Arkansas Territorial Restoration Museum

Territorial Restoration to Expand

The Arkansas Territorial Restoration Museum celebrates its 60th anniversary this year by continuing a 29,000-SF expansion costing more than $7 million.

The construction also includes a parking lot and site improvements, in addition to the expanded reception center and 9,000-SF addition of exhibition space.

“The breakthrough came really from the private fund-raising campaign led by [ATR Commissioner] French Hill,” says Bill Worthen, ATR’s director. “He helped raise more than $1.2 million … and the General Assembly, the governor, really responded to the fact that we’d collected that much money. That kind of initiative to get out and raise funds, and the commitment that a lot of people have made, has been great for us getting some matching funds.

“Whether it’s paintings, furniture, textiles, knives or guns or whatever, a lot of people have contributed to the quality of this collection and are waiting for a place to display it. It’s been fulfilling a promise, in a sense, made to all our donors, to say, ‘Yes, you give us your great Arkansas-made painting or quilt, we will eventually have a place to show it off.'”

Items preserved by the museum to be displayed eventually include artifacts by quilters, silversmiths, painters and knife-makers. However, the museum also cares for the historic structures in downtown Little Rock and offers shows where actors present themselves as historical characters.

The museum also offers education programs for nearly 12,000 schoolchildren a year, as well as a two-volume study reviewing Arkansas works from 1819-70.

But the expansion is most on Worthen’s mind. He says he expects it to be completed in about a year and a half.

“We have great plans for the future for showing off all these Arkansas things,” Worthen says. “Happily, now that we have all the money together, things are coming to fruition. It’s a very exciting time for us.”