Historic Arkansas Museum

Historic Arkansas Museum is home to an historic city block including the oldest building in Little Rock, an 1850s farmstead, and galleries of Arkansas Made art and history ranging from indigenous to contemporary. Visit us for unique programming, tours, exhibits, and events.

Our Mission

The mission of this history and historic site museum is to communicate the early history of Arkansas and its creative legacy through preserving, interpreting and presenting stories and collections for the education and enjoyment of the people we serve.

Our Vision

The achievement of excellence follows a shared vision, which includes the discipline of planning and openness to fresh ideas.

Our History

Historic Arkansas Museum, formerly known as Arkansas Territorial Restoration, is a historic site museum located in the heart of downtown Little Rock. On its grounds are some of the oldest buildings in the state, on their original sites: the c. 1827 Hinderliter Grog Shop, the 1840s McVicar and Brownlee Houses, and the 1820s reconstructed Arkansas Gazette print shop are joined by the transplanted Plum Bayou Log House, an 1830s plantation house from Scott, Arkansas. These carefully restored and furnished buildings preserve Arkansas’s heritage and reveal an important truth about the state’s most exciting period that the rough-and-ready frontier territory and fledgling state also had its touches of elegance and refinement.