Little Rock Arsenal - Little Rock, AR - the first line of defense for the frontier

Little Rock Arsenal otherwise called the U.S. Arsenal Building can be found in downtown Little Rock's MacArthur Park. The building which was built during 1840 as part of the first installation for the military in Little Rock and has been home to two museums since it was decommissioned.

Arkansas Museum of Natural History and Antiques was in the building from 1942 until 1997. Since 2001 the building has had the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in addition to being the Little Rock Esthetic Club headquarters since the end of the 1800's.

The octagonal tower is where the Little Rock Arsenal's Tower Building gets its name and it the last structure left from the original arsenal. One of the state of Arkansas oldest buildings it is also where Gen. Douglas MacArthur was born and where the Camden Expedition began.

Governor Elias Nelson Conway requested the arsenal be built to ease the concerns of the frontier residents. There were 36 acres set aside by a major in the United States Army just outside of Little Rock that was once a racetrack for the building. A Federal Government builder John Wormley Walker supervised the construction of the Little Rock Arsenal. The allocated fourteen thousand dollars was not enough to cover the construction and the budget went up to thirty thousand dollars.