MacArthur Park’s moment
The new Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is receiving rave reviews across the country. Forbes described it as “America’s most inviting art museum.” In the process, the place where it’s housed—Little Rock’s MacArthur Park—is welcoming visitors who otherwise wouldn’t have set foot in this part of town.
The 36-acre park is the capital city’s oldest, situated on a spot where there was a horse-racing track in the 1830s. When Arkansas became a state in 1836, the
U.S. Department of War bought the land for the Little Rock Arsenal.
The Tower Building, which now houses the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, was among the buildings constructed by the federal government during the 1800s.
“With the Civil War approaching, the arsenal was surrendered to the state of Arkansas in February 1861 by Capt. James Totten, even though the state didn’t secede for another three months,” Steve Teske writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “Following the capture of Little Rock by Union troops in September 1863, the arsenal was used as military barracks until it was given to the city of Little Rock.
“By 1890, arsenal buildings were being allowed to deteriorate, and many people in Little Rock assumed that it would be sold or abandoned by the U.S. government. Tennessee Brewing Co. of Memphis was one of the prospective buyers, to the consternation of some community leaders.”
U.S. Rep. William Terry helped those civic leaders broker a deal in which 1,000 acres north of the Arkansas River were exchanged for the arsenal site. The agreement went into effect in April 1892, and stated that the property would be “forever exclusively devoted to the uses and purposes of a public park” for the city of Little Rock.
The 1,000 acres north of the river became Fort Logan H. Roots, which later was home to a veterans’ medical facility. J.H. Pittman, a noted landscape specialist from St. Louis, was hired to redesign the arsenal property. In order to open up space for the park, 28 buildings were removed.
“A bandstand and two wellhouses were constructed, and a body of water named Pittman’s Lake was created,” Teske writes. “The property was renamed Arsenal Park and opened to the public on July 4, 1893. It was used largely for picnics and baseball games.
“The lake was drained and filled after a few years because of complaints about the mosquitoes it attracted. Most people referred to the park as City Park until its official name was changed to MacArthur Park in 1942, honoring Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had been born at the arsenal in 1880.”
It’s 8 a.m. on a Friday, and I’m at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History to meet with what’s known as the MacArthur Park Group. With a core membership of 14 people, the group meets every Friday to discuss plans for park improvements. The group was formed in 2006 and has raised almost $5 million through the years. The members currently are trying to raise $1 million for improvements to what’s known as Foster Pond.
“We’ve always had a good relationship with the city,” says Sharon Priest, the former Arkansas secretary of state who was an original member of the group 17 years ago. “We’re not a legal entity. We’re just a bunch of people who get together and try to make this park better. Our first goal was to improve the perception of the park and increase the number of people using it.”
Group members say the park is far safer than it was in 2006. Longtime residents of neighborhoods surrounding MacArthur Park had watched it deteriorate for years while the city board refused to increase funding for upkeep. At one point, then-Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines even put county money into the park.
The first fundraising event the group sponsored was a 5K race. Money raised through the years has funded a master plan, a dog park, and an all-access playground. Now, having a worldclass art museum will allow additional visitors to discover other areas of the park.
“People were truly afraid to come here,” Priest says. “The first thing we had to do was make them feel safe. We accomplished that. With the art museum now open, we’re looking at things such as more live performances in the park.”
“It’s nice to see young people who live in this part of town taking advantage of amenities such as the dog park and playground,” says Norm Berner, a member of the MacArthur Park Group. “You can come out here anytime and find something to do.”
The largest number of people to ever be in the park at one time was in May 1911 when it housed some of those attending the United Confederate Veterans’ Reunion. The reunion drew more than 140,000, including 12,000 veterans of the Civil War. No one in that tent village 112 years ago could have dreamed that the park would one day be home of an arts museum that’s being celebrated by critics nationwide.
“A firehouse was built on the southwest corner of the park in 1917 and was used until 1959, when it was no longer able to contain the larger firefighting vehicles,” Teske writes. “A monument commemorating the first legal human dissection in Arkansas was erected in 1927. In 1933, a fishing pond was built by the Works Progress Administration, which also constructed an arts museum building in 1936.”
The museum was expanded and renamed the Arkansas Arts Center in 1963. The new AMFA facility combines the original building and additions with modern wings. About $160 million was raised for the project. Two winners of the MacArthur Foundation “genius award” were hired: Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects and Kate Orff of SCAPE Landscape Architecture.
Gang recently was featured in a segment of “CBS Sunday Morning,” and AMFA was discussed. It was priceless national publicity for the park, a place considered dangerous not so long ago.
“In 1947, the south half of the park was considered as a site for a new veterans’ hospital, but public pressure (and the agreement from 1892) caused the hospital to be built elsewhere,” Teske writes. “In 1942, the same year the park was renamed, the city of Little Rock moved its Museum of Natural History and Antiquities into the Tower Building, the only remaining structure from the arsenal complex.
“Renovations to the park in 1984-85 added a playground and contemplation gardens, as well as a concert pavilion to replace the bandshell, which had deteriorated beyond repair by 1961. A 1.7-acre lake was created at this time on the south part of the park. The museum, which changed names several times, remained in the Tower Building for 55 years before relocation to the River Market District, where it’s now the Museum of Discovery.”
The Tower Building was renovated, and the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History opened in May 2001. I’m hopeful the increased attention being paid to the park due to AMFA will lead to more people visiting the excellent military history museum.
The Aesthetic Club made the Tower Building its meeting site in 1894. The renovation prior to the 2001 opening of the military museum left room for the club to meet. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 1970 and was named a National Historic Landmark in April 1994.
“Permanent exhibits in the museum include Civil War exhibits such as a room dedicated to the Camden Expedition and a room dedicated to Confederate spy David O. Dodd,” Teske writes. “A 1943 Jeep from World War II dominates another room, surrounded by documents and plaques commemorating this style of military vehicles.
“One room is dedicated to World War I, and another displays a portion of the museum’s collection of 4,000 photographs taken during World War II. Other rooms document the Korean War experiences of Douglas MacArthur, the 1911 Confederate reunion and the history of the Aesthetic Club.”