Mount Holly Cemetery
National Register of Historic Places

Mount Holly Cemetery

Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas
Listed
March 4, 1970
Type
Structure
Period
Civil War
Ref No.
70000125

About this property

Mount Holly Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in the Quapaw Quarter area of downtown Little Rock in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the burial place for numerous Arkansans of note. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and has been nicknamed "The Westminster Abbey of Arkansas". Every year in October several drama students from Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School are each given a person buried in the cemetery to research. They then prepare short monologues or dialogues, complete with period costumes, to be performed in front of the researched person's grave. Audiences are led through the cemetery from grave to grave by guides with candles. The event is called "Tales of the Crypt". Although it takes place around the same time as the American holiday Halloween, the event is meant to be historic rather than spooky. The cemetery experienced heavy vandalism in the overnight hours of April 20, 2016. Numerous headstones were toppled and smashed, including the well-known statues of a mourner next to statues of two little girls. The cemetery is the burial place for ten former Arkansas governors, seven United States senators, 14 Arkansas Supreme Court justices, 21 Little Rock mayors, numerous Arkansas literary figures, Confederate generals, and other worthies. There are also several slaves who are buried there, marked by modest gravestones. Samuel Adams (1805–1850), Acting Governor of Arkansas (1844) Dale Alford (1916–2000), U.S. Representative (1959–63) and ophthalmologist Chester Ashley (1791–1848), U.S. Senator (1844–1848) W. Jasper Blackburn (1820–1899), U.S. Representative from Louisiana (1868–1869) Solon Borland (1811–1864) cenotaph, physician and U.S. Senator (1848–1853) Thomas James Churchill (1824–1905), Confederate Major General, 13th Governor of Arkansas (1881–1883) Elias Nelson Conway (1812–1892), 5th Governor of Arkansas (1852–1860) Dr. Matthew Cunningham (1782-1854), first Mayor of Little Rock, first physician in Little Rock Jeff Davis (1862–1913), 20th Governor of Arkansas (1901–1907), U.S. Senator (1907–1913) David O. Dodd (1846–1864), boy martyr of the Confederacy James Philip Eagle (1837–1904), 25th Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives (1885–1887) and 16th Governor of Arkansas (1889–1893) James Fleming Fagan (1828–1893), Confederate Major General Sandford C. Faulkner (1803–1874), the original 'Arkansas Traveller' John Gould Fletcher (1886–1950), Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, with his wife, noted children's book author Charlie May Simon (1897–1977) Thomas Fletcher (1817–1880), Acting Governor of Arkansas (1862)

Location

12th St. and Broadway
Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas
34.73842, -92.27348

Categories

SOCIAL HISTORY
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Overview
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The Land
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Geology
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LiDAR Terrain
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Conflict & War
The battles, raids and skirmishes fought near here, across every era of American conflict.
The Civil War
The Civil War on this ground, 1861 to 1865: who held it, and the battles, camps and regiments nearby.
The Soldiers
The men who marched from here in the Civil War, named and traced where the record allows.
Native Heritage
The Native nations who held this land, mapped across time from before European contact to today.
Settlement
Who claimed and held this ground, from Indigenous homelands through the colonial powers to the United States.
The Community
How the town grew, who came, and what kind of place it became, traced through the census record.
Rivers & Rail
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Notable People
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Historical Maps
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Finds & Access
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Literature
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Spotlight
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Nearby Historic Sites

First Baptist Church
Pre Contact
0.1 mi
Hanger, Frederick, House
Industrial
0.1 mi
Arkansas Power & Light Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Healey and Roth Mortuary Building
Industrial
0.2 mi
Vanetten House
Pre Contact
0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

Brooks-Baxter War (Arkansas 1874)
1874Frontier
1.1 mi

Questions about this property

When was Mount Holly Cemetery listed on the National Register?

Mount Holly Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1970.

What type of historic resource is Mount Holly Cemetery?

Mount Holly Cemetery is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Mount Holly Cemetery?

The period of significance for Mount Holly Cemetery is recorded as the civil_war era.

Can I research the history near Mount Holly Cemetery?

Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Mount Holly Cemetery will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.

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