Haunted Places in Little Rock, AR

The history

Little Rock's haunted ground is the ground of Arkansas's first capital city — a Greek Revival state house where a legislator was killed on the chamber floor, an arsenal tower that became a general's birthplace, and a Quapaw Quarter of Victorian houses built by men who made their money in saloons and hotels.

The oldest anchor is the Old State House at 300 West Markham Street. Wikipedia's documented history records that it was commissioned by Governor John Pope, constructed between 1833 and 1842 to a Greek Revival design by Gideon Shryock, and served as Arkansas's capitol from 1842 to 1912 — it is the oldest surviving state capitol building west of the Mississippi River. The General Assembly moved in while construction was still under way, and the building's defining violent moment came in that unfinished setting: on December 4, 1837, in the first session of the General Assembly, Speaker John Wilson killed Representative Joseph J. Anthony in a knife fight on the floor of the state House of Representatives. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas adds the documented trigger: Anthony's amendment to a wolf-scalp bounty bill, offered in jest, named Wilson — in his other role as president of the Arkansas Real Estate Bank — as the official who would sign the bounty certificates, and Wilson took it as a personal insult, left the speaker's chair, and drew his bowie knife. The building later hosted the secession convention that took Arkansas out of the Union on May 6, 1861, and was occupied by Federal troops after the Battle of Bayou Fourche in September 1863. It has been a museum since 1951, in the museum's own account, and admission is free.

Across MacArthur Park stands the second anchor. The Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal, Wikipedia records, was built between 1840 and 1841 and is the only remaining building of the original Little Rock Arsenal; the arsenal grounds are now MacArthur Park. The tower is also a birthplace: Douglas MacArthur was born there in 1880, while his father was stationed at the post — the fact the building's present tenant, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, is named for.

Downtown's third anchor is a hotel. The Capital Hotel, Wikipedia records, opened in 1876 and stands in downtown Little Rock — a working hotel with more than a century of guests behind it, and one of the stops every Little Rock ghost account names.

The fourth anchor is a house built to outshine a rival. The Hornibrook House — today The Empress of Little Rock — was completed in 1888, and its own history page gives the frame: designed by Max Orlopp and Kasper Kusener, built using only Arkansas materials for $20,000, and described in its National Register listing as the best example of ornate Victorian architecture in Arkansas and the most important existing example of Gothic Queen Anne style in the region. Its builder, saloon keeper James H. Hornibrook, built it after his competitor Angelo Marré completed the Villa Marré. Curran Hall, the city's other named haunted house, was built in 1842 for Colonel Ebenezer Walters, per Wikipedia — one of the Quapaw Quarter's antebellum survivals.

The legend

This section is folklore — reported by the tour operator, the city's visitor bureau, and haunted accounts, and never asserted as fact here.

The Old State House's reported figure belongs to haunted accounts of the building: a man dressed in a 19th-century frock coat is said to be seen walking the aisles of the Central Hall on the second floor, and the apparition is thought in those accounts to be John Wilson, whose political career was destroyed by the 1837 killing even though he was acquitted. That is a ghost story hung on a documented killing — the killing is history, the figure is folklore.

The nightly tour operator, US Ghost Adventures, supplies most of the current repertoire. At the Capital Hotel, its page reports strange sounds, unexplained cold spots, flickering lights, and sightings linked to former residents. At Curran Hall, it reports unusual fragrances, moving objects, and activity connected to a woman whose story is woven into the property's history. At the Museum of Arkansas Military History in MacArthur Park, it tells of playful apparitions, phantom gatherings, and mysterious figures. Visit Little Rock, the city's own visitor bureau, tells a matching version for the MacArthur Museum: guests have reported cold spots, disembodied voices, and flickering lights in the tower.

At The Empress, Visit Little Rock reports that guests have spotted a well-dressed man watching silently from the top of the staircase, a woman in pink, and a figure dressed like a sea captain wandering the halls. The house's own history supplies the deaths those stories attach to: Hornibrook died of an "apoplectic stroke" at the front gate shortly after the mansion was finished, aged 49, and his wife Margaret died two years later. The apparition identifications are folklore; the early deaths are the house's own documented account.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 5 places in Little Rock, AR. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Capital Hotel — haunted place, 111 W Markham St, Little Rock, AR 72201
• Curran Hall — haunted place, 615 E Capitol Ave, Little Rock, AR 72201
• Mount Holly Cemetery — haunted place, 1200 Broadway Street, Little Rock, AR 72202
• Old State House Museum — haunted place, 300 W Markham St, Little Rock, AR 72201
• The Empress of Little Rock — haunted place, 2120 Louisiana St, Little Rock, AR 72206

Attraction stories

Old State House Museum

The Old State House Museum is Arkansas's original capitol, run by the Division of Arkansas Heritage, and its own site states its standing plainly: it is the original state capitol building of Arkansas and the oldest standing state capitol building west of the Mississippi River, its construction began in 1833, and since then the building and its grounds have witnessed many of the most important events in Arkansas history. Its mission, in its own words, is to interpret the history of Arkansas from statehood to the present, preserve the Old State House, and collect and preserve the artifacts that aid in that interpretation. Admission is free; the museum is open Tuesday to Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 300 West Markham Street.

The documented event at the centre of its haunted reputation needs no embellishment. Wikipedia records that the Arkansas General Assembly moved into the building while construction was ongoing, and that on December 4, 1837, Speaker John Wilson killed Representative Joseph J. Anthony in a knife fight on the floor of the House of Representatives. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas documents the wolf-scalp bounty amendment that provoked it and records that Anthony was the only sitting member of the state legislature to be killed during a debate in the Arkansas House. The building went on to host the 1861 secession convention and a Reconstruction constitutional convention, and the Brooks–Baxter War cannon "Lady Baxter" still sits on its grounds, per Wikipedia.

The haunting attached to the building is a single reported figure in haunted accounts of the museum: a man in a 19th-century frock coat said to walk the Central Hall, thought in those accounts to be Wilson. The museum's own site publishes no ghost lore — that claim comes from outside haunted accounts, and it is labelled as such here. What the museum itself offers is the real chamber, the real history, and free admission to both.

*Website: http://www.oldstatehouse.com/*

The Empress of Little Rock

The Empress of Little Rock is a working boutique bed and breakfast inside the Hornibrook Mansion, and the mansion's own About page tells its story with unusual completeness. The house was designed by Max Orlopp and Kasper Kusener and completed in 1888 using only Arkansas materials, for $20,000. Its National Register description, quoted by the house, calls it the best example of ornate Victorian architecture in Arkansas and the most important existing example of Gothic Queen Anne style regionally — a divided stairway, a three-and-a-half-story corner tower, a stained-glass skylight, and octagonal rooms.

The builder's story is the house's own account. James H. Hornibrook moved from Toronto after the Civil War and prospered as a saloon keeper; shunned by Scott Street society for his occupation, he waited until his competitor Angelo Marré completed the Villa Marré and then built the most extravagant dwelling in the state. Legend has it — the house's own framing — that he kept a card game going in the tower room where he could watch for raids on his establishment. He died of an "apoplectic stroke" at the front gate shortly after the mansion was finished, aged only 49, having had a death mask of Italian marble made in anticipation, and he is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery. His wife Margaret died two years later, also at 49. The house then became the Arkansas Women's College in 1897, stood vacant through the Depression, served as a nursing home from 1948, and was restored in 1994 to become The Empress.

The reported hauntings are told about the house, not by it: Visit Little Rock reports a well-dressed man watching from the top of the staircase, a woman in pink, and a sea-captain figure in the halls, in its roundup of Little Rock's most haunted places. The Empress's own site publishes stays, weddings, high tea, and house tours at 2120 Louisiana Street — the ghost repertoire is the visitor bureau's and other haunted accounts', attributed here and asserted nowhere as fact.

*Website: http://www.theempress.com/*

Sources

• Little Rock Ghosts (US Ghost Adventures) — https://usghostadventures.com/little-rock-ghost-tour/
• Old State House Museum — http://www.oldstatehouse.com/
• Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Joseph J. Anthony — https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Joseph-J-Anthony-2958/
• HauntWorld, Old State House Museum haunted account — https://www.hauntworld.com/haunted-house-in-little-rock-arkansas-old-state-house-museum
• MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, City of Little Rock — https://www.littlerock.gov/macarthur
• Visit Little Rock, Four of Little Rock's Most Haunted Places — https://www.littlerock.com/blog/four-of-little-rocks-most-haunted-places/
• The Empress of Little Rock — http://www.theempress.com/
• Wikipedia anchor: Little Rock, Arkansas — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock,_Arkansas
• Wikipedia anchor: Old State House (Little Rock, Arkansas) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_State_House_ (Little_Rock,_Arkansas)
• Wikipedia anchor: Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Building_of_the_Little_Rock_Arsenal
• Wikipedia anchor: Capital Hotel (Little Rock, Arkansas) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Hotel_ (Little_Rock,_Arkansas)
• Wikipedia anchor: Hornibrook House — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornibrook_House
• Wikipedia anchor: Mount Holly Cemetery (Little Rock, Arkansas) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Holly_Cemetery
• Wikipedia anchor: Curran Hall — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curran_Hall