EARLY HISTORY ON LEVY

Facing possible annexation by North Little Rock in 1917 with the opening of Camp Pike, the small community of Levy started its own town to keep its neighbor to the south at bay. On August 7 of that year, voters elected a mayor, a city recorder and five aldermen. W.F. “Flake” Stanley, the first of eight Levy mayors over a span of 29 years, served until 1925. The town’s original boundaries were 27th Street (Pershing Boulevard) on the south, Orange Street on the east, 38th Street on the north and modern-day Division Street (then a quarter-section line) on the west. The territory included the Levy School at 37th and Schaer streets and the Hillside School at 700 West 29th Street.

Levy also encompassed Scenic Hill, the north end of Military Heights and the west end of Cherry Hill. At the heart of the business district was the intersection of what was then called the Camp Pike and Conway Pike (now Camp Robinson Road and Pike Avenue). Just outside the city limits in the northwest corner was the Thomas Cemetery, where many of Levy’s early residents were buried. The city annexed the residential area between Camp Robinson Road and Orange Street up to 45th Street in 1942. Four years later, North Little Rock annexed Levy.

The name “Levy” derives from Morris Levy, a prosperous Jewish merchant in Argenta who lent money to Ernest Stanley, the founding father of the community. Stanley opened a mercantile store in 1892 to tap into the trade with farmers who camped along the pike on their way to markets in Little Rock and Argenta. His brothers, Oscar and Flake, established a hardware store in 1901 (today’s Stanley Hardware). Several other businesses followed, new residents moved in and the settlement gained identity when Ernest Stanley named the post office for Levy.

With Flake Stanley presiding as mayor and J.A. Wasson performing the duties of city recorder, the Levy City Council first met at the hardware store at 3305 Conway Pike (Pike Avenue) on August 13, 1917. At the council’s second meeting on August 18, the aldermen (W.A. Roberts, D.E. Kirby, George Beers, C.L. McCormack and A. Warrell) approved three ordinances that provided for sanitation, the city’s right of way and a 10-mile per hour speed limit (W.H. Shillcutt donated the speed limit signs.) The council also appointed Joe Hardcastle as town marshal and O.W. Halter as treasurer. However, the aldermen appointed Oscar Stanley as the treasurer on October 1, 1917, after Halter resigned.          

(This article is based on the Minutes of Levy City Council meetings, city directories and a July 12, 1979, story in the North Little Rock Times, “Levy Remembered,” written by Evelyn Eubank, a North Little Rock historian.)

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