Mapping Our History: Little Rock’s West Ninth Street

The CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is pleased to announce the creation of a digital exhibit documenting the history of Little Rock’s West Ninth Street, once a center of commerce and culture for the city’s African Americans. The project uses a mapping program to create an interactive narrative, useful for providing context and illustrating spatial relationships.

During the Civil War, the area around what became West Ninth Street was settled by recently freed slaves. Over time, more African Americans moved into the area. Eventually, the corridor along West Ninth Street became the business and social center of Little Rock’s African-American community.

Mosaic Templars Headquarters at the corner of Broadway and 9th streets in Little Rock; 1924.

Looking west along Ninth Street from Broadway today, the area is but a shell of its former glory. The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, rebuilt on the site of the original temple after a disastrous fire in 2005, anchors the corridor, much as the original Mosaic Templars building did during Ninth Street’s heyday.

During its golden age, West Ninth Street was home to an assortment of Black-owned businesses and was the place where Little Rock’s African-American community went to eat, shop, and play. Restaurants, beauty parlors, grocery stores, medical facilities, and law offices populated the area, which also had a movie theater and several churches.

  • African American women working at their desks in office under ceiling fans (opens in new window)
    Secretarial pool, Mosaic Templars of America
  • African American men and women working in office (opens in new window)
    Accounting room, Mosaic Templars of America
  • African American man with mustache and glasses in suit in oval frame (opens in new window)
    Dr. Fred T. Jones, who established the Great Southern Fraternal Hospital in the predominately Black area of Little Rock, near the intersection of 9th and State streets. The hospital provided medical care for members of two Black fraternal organizations: the United Friends of America and the Independent Order of Immaculates. White doctors operated at the hospital along with Jones and other Black physicians.
  • Three African American women in nursing uniforms on stairs (opens in new window)
    Nurses at Great Southern Fraternal Hospital
  • African American man with mustache in suit and bow tie (opens in new window)
    John Bush, one of the founders of the Mosaic Templars of America. Bush was widely acknowledged as one of the wealthiest African American men in Arkansas and a leader in the economic development and progress of Black American entrepreneurs.
  • Multistory brick building and power lines on street (opens in new window)
    Taborian Hall

It has sometimes been said that there were two Ninth Streets. There was the daytime version when families could be seen patronizing the various businesses, and then the nighttime version when the corridor became alive with music. Taborian Hall, which housed a number of Black-owned businesses on the first two floors, was the site of much revelry. The third floor was known as the Dreamland Ballroom. There, musical artists such as Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Duke Ellington entertained delighted audiences. The space was also used by social clubs as well as local basketball teams.

The 1950s brought the beginning of the end for West Ninth Street. Under the policies of so-called Urban Renewal, a number of buildings were torn down. The construction of Interstate 630 through the middle of the city also had a severe impact on the community. Many African Americans who lived in the area were displaced, and their movement to other parts of the city only aggravated an already precarious situation for the remaining businesses on West Ninth Street. Today, a number of vacant lots and grassy areas shroud what was a bustling area of business and entertainment.

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Click here to view the West Ninth Street digital exhibit, along with several other digital projects.

And read about Ninth Street on the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas here.

By Brian Robertson, Manager, Research Services Division, CALS Roberts Library

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Brian Robertson

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