FAIRPARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Fair Park Early Childhood Center

616 North Harrison Street

Fair Park Elementary was founded in 1928 and was named for Fair Park, the nearby municipal park that since has been renamed War Memorial Park. The school is located in Little Rock's historic Hillcrest neighborhood. It originally consisted of three small buildings and was known as Lincoln School--"the little school in the country." The main part of the current building was constructed during 1937-1938, and additions were made in 1950 and 1979. At the end of the 2004-05 school year, Fair Park ceased operation as a traditional elementary school, and it reopened in the fall of 2005 as the Fair Park Early Childhood Center, serving pre-kindergarten (4-year-old) children from all over the city of Little Rock.

The first 6th grade graduating class of Fair Park Elementary, May 1939.
Front row: J. Thompson, J. Dillaha, P. Lewis, M. Hilliard, M. Rush, M. Ward.
Middle row: B. Craig, B. Elmore, K. O'Leary, J. Arnold, W. Jenkins, B. Estes,
G. Marak, J. Hamner. Back row: B. Rinke, C. Huey, J. Esbell, T. Johnson,
T. Henry, B. Brown, B. Harper. Photo courtesy Jerome Hamner.

Sources:
LRSD archives.
Fair Park Elementary web site: www.lrsd.org/schoolindex.cfm?sccode=23

If you have information about a Little Rock school or photographs that you would like to contribute to this project (we will return photographs if requested), please contact us!
Updated October 2005