Houses in Hillcrest IV

I love little craftsman houses with the dormers that look like an eyelid in the process of opening. One house like that was torn down in Searcy just a year or two ago. Photo of that one after the jump.

The Last of its Kind

Google Map

Last year, this Little Rock house was on the Arkansas Historic Preservation Association's list of most endangered places.

Houses in Hillcrest III

I like houses with porches and big windows. The style is inviting, not overbearing, and makes you feel more like a human. All those "exposed" rafters and such are also examples of Craftsman style.

Houses in Hillcrest II

YUM

A row of modest Craftsman houses in lower Hillcrest.

Houses in Hillcrest I

Google Map

After exploring Stift Station's old commercial strip, we wandered around the bottom of Hillcrest for a while, ogling all the huge, antique houses. For the next few days I'll show you some of them. 

Houses in Stift Station

The houses in Stift Station are smaller and younger than the ones in the nearby Hillcrest and Heights neighborhoods, but still overflow with that 1920s-1930s craftsman charm. Another photo after the jump.

"Stift Station" Sign

Google Maps

I'm a bit torn on this one. The sign as it appears today is classy, but totally devoid of neon. It used to be a sign for Little Rock Paint & Wallpaper Co., which has been gone for a long time. Even when other businesses were in this building it kept that sign. But recently it changed to this. Here's what it used to look like. Judge for yourself.

"Thrift" Sign, Stift Station

Classy.

This sign is just a block down from Buice Drugs. Signs from the 1950s and earlier tend to look like this in the last days of their lives. It's sad. Google Streetview from 2007 shows a business called the "Broom Closet" here, but the sign wasn't in much better shape then than now.

Buice Drugs, Stift Station

Google Map

 An excellent old neon sign in the Stift Station neighborhood near downtown Little Rock. The owner, George Wimberly, recently died at age 92 or so. The interior is cleared out and I wonder what will happen to this institution. By the way, it's pronounced like "vice."

More photos from Stift Station to follow. A bit of background after the jump.

The Djinn of Centre Place

Google Map

One of the more characteristic architectural details on any building in downtown Little Rock. There's four of those guys on the Centre Place building, and I bet they've been holding up those columns for at least 100 years. Rough work.

The Rebirth of Argenta

Downtown North Little Rock, 1990s

I've been talking about downtown North Little Rock for a while, so how about the story of its rise from death.

The Lost Rialto, North Little Rock

Note: Haircuts, 35 cents.

Continuing through the Argenta Historic District, we come to one landmark that left us years ago. The Rialto Theater shares a name with another one of my favorite places. This art deco beauty was torn down in the 1970s or 1980s as part of what they called "urban renewal" (my fist). Guess what's in it's place these days.