It was a foggy night, but that didn't do much to diminish the bright lights of the Christmas tree set up along Capitol Avenue in downtown Little Rock.
The tree sits next to a sculpture called "Helios," which features this sphere at the top. The lights of the tree looked kinda neat reflected in the sphere.
The tree sits at the intersection of Main and Capitol Streets. It was a bit brighter there this year, thanks to multiple lights in the windows of the Boyle Building. The 12-story building was constructed in 1909 and was the tallest building the in the state for a few years. But for the past few decades it had been left empty, until the state recently purchased it and started renovations. It'll soon be home to offices for the state Attorney General, and if there is anyone from that office reading this I would love to have access to the roof to take pictures anytime y'all would want to open it up for visitors. Please and thank you!
On a recent Saturday, Jonah and I decided to head over for a quick visit to the Little Rock Zoo. It was a pleasant afternoon, and many of the animals were out and about.
We saw most of the animals there - the lions, tigers, penguins, cheetahs and otters. At the Angolan Colobus exhibit, there was even a baby.
And we went by the elephants too...
And we ended the trip with a visit to the chimpanzees. This one was sitting high above the others, and had a contemplative look on its face. I wonder what it was thinking? Was it thinking of life beyond the zoo? Or maybe it was thinking how the human visitors are as caged and trapped as the other animals here, in their own way? Or maybe it saw the other chimpanzee nearby eating his own poop. We'll never know.
This has been a strange year for fall colors. The trees in Central Arkansas have been slow to change over, stubbornly remaining green for several weeks. They seem to have finally started to change as it was time for Thanksgiving.
The fall colors were looking good around the Clinton Presidential Library, which seems to have become the top spot for people to take family pictures and portraits in Little Rock. There were several photo sessions going around, along with a large group of cheerleaders getting their pictures taken at the library.
It was starting to get dark, and there was just barely enough time to get one more stop in before sunset. I hurried over and got this shot of the Broadway Bridge.
As I left, I drove by the back of Little Rock City Hall, where I saw this bright bit of fall color. I liked the contrast of the vibrant foliage set against the back of the building, so I stopped for a quick photo. As someone who works in a cubicle in an office building, I feel happy for whoever works there that has this tree to look at from their window.
The Hester-Lenz House is old. Construction on it began way back in 1836, the same year that Arkansas became a state. The house now sits within the city limits of Benton, which didn't exist when the house was built. The state capitol of Little Rock, which is just up the road, had only been founded 15 years earlier and was just a fledgling pioneer village.
It was originally built as a simple two-story dogtrot house. The house sits along what was once the Southwest Trail, an old pioneer trail that connected St. Louis to Texas. The home survived the Civil War unscathed, and new owners in the 1890s expanded and remodeled the house.
The house was occupied all the way until 1992. After that it has been left empty, slowly crumbling away. The old Southwest Trail has long been replaced by a busy paved road, which was recently widened and now sits uncomfortably close to the rickety old building. Termites and weather have taken their toll on the wooden structure. Several parts of the roof have collapsed, leaving gaping holes like a smile missing teeth. On the backside of the house, parts of the roof and a wall have collapsed.
The property also contains a few old barns, which were built in the 1890s.
The house must have seemed like it was in the middle of the woods way back in the 1830s. But over the years suburban sprawl as overtaken the property. And unfortunately, it will probably soon replace it. Is the house too far-gone to save? Is anyone willing to take on the immense restoration job? If not, the house will probably collapse soon. Or be torn down. Then the land will be sold over to the detritus of sprawl; replaced with a new car wash, Dollar General or yet another bland and tacky shopping center.
It reminds me of the very end of the movie "Gangs of New York," where one of the main characters is buried in a cemetery (spoiler alert for this 20 year old movie). Then the scene shifts ahead in time, showing the gravestones weathering away as the city grows and changes and evolves. The past sits, and silently disintegrates.
It must be like that for this little house. It has witnessed two centuries of change, from the old dirt road of the 1800s to the encroaching suburban sprawl. And when the house is inevitably gone, for the rest of time, it would be like no one even knew it was ever here.
Jonah was out of school for parent-teacher conferences, so I decided to take the day off from work too. To get out of the house, we made a quick visit over to the Old Mill in North Little Rock. The fall colors weren't really showing there yet, things were mostly green still. So I took the infrared camera instead for a few pictures.
Jonah was the one who decided we should go there, and I was really glad he did. I grew up in North Little Rock, and my grandparents used to live just a few blocks away from the Old Mill. When I was kid, right around Jonah's age, my cousins and I would often all walk over together and visit the Old Mill. It's really nice to see that while there have been some improvements (nicer bathrooms, a little waterfall feature), that the Mill remains mostly unchanged over all these decades.
