Old State House Museum

The Old State House was the Arkansas State Capitol from 1842-1912. The vote to secede from the Union in 1861 happened here. After the new capitol was built, this building was used as a medical school and then turned into a museum.

This is at least the fourth time I’ve toured it. I first went when I was a kid with my parents and had a brochure from that visit for a long time. I visited once or twice during visits to family in the 1980’s. I went again with a group of men from men when we were in Arkansas to work a booth at a Baptist pastors conference. And I went on this day with my wife.

The old house of representatives has been restored. There are permanent displays on governors, first ladies’ gowns, and the building itself. Several rooms that usually contain special exhibits were empty this time because—or so we were told by the lonely lady behind the counter in the gift shop—things haven’t ramped back up since Covid. The only special exhibit this time was about the different bands and musicians that have performed in the local arena. It mostly consisted of album covers and so wasn’t all that interesting.

We only saw one other visitor while we were there. The lady in the gift shop made a huge fuss over us. I asked if things were always that slow during the week and she said yes and that’s why she was so very happy to see us. We had a hard time escaping from the conversation.

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