I visited this place with my parents when I was about 12 and again with my wife and mother-in-law when I was 24 or so. It was time to visit again. Since my last visit, they’ve constructed a huge modern building on the lot that overwhelms the historic buildings and serves as a history museum. It’s filled with old weapons and old chairs, some of which were interesting but few of which had much to do with Arkansas history.
We were on our own in the museum but had to take a guided tour of the old houses. The woman who ushered us around was wearing a scarf that kept slipping off her shoulder. During the 45 minutes or so that we were with her, she must have flipped it back up 50 times. I wanted to yank on the short end and adjust it so it would stay in place, but I resisted the urge. The woman had a sense of humor and got enthusiastic whenever her spiel was leading up to one of her jokes, but most of the time she seemed rather bored with the whole thing.
What I like about these buildings is that they are authentic and on their original sites. The first one we toured is the Hinderliter Grog Shop, a tavern built in 1826 and which is the oldest surviving building in Little Rock.
Here’s what it looked like inside.
Here’s our guide (with her scarf in the process of slipping yet again) in the bar room.
We walked over to the next building, the Brownlee House, built in the 1840s by a stonemason who came to town to build the State House. Surprisingly, our guide’s scarf has slipped off her shoulder.
Inside, a woman was dressed as one of the Brownlee’s slaves from the 1850s. She gave us a half hour talk on the life of a slave, complete with singing and dancing. My wife found it interesting. I got a bigger kick out of watching our guide trying to contain her boredom as she fiddled with her scarf, got up to look out the windows, checked her watch, stared at the ceiling …
We went in one other building, the McVicar house built in the 1840s by the head of the Arkansas penitentiary. Our guide was thoroughly bored by this time, so we didn’t stay long.
