Old State House Museum

The Old State House is the oldest standing state capitol building west of the Mississippi River. Territorial governor John Pope hired Gideon Shryock, architect of the Kentucky State Capitol, in 1833, and the General Assembly met in the original House chamber in 1836 while work continued. Budget limits turned Shryock's stone plan into stucco-covered brick, and Governor Archibald Yell declared the building complete in 1842.

The building held more than lawmaking. Before the Civil War the county rented space in the east wing, and current estimates are that 400 to 500 enslaved people were auctioned there. In May 1861 the secession convention met in the House chamber, and every delegate but Isaac Murphy voted to secede; Murphy was sworn in as governor of Federal-controlled Arkansas after Union forces took Little Rock in September 1863. In 1891 legislators debated the Separate Coach Law, which passed with almost no opposition and was the first of many segregationist laws in Arkansas.

The state made the building a museum of Arkansas history, which opened on February 14, 1951. It became a National Historic Landmark on December 9, 1997, for the Crossett Experiment, a hookworm and malaria study carried out while the University of Arkansas medical department occupied parts of the building. Admission is free. The museum is at 300 West Markham, open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., and its permanent exhibits include the restored 1836 and 1885 House chambers.