardware in 1901. The Stanleys, Dr. James F. Pairet’s drug store and Abraham B. Kyzer’s grocery formed the nucleus of the business district. Eubank said her mother, Clara Knight, remembered stopping at Ernest Stanley’s store in the 1890s. “What a delight it was to have Ernest Stanley place tubes in their ears so they could hear the graphophone or buy a grab bag for a nickel,” Eubank wrote.

Levy incorporated as a municipality on May 7, 1917. Voters elected a mayor, city recorder and five alderman on Aug. 7, 1917. The town of a few hundred people was bounded by today’s Pershing Boulevard on the south, 38th Street on the north, Division Street on the west, and Orange Street on the east. There were two grammar schools— Levy and Hillside. At the town’s north border was Thomas Cemetery, adjacent to Edgewood Cemetery established later in 1923. The council first met on Aug. 13, 1917, and soon imposed a speed limit of 10 mph. Mary Bottomley, who moved there in 1918, recalled dirt streets, the Stanley stores, “a cold drink stand and a bowling alley.” Flake Stanley, the first of eight mayors, served until 1925. By 1940, Levy’s population was 1,400 and it rapidly grew with military expansion at Camp Robinson. The Arkansas Gazette on Aug. 19, 1941, estimated a population of 2,000.

Levy’s treasury never adequately addressed dark and unpaved streets, poor drainage, substandard bridges and unreliable fire protection. Housing shortages and traffic congestion also plagued the town. Nonetheless, Levy annexed an area between Camp Robinson Road and Orange Street up to 45th Street in 1944, and built a City Hall at the site of the present Levy fire station. James H. Fretwell was Levy’s last and longest serving mayor. Following annexation by North Little Rock in 1946, downtown Levy remained vibrant, with Bob Evans’ Esso, Huggins Drug, the Ashley Building, Wasson Home and Auto, George’s Dry Cleaners, Hill Drug, Venable lumber, Tolliver’s Gulf station, King’s barbershop, Economy Furniture, Art’s Marine, cafes, beauty shops and grocery stores. The Scenic Drive-In movie theater, which closed in 1961, and Jim’s Roller Rink in the 1950s and ‘60s were attractions, as was the Spot drive-in restaurant from 1964 to 1997.

Doyle Venable’s lumber company opened in 1951, and launched Levy’s greatest tradition — an all-day paint sale, spiced with musical entertainment. “Levy Day” became one of Arkansas’s premiere political rallies after Venable—Levy’s “unofficial mayor”– invited candidates in 1954. The Sertoma Club continued Levy Day until 2006. Construction of Interstate 40 in 1962 cut through downtown Levy and the business center shifted north on
Camp Robinson Road, where the Levy Shopping Center and Wal-Mart opened in 1967. Levy grew well beyond its original boundaries, stretching north of 47th Street. North Heights Elementary opened in 1953 and the city added a recreation center there in 1971. Levy Elementary School closed in 1985 after 78 years. In the 1990s, Levy residents lobbied for more street lights, street repairs and a police substation.

Levy area population grew only 1.1 percent from 1990 to 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and that growth was due to a rising Latino population. Figures from census tracts in Levy, compiled by the North Little Rock Community Planning Department and Metroplan, show that Latinos were 12 percent of the overall Levy population of almost 12,000 in 2010. That compares with about 5 percent of Levy population in 2000 and 1.2 percent in 1990.

Cary Bradburn
North Little Rock History Commission