Central High Neighborhood Historic District is home to Central High School, a key landmark in civil rights history due to the efforts made by the Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates in 1957 to end school desegregation. Today, this is a frequented site by visitors and locals alike. While the school stands proudly, many of the surrounding homes, dating as far back as 1900, are vacant, unsafe, and falling into disrepair.
Local resident and walkable communities advocate, Paul Dodds of Urban Frontier, has saved at least 17 vacant historic homes in this neighborhood. Through his work, he has learned how to preserve neighborhood integrity, protect long-term residents and heirs, and encourage sensitive reinvestment.
Still, this neighborhood was listed on Preserve Arkansas’ 2023 list of most endangered historic places. Historic tax credits are an important tool to offset maintenance and repair costs, however, the district risks losing it’s status as it is dangerously close to having less than 51% contributing structures. Many of the properties continue to sit in varying levels of neglect, inviting nefarious activities and blight into the neighborhood.
Urban Frontier hosted a series of walking tours to shine a spotlight on changes to policies and practices that could help the Craftsman Bungalows, Tudor Revival, and Colonial Revival homes in this neighborhood thrive.
Dodds shares system reforms and resources that can prevent this neighborhood from continuing to fall into disrepair. These include:
- Doing a PSA for the City Tools law from 2006 and urban renewal law, rethought to preserve neighborhoods.
- Assistance for families who inherit vacant properties to help clear title and guide rehabilitation process.
- For out of state speculators, firm enforcement of fines and liens for neglected, vacant properties.
- Demolition bans for contributing historic homes.
- A streamlined system of budget, administrative and legal support for the City’s Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development and Environmental Court to be efficient and effective in promoting vibrant neighborhoods.
- HUD standards should be followed to board and secure buildings, and holes in roofs should be fixed.
- Improved data tracking of vacant properties at risk, and of Environmental Court cases.
- Develop standards for inspection, estimating renovation costs and other procedures.
“The lack of framework, guidance, funding and support leaves a system in paralysis, gradually going downhill. It reinforces the poverty of our poorest homeowners, by hardening patterns of residential segregation by class and race,” shares Dodds. We must take action to help Little Rock become a more vibrant place, and Dodds shares with us a pretty comprehensive list to help get us started.
Want to read more? The Arkansas Advocate interviewed city staff and others involved in Central High neighborhood to further dig into the topic. You can read the article here.
