The oldest municipal park in Little Rock, the 36-acre park was founded in 1892. Originally laid out in the 1830s as a horse racetrack, the land was purchased in 1836 by the U.S. Department of War and repurposed as the Little Rock Arsenal. It was military property until handed to the City of Little Rock and deemed to be a permanent public park.
St. Louis landscape architect Julius Pitzman designed the park grounds. His design left only a few historic structures on site, including the Tower Building that still remains as the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. Pitzman erected a bandstand and well houses and added a 1.7-acre man-made lake. The naturalistic lake and its pavilion are the park’s southern focal points, with the Tower Building further north, surrounded by grassy parkland, deciduous trees, and meandering narrow brick paths. Opened to the public in 1893 as Arsenal Park, it became known as City Park until it was renamed in 1942 for General Douglas MacArthur, who was born at the arsenal in 1880. In 1936 the Works Progress Administration built the Museum of Fine Arts building (today the Arkansas Arts Center) in the park’s northwestern corner. Today MacArthur Park also features a playground, tennis courts, contemplation gardens, and numerous military memorials.
