State Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson and his partners, Mark Camp and Rod Damon, have hired Little Rock interior designer Kaki Hockersmith to design the interior of their new project, the 1836 Club.
“She’s fantastic, but it slowed us down some because she’s meticulous, so we’re probably looking at the middle of April” for the club’s opening, Hutchinson said.
Hockersmith’s highest-profile assignment was her redesign of the interior of the White House during the Clinton administration (the first Clinton administration — so far), including the Oval Office and Treaty Room. Her design was noted for its Victorian flair — appropriate, certainly, for the 1836 Club, which will occupy the McDonald-Wait-Newton House at 1406 Cantrell Road in Little Rock, probably best known as the old Packet House, built in 1869.
And it’s not too late to apply for a charter membership in the club. The original deadline was reported as March 1, but that’s been moved to Tuesday, March 15, according to the private club’s website.
Hutchinson told Whispers the club had “well over 100” applications toward the 300 it was seeking and had not yet sent out invitations, “so we feel very good about it.”
There’s no application fee for charter members, but individual monthly dues will be $250, while corporate monthly dues are $1,000 for the club, which, its website states, “is an exclusive club for business men and women to enjoy good company, food and drinks.” (Corporations may designate up to six members for their membership.)
Hutchinson said he and his partners have been talking about it “for years, just sitting around at restaurants, typically Arthur’s, lamenting why we don’t have something like this in Little Rock whereas most cities of any size have something like this. And after years of discussing it, we finally decided to pull the trigger and try it ourselves.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
