MacArthur Park in Downtown Little Rock
A municipal park operated by Parks & Recreation. Fundraising by MacArthur Park Group and Downtown Little Rock Partnership for the Connections: MacArthur Park Master Plan.
Upcoming Events & Fundraising Projects:
~5th MacArthur Park 5K Friday, May 4, 2012 at 7 p.m.
For more information or to register go to www.macarthurpark5k.org
~MacArthur Park Unleashed - A fundraising project for a first class dog park on the southeast end of the park. For more information contact Downtown Little Rock Partnership at 501.375.0121.
Reservations or rentals for park use is through Parks & Recreation, 501-371-4770. For more information about MacArthur Park Group contact Sharon Priest, executive director of Downtown Little Rock Parntership, at 501.375.0121 or [email protected]. Or, contact Stephan McAteer, director of MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, at 501.376.4602 or [email protected].
The 36-acre MacArthur Park is the oldest municipal park in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Located at 9th Street between Commerce and McMath (aka McAlmont) Street, just west of Interstate 30, it includes the Arkansas Arts Center, the MacArthur Museum of Military History, the Korean War Memorial and the soon to be opend Firehouse Hostel & Museum.
The first known use of the land that would become MacArthur Park was as a horse racetrack in the 1830s. In 1836, when Arkansas became a state, the U.S. Department of War bought the land for the Little Rock Arsenal. The Tower Building that still stands was one of more than thirty buildings constructed on the site during the nineteenth century. With the Civil War approaching, the arsenal was surrendered to the State of Arkansas in February 1861 by Captain James Totten, even though the state did not secede for another three months. 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, the buildings of the arsenal 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 Company of Memphis was one of the prospective buyers, to the consternation of some community leaders. With the help of Congressman William Terry of Little Rock, a deal was made in which 1,000 acres north of the Arkansas River were exchanged for the arsenal site. The formal agreement of exchange, which went into effect on April 23, 1892, stated that the property would be “forever exclusively devoted to the uses and purposes of a public park for” Little Rock. The 1,000 acres given in exchange became the home of Fort Logan H. Roots, which later was made into a veterans’ hospital.
J. H. Pittman, a landscape engineer from St. Louis, Missouri, redesigned the arsenal property. Twenty-eight buildings were removed, a bandstand and two well houses were constructed, and a body of water—named Pittman’s Lake—was created. 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 General Douglas MacArthur, who had been born at the arsenal in 1880.
The park was also known briefly as Camp Shaver when it housed the Confederate Veterans’ Reunion in May 1911. 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 fire-fighting vehicles. In 1933, a fish pond was created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which also constructed a Museum of Fine Arts building in 1936. The museum had received several additions since that time and was renamed the Arkansas Arts Center in 1963. In 1947, the south half of the park was considered as a site for a new veterans’ hospital, but public pressure (and the original agreement from 1892) caused the hospital to be built elsewhere.
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 and 1985 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 also created at this time on the south part of the park. The museum, which changed names several times, remained in the Tower Building for fifty-five years before relocating into the River Market District of Little Rock, where it now is called the Museum of Discovery. After the Tower Building was renovated, it reopened as the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History on May 19, 2001. Other additions to the park over the years include a plethora of martial commemorations, including a large memorial to Arkansans who served in the Korean War.
A need for continuing renovations led to the formation in 2006 of the MacArthur Park Group, a grass roots organization dedicated to preserving and improving MacArthur Park and its neighborhood.
1) Through special events and donations the Group hired an architectural firm to develop the award winning Connections: MacArthur Park Master Plan.
2) Fundraising events sponsored by the group under the guidance of Downtown Little Rock Partnership have included an annual five-kilometer run the first Monday of May, a murder mystery dinner theater and an annual Beer & Brats social in the fall.
3) The group annually leads volunteer park-clean-up days in April.
4) Refinancing of park bonds by the City of Little Rock have generated $150,000 for capital improvements to the North Lawn of the park.
5) The Museum, Art and Heritage Trail has been developed to link MacArthur Park to the River Market District.
6) Proposals for further park improvements as recommended in the Master Plan include doubling the size of the lake, adding an amphitheater and a fishing pier, and improving paths, sidewalks, and landscaping. Pulaski County is currently investing $2.3 million in McMath Avenue on the east side of the park and in the construction of a new road on the south side to be called Pulaski County Lane. The roadwork is expected to be completed in July 2012.
