BELWOOD

According to newspaper accounts, Belwood Addition was a new development in 1957. A few houses were moved into the vicinity in the late 1940s and several others were constructed from 1950 to the mid-1950s, but growth didn’t begin in earnest until the latter half of the 1950s. A photograph published in the Arkansas Gazette on May 12, 1957, shows three houses under construction in the “new Belwood Addition.” A second photo of electrical wires and poles in that day’s edition illustrated the extension of electricity to the area. Further, an article in the Gazette on August 8, 1957, noted that Sewer Improvement District 11 had accepted a new sewer system for several neighborhoods, including “part of Belwood Addition.” The article noted that these areas previously had no sewer system. Also, earlier that year the North Little Rock School Board awarded a construction contract to build a new elementary school in Belwood, the Gazette reported on April 12, 1957. Opened in 1958, the school was named for Dr. William M. Burns, a physician and former mayor for whom Burns Park was named in recognition of his service on the North Little Rock Parks Commission. The school’s name was changed to Belwood in 1971 when the school board renamed all the district’s schools named after people.

The southeast corner of what is now Belwood was once within the boundaries of the City of Levy. Residents of Levy incorporated a town in 1917 to avoid annexation by North Little Rock. The town had a mayor and five-member council, as well as a recorder, a marshal and a police court to conduct governmental business. The town grew enough to become a second-class city in 1941 with a six-member council – two each elected from three wards. In 1944, Levy opened its first and only city hall building at the site of today’s Levy Fire Station on Camp Robinson Road. But North Little Rock annexed Levy by popular vote in 1946.
 
The area that became Belwood, west of MacArthur Drive (the old Conway Highway), was primarily farm land until after the end of World War II in 1945. A few businesses located along the highway and some houses were moved into the area west of the highway. Research of the city’s building permit books in the North Little Rock History Commission’s archives show, for example, that L.S. Cook obtained permission on April 13, 1948, to move three houses to sites on 37th Street. On February 16, 1950, Garner Smith received permits to build fifteen 4-room and 5-room houses on West 35th, West 36th and Flora. On May 29, 1950, Smith got permits to build 9 houses on West Drive. In 1951, Marion E. Witkowski constructed several 4-room houses on Central Drive. He built several more on Central, East and South drives in 1952. Others, too, were building houses on those streets in 1952. The 1957 city directory indicates addresses for 189 houses and commercial buildings in the area. In 1958, Belwood and Berkley were listed as streets for the first time. By 1968, the number of addresses for houses and buildings in Belwood had almost doubled.

One other note of interest, the Arkansas River flooded parts of North Little Rock in May 1957. Shilcutt Bayou, which runs through Belwood overflowed and flooded the neighborhood around 37th and Crutcher. Heavy rainfall exacerbated conditions. North Little Rock was long accustomed to floods, but this was the first time that flooding along Shilcutt Bayou became a major problem because of development.

Cary Bradburn
North Little Rock History Commission staff
371-0755
nlrhistory@comcast.net

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