For 35 years, I’ve lived and worked in downtown Little Rock. With my wife, Cheri (a historic preservationist for whom living in the suburbs wasn’t an option), I moved into the historic neighborhood anchored by the Governor’s Mansion when we returned to Little Rock in 1980, after living in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Don’t pin me down on the exact boundaries of my neighborhood — let’s just say I-630 to the north, Roosevelt Road to the south, and Scott and State Streets to the east and west.
My work always has been downtown, and my office nearly always has been located within a few blocks of Center and Capitol. There was the exception during the mid-1990s when I officed way out at Third and Chester, but that’s as far as I’ve strayed from the Central Business District. My commute on a bad day is five minutes. When it snows or ices, I walk.
When we moved into the Governor’s Mansion neighborhood, it was on the rise, thanks largely to the pioneers of Little Rock’s historic preservation movement — people like Carl Miller, Becky and Charles Witsell, Anne and John Jarrard, and Bill and Kathy Worthen (all of whom, by the way, are still around and still active in the neighborhood).
Although it was on the rise in 1980, it wasn’t a perfect neighborhood. As in Greenwich Village, you still passed the occasional hooker, and panhandlers and those recently released from the state mental institutions walked the streets. But since in those days there was little reason for me to be a pedestrian, I only saw these more “colorful” neighborhood residents as I drove by. Break-ins were not unknown, but crimes against people were rare, comparing favorably (if that’s the way to state crime statistics) with other Little Rock neighborhoods.
Changes have come to my neighborhood over the past 35 years, mostly good ones. The number of houses being rehabbed gradually has surpassed the number of structures deteriorating, and vacant lots are being filled, some by new houses and others by historic houses moved from other locations. During his tenure as governor, Bill Clinton was present during one of those moves. He happened to be jogging by one Sunday morning when a cottage from the MacArthur Park area was moved onto the vacant lot across the street from my house. Its owner was a young P. Allen Smith, who restored the cottage, built a garden and started his TV show there.
Interestingly, Allen’s is not the only TV show that’s ever been on the block. For a while, his across-the-alley neighbors were the Duggars, who temporarily lived and shot their TV show in a big early-20th century house (which, ironically, originally was the home of one of the founders of Planned Parenthood in Arkansas).
The most recent positive changes have come to the South Main Street area, now known as SoMa. I’m sure you’ve heard about or eaten at one or more of the area’s restaurants: the Root Café, South on Main, Raduno (formerly Piro), or Boulevard Bread. But don’t forget the South Main stalwart, Community Bakery, still going strong after some 25 years at 12th and Main. Retail also is flourishing, at long last, led by the Green Corner Store (which includes, by the way, an old-fashioned soda fountain serving the delicious wares of Loblolly Creamery, founded by Sally Mengel, who was for a time our house-sitter as her business was starting). The Green Corner Store has been joined by MOXY Modern Mercantile, Sweet Home Furnishings & Clement, and the store at Esse Purse Museum to create a lively shopping district.
Now I frequently walk from my house on Gaines Street to SoMa, sometimes for a purpose (eating, usually) and other times simply to walk. I remember seeing, when I first moved to the neighborhood, older residents walking, some because they had no cars and others for exercise. Now, after 35 years, I’m an “older resident” and, while it’s hard to admit, I have come to consider walking an exercise. In my own defense, it wasn’t my idea. After our black Lab Sydney died last fall, Cheri invited me to take the dog’s place on walks around the neighborhood. I knew she considered me a sorry substitute for Sydney, but she wanted a walking companion (and, unlike Sydney, if our walk ends at a restaurant, I’ll pick up the tab).
Walking a few miles a few times a week has reintroduced me to my neighborhood and reminded me that the health of older neighborhoods like mine is an indication of the overall health of a locale. Reflecting back over the past 35 years, I think my neighborhood has done well despite some significant headwinds. Those who grapple with other problems facing our small Southern city would do well to study why my neighborhood is thriving. They might learn some valuable lessons.
Mark Nichols wrote this month’s Day in Little Rock story. A Knoxville, Tennessee, native and attorney by trade, Nichols practiced law in Little Rock until 2011. Most recently he published a book, “From Azaleas to Zydeco: My 4,600-Mile Journey through the South.” He and his historic preservationist wife, Cheri, live in a revitalized Victorian home in the Quapaw Quarter. The couple has a son, Will, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina. Learn more about Nichols’ book at AzaleasToZydeco.com.