BUILDING
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School - The Architectural Showpiece of the Negro Neighborhood
Apr 1, 2021
Little Rock’s Dunbar Middle School has rich historical significance to the progression of Black people in Arkansas in four areas: African-American history, educational history, legal history, and architectural/engineering achievements. Under its educational operations as Paul Laurence Dunbar Junior and Senior High School and Junior College, it offered a complete, extensive academic and vocational education to Black students.
Dunbar was the only educational institute that Black students could attend in Little Rock because of legal segregation laws. Its construction was a part of a comprehensive program to improve the quality of public education for Black people in the early 1900s, including 338 schools built in Arkansas, largely funded by the then-president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, Julius Rosenwald. Students would walk as far as today’s Arch Street to attend in both winter and spring to take part in Dunbar's educational opportunities and experiences.
Located at the corner of Wright Avenue and Ringo Street, with its elaborate art deco-style brick patterns and subtle towers complemented by the stoops underneath them, Paul Laurence Dunbar Junior and Senior High School and Junior College was the architectural showcase of the Black neighborhood. With its advanced curriculum and perseverance of excellence, it was also the neighborhood’s beacon of pride.
HISTORIC DISTRICT
The Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District is located in the southern part of the downtown Little Rock area. This district represents the evolution of an integrated Black, working, middle-class neighborhood of the late-nineteenth century to a predominantly Black working, middle-class neighborhood of the 1960s.
The District is a neighboring area and a contributing success factor to the once flourishing West 9th Street Black Business District of downtown Little Rock. It was comprised of Black, educated business owners and professionals who could afford to purchase, remodel, or build their homes and contribute to the sustainability of the community.
The first home of the district was constructed in 1890, with additional homes built through 1961. Three of the residential properties within the District were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 1999 - the Scipio A. Jones 1) House at 1872 Cross Street, built in 1928, the Miller House(2) at 1853 Ringo Street, built in 1906 and remodeled in 1924, and the Womack House(3) at 1867 Ringo Street, built in 1922. Each one is a Craftsman-style structure with its own flair. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program says that the homes' architectural styles within the District exhibit influences and variants of a broad mix of popular trends of the time. They also show evidence that the Black residents of the area were resourceful and growing in prosperity despite segregation.
The District includes 155 properties varying in architectural styles that show a collective entity through the neighborhood to represent its evolution. Although the District is abundant with historic resources, it is distressed with blight and disinvestment, earning it a place on Arkansas’s most endangered historic place list. The City of Little Rock published its Citywide Historic Preservation Plan in 2009, which would “preserve, maintain, and enhance the city’s large stock of historic buildings both downtown and in center-city neighborhoods.” After an intensive architectural survey of the District’s neighborhoods, it was determined that the entire district was historic and was added to the National Register of Historic Places list on September 27, 2013.
According to the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the District is roughly bounded by Wright Avenue on the north, South Chester on the east, South Ringo Street on the west, and West 24th Street on the south. This approximate area sits between the Governor’s Mansion, Little Rock Central High School, and Philander Smith College along Wright Avenue. The District was built on the significance of progression, ethnic heritage, and education. Paul Laurence Dunbar Junior and Senior High School and Junior College became the visual, architectural proof.