Feature image above: A postcard of Morris Hall. Photos and images courtesy of DOLR and CALS
Many central Arkansas residents likely know that the University of Arkansas at Little Rock existed as Little Rock University prior to it joining the UA system in 1957.
Fewer likely know that the school was founded as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927. Fewer still likely know that for 23 years, from 1908 to 1930, the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock operated Little Rock College, a private, four-year institution of higher learning. Today, the site of the LRC campus — now known as St. John Catholic Center — serves as the diocese home.
The Catholic college was established downtown but moved in 1916, along with DOLR’s Seminary of St. John the Baptist, to what was then known as Pulaski Heights, then its own incorporated city and Little Rock’s first suburb, sitting at the end of the city’s streetcar line, which ran along what is now West Markham Street and Kavanaugh Boulevard.
Post card of Morris, Fitzgerald and Byrne halls, circa 1920s.
The same year the diocese began establishing a new campus on 40 wooded, hilltop acres, Pulaski Heights was absorbed into the city of Little Rock. The prominent neighborhoods of Hillcrest and the Heights now make up what was once the city of Pulaski Heights.
The downtown campus was bounded east to west by 25th — now Roosevelt Road — and 26th streets and north to south by Gaines and State streets. The move to the ‘burbs was initiated by Bishop John Morris, the college founder, to accommodate growth. A 2000 article in the DOLR’s Arkansas Catholic newspaper described the property as a “complete wilderness of pine, hickory and oak.”
Fitzgerald Hall, as were all the college’s original buildings, was built in the Gothic Revival style.
The first three buildings on campus were designed in the Gothic Revival style by noted national architect and Little Rock resident Frank M. Blaisdell, who also designed the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.
Still in use today, they were named for the diocese’s first bishops — Morris, Andrew Byrne and Edward Fitzgerald. Morris Hall still houses the grounds’ main chapel. Later buildings included a gymnasium, later turned into a dining hall; Fletcher Hall, originally used as a dormitory; and the McDonald Center, which now houses Catholic Charities of Arkansas.
The original Little Rock College seal still adorns the front of Morris Hall; its inscription is Latin for, “Seal of Little Rock College, Little Rock, Ark.
The college’s original course catalog listed courses in liberal arts, mechanics, chemistry, electricity, mineralogy, geology and astronomy. More courses were added after the move to Pulaski Heights, including philosophy, architecture and a premed program, as well as the U.S. Army’s Student Army Training Corps and ROTC programs.
The picturesque front gate, also designed by Blaisdell, helps the grounds retain a distinct collegiate feel.
“There are very, very few dioceses that have anything like this,” said Greg Wolfe, the diocese finance director. “They might have an office building; maybe they have an office building and a retreat center, if they’re really lucky. To have a former college campus available not just for the diocesan offices but for the people to use, I mean, I always say it’s a gift from another generation.”
The school even fielded football, basketball, track and tennis squads called the Eagles, bearing the school colors of dark purple and white. (Lostcolleges.com reports that the Arkansas Gazette finally referred to LRC teams as the Eagles instead of the Catholics in 1928.)
The 1924 Little Rock College Eagle track team.
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas records events surrounding a 1916 football game in Pope County between the Little Rock College Eagles and the “Russellville Aggies” from the Second District Agricultural School, better known these days as Arkansas Tech University, at which accounts of local fans harassing LRC players and officials by locals were alleged.
The Eagles were then coached by legendary Arkansas prep coach Earl Quigley of Little Rock Central fame. According to Lostcolleges.com, LRC eventually competed in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the forerunner to the old Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference. The LRC Eagles won the conference basketball tournament title in 1928.
LRC also sponsored an orchestra, college band, jazz band and debate club, and students put on an annual minstrel show to support the athletics teams. The school published a student newspaper, The Pebble, and a yearbook, The Aquila.
The college originally admitted males only with women not allowed to enroll until 1928. Including those in its preparatory school — which became Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys — LRC enrolled several hundred students at its peak.
Like many institutions, the promising Little Rock College could not survive the challenges of the Great Depression, and the school was closed in 1930. The Heights campus, now known as the St. John Catholic Center, became the home of the diocese, and the old downtown campus was where today’s Catholic High was launched.
Though part of the original campus in the Heights was sold to developers, St. John continues to resemble a college campus. The center’s oval remains a popular walking spot for neighborhood residents.
“I’ve always thought it was a very beautiful campus because of all the green space and how the gothic features were incorporated into the buildings,” the late Monsignor Richard Oswald, who first attended seminary classes at St. John in 1957, told Arkansas Catholic, “A lot of universities would call it a quad, but in our case, it’s an oval, and the beautiful gate — it’s just an impressive place.”
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