Mural a tale of LR building’s past

Archivist inspired by colorful history of downtown’s Arcade

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --1/23/14-- Richard Madison of Wood Painting in North Little Rock hangs a mural Thursday afternoon at the new Arcade building in the River Market. The mural, designed by Tom Clifton, Interim Chair for the UALR Department of Art and researched by Archivist Shannon Lausch from the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture, presents the history of the Arcade Building.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --1/23/14-- Richard Madison of Wood Painting in North Little Rock hangs a mural Thursday afternoon at the new Arcade building in the River Market. The mural, designed by Tom Clifton, Interim Chair for the UALR Department of Art and researched by Archivist Shannon Lausch from the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture, presents the history of the Arcade Building.

When Shannon Lausch heard about the rebirth of Little Rock’s once-thriving Arcade Building - which has been rebuilt downtown after it was torn down more than half a century ago - she saw a unique story to tell.

That story was about a building that in 1914 stretched an entire block between Louisiana and Center streets and Sixth and Seventh streets downtown but was neglected over the years and finally torn down in 1960 during a period of urban renewal. A new Arcade Building was constructed last year in the River Market District, on the corner of President Clinton Avenue and River Market Avenue.

“It really impressed me that people still have such vivid memories of the [original] building today. It was more than people’s memories of the place, though, that I thought would make a good exhibit,” said Lausch, an archivist with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “It also had an interesting history of its own and it really demonstrated 20th-century Little Rock.”

Lausch moved to the city a little more than a year ago from the Chicago area. She worked with Tom Clifton, interim chairman of the university’s arts department, to create a graphically designed mural of the original Arcade Building that tells its history. The mural is now displayed on the walls of a lobby in the new Arcade Building.

The lobby is accessible from the building’s glass door on River Market Avenue. Lausch’s original inspiration for the project was a postcard depicting the old Arcade Building that was passed out at the grand opening of the new Arcade Building.

The first structure was built on land owned by the Diocese of Little Rock that had served as the original site for Mount St. Mary Academy, which at the time was known as St. Mary’s Academy, according to the school’s website.

Thousands attended the Arcade Building’s June 25, 1914, opening, which featured a festival complete with dancing and a speech by the mayor. George R. Mann, who designed the Capitol building, also designed the Arcade, which was given its name for its unique arched passageway.

Starting out as a market where Little Rock residents could get fresh produce and do all of their grocery shopping in one place, it soon became home to many specialty stores. Flowers, clothing and baked goods became available and as the specialty stores began to outnumber the grocery locations, the building transitioned into something similar to a modern-day mall, Lausch said.

But by the late 1950s, the Arcade Building was deteriorating.

“In its day, the Arcade Building was one of Little Rock’s marvels. But it has been besieged by time,” an Arkansas Gazette article said at the time. Another headline read: “Doomed Arcade Building on former church site.”

There were 13 fewer vendors in 1959 than when the building opened. After being torn down in March 1960, the building was replaced by the Downtowner Motor Inn - “a real dream-come-true for shoppers, football fans, visiting businessmen and tourists,” according to a blurb in the “Scribe” newsletter put out by Blue Cross, Blue Shield that year.

“At the time, [the hotel] was considered a boon to Little Rock’s downtown after it was struggling to repair its image after the opposition to desegregation,” Lausch said at a lecture she gave Thursday. “But over the decades, the motel went downhill much quicker and farther than the Arcade ever did.”

She described another Gazette article that said police would often stop by the motel to check for criminal suspects. Eventually barbed wire was put up “to protect guests.” The motel was demolished in 2004.

The new Arcade Building is home to the Central Arkansas Library System’s new 350-seat Ron Robinson Theater. It also includes a new upscale restaurant, Cache, and has space for other retailers that have yet to move in. Rett Tucker and Jimmy Moses,with the real-estate firm Moses Tucker, were involved in the development of the new building.

“Jimmy and I are just old enough to remember the first Arcade - a multiuse building with everything from fresh produce to seed and feed,” Tucker said. “We envisioned the new Arcade as a reincarnation of the old one. With the restaurant, retail, the movie theater, office, library archives and Clinton School classrooms set on a busy pedestrian corner, we hope it meets that objective.”

Clifton, who used Lausch’s research to design the mural, said he incorporated a red, flowing ribbon in the piece to demonstrate several things, including the building’s proximity to the Arkansas River and a sense of time.

“We become these kind of paths where we spend time together and then we move on,” Clifton said. “So, I have a sense of the river, a sense of time, a sense of people in these lines. It also helps the reader flow through [the piece.]”

The university is working on a website that features the same information as the mural. It should be accessible by Feb. 3 at ualrexhibits.org.

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/26/2014

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