Downtown Walnut Ridge
109 Southwest Front Street
Walnut Ridge, AR 72476
ph: (870) 886-3232
info
Historic Downtown Walnut Ridge
Native American and European adventurers and settlers tranversed Lawrence County for years before Walnut Ridge, AR started its organized history in the nineteenth
century, a few miles to the northwest. The town moved when the railroad came through!
Agriculture always heavily influenced the pace of downtown. Saturday was the big trading day, when farmers came to town.
The Great Depression impacted much of downtown, shuttering businesses.
WWII brought booming business back to the downtown as office support for the nearby army airfield training base operations took over many spaces.
Post-war transformations brought jobs within 5 miles of downtown as the air base converted to Southern Baptist College (now Williams Baptist College) and an industrial park. With increased automobile usage, downtown became a driving destination for retail, government, and services, with two U.S. Highways running right through it.
As industrialization waned in the pressures of globalization, downtown too was affected.
Always reinventing itself, the downtown Walnut Ridge of the 21st century will have new stories to tell. We hope you will be a part of it!
Congratulations!
The downtown Walnut Ridge area is now on the National Register of Historic Places as an "Historic Commercial District."
The restored train depot was one of the first buildings in town to be individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
109 Southwest Front Street
Walnut Ridge, AR 72476
ph: (870) 886-3232
info
