1970s public-housing towers in Little Rock up for historic register

A map showing sites under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places.
A map showing sites under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places.

Three Little Rock public-housing towers have been nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

Receiving the designation could make the properties eligible for up to $11 million in federal or state tax credits.

The Fred W. Parris Towers, Cumberland Towers and Jesse Powell Towers -- all built between 1972 and 1975 by Little Rock's public-housing agency -- will go before the Historic Preservation Review Board on Wednesday.

If approved, and then endorsed by National Register Survey coordinator Ralph Wilcox, the nomination will be passed along to the National Park Service for final acceptance. The service then has 45 days to consider and accept the listing.

The towers' nomination is part of a larger effort to renovate and improve the aging structures. The federal and state tax credits the city's housing agency would obtain would augment a $50 million renovation plan funded by a public-private ownership arrangement called the Rental Assistance Demonstration program -- a U.S. Housing and Urban Development tool that allows housing agencies to transform public housing with private financing.

The private partner in the investment is Gorman & Company Inc.

"The financial plan is to include all of the opportunities to raise funding to create a better living environment as well as take advantage of the fact that the property has a significant role in the history of Little Rock," said Rodney Forte, director of the Metropolitan Housing Alliance.

The towers mark a public-housing development period that ended in 1973 when President Richard Nixon's administration placed a moratorium on new construction and shifted federal policy toward replacing publicly constructed housing projects with a voucher system, according to materials submitted to the state board by the Heritage Consultant Group.

The Cumberland, Parris and Powell towers "are the only examples of this historic context in Little Rock," wrote the consultants.

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The period originally began when President Dwight Eisenhower's administration passed the Fair Housing Act of 1956, and after President John F. Kennedy's administration redoubled efforts with the passage of the Housing Act of 1961, according to the consultants. The policies shifted significant funding toward affordable housing for senior citizens.

In 1969, the Little Rock Housing Authority -- now known as the Metropolitan Housing Alliance -- secured funds and announced plans for the three towers.

Using $10.6 million in Housing and Urban Development loans, the Little Rock agency purchased a $300,000 lot along the 300 block of East Eighth Street near downtown for Cumberland Towers; a $385,000 lot for Parris Towers along the 1800 block of Broadway; and a $320,000 lot for Powell Towers along the 1000 block of Wolfe Street near the Capitol.

Today, the towers comprise 596 units of the Metropolitan Housing Alliance's 902-unit stock. Cumberland and Parris are reserved for residents 50 and older.

Currently, Arkansas has 2,603 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, placing the state among the top 10 in the nation, according to Jim Gabbert, a historian with the register.

The state board typically recommends 30 to 40 properties for listing in a given year. The register receives about 1,200 nominations per year from all U.S. territories and states. Less than 1 percent of those nominations are rejected, Gabbert said.

Properties on the list are eligible for a 25 percent state tax credit and a 20 percent federal tax credit for rehabilitation.

Metro on 12/04/2016

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