No Arkansan alive today can remember a time when the Capital Hotel in the heart of downtown Little Rock wasn’t around. “For so long, it was the place to see and be seen,” says Micah Vargas, the hotel’s marketing coordinator and unofficial history keeper. That history has been star-studded, colorful, and at times tumultuous, and as the hotel celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, the Capital remains a vital community gathering place.
Five years before the hotel’s 1877 opening, railroad tycoon William Denckla built the three-story brick structure as a commerce center—outfitted with a beautiful cast-iron facade, with storefronts below and apartments above for businessmen—to fill the needs of a booming Little Rock economy. But when the city’s primary hotel, the Metropolitan, burned down, its manager, Colonel A. G. DeShon, and a partner saw an opportunity. Within months DeShon leased the Denckla block, and a conversion was underway. As Steven B. Weintz reported in the book A Capital Idea, DeShon and his partner called upon the “good taste of a lady” to name the new space. Local matron Mrs. Morehead Wright wrote in: “I can think of no name more appropriate than ‘Capital Hotel’ as it is a capital enterprise located in a capital building, which will do honor to the capital of the state.”
For the next several decades, the shiny new hotel—sporting a new balcony, sweeping high ceilings, lavish carpeting, a room service system, a billiards room, and a restaurant and bar—did just that, for a few dollars a night. State officials, judges, and dignitaries stayed there and conducted business. Ulysses S. Grant visited in 1880; local legend has it that the giant elevator was built to accommodate his horse.
The hotel glittered on until the Depression, at which point it changed hands and began a steady downward slide into a venue of somewhat ill repute, reflective of the state of all of downtown Little Rock at the time. At one point in the late 1960s, the bus stop next door was poised to buy it and tear it down to convert into a parking deck.
But a Princeton-educated architect named Edwin Cromwell intervened. He recognized the Capital as an architectural jewel, successfully campaigned to list it on the National Register of Historic Places, and pulled together an investment group to buy it and restore it to its former glory. In 1980 Cromwell hired a historic preservationist, who studied old postcards to gain clues about the building; talked to people who remembered its heyday; tracked down the original wallpaper and paint colors; restored the iconic stained-glass skylight in the lobby; and even recreated the original lettering out front. In 1983 the Capital opened its doors again and entered a second golden era. Bill Clinton was a frequent guest during his presidential campaign; Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, and George Bush Jr. overnighted there too.
Today the Stephens family—founders of the investment banking firm Stephens Inc.—owns the building, which has undergone more renovations to bring it up to speed as a first-class hotel. Warren Stephens and his wife, Harriet, added a ballroom, installed updated kitchens and developed the food and beverage program, including celebrated dinner spot One Eleven, helmed by James Beard–decorated chef Joël Antunes for nearly a decade before passing to the hands of Brad Izzard. They added a private dining room in a wine cellar, too, tapping local artisans for the custom oak table and period details.
All year long, the people of Little Rock filter through the hotel for business lunches at the Capital Bar & Grill, for birthdays and occasions at One Eleven, or just to grab a drink and take it to the balcony that overlooks Markham Street. Each Christmas, longstanding local florists Tipton & Hurst bring in a towering Christmas tree, deck it out, and hold a lighting ceremony. “Everyone has a story about the Capital Hotel,” Vargas says. “It really is the front porch of Little Rock.”
Lindsey Liles joined Garden & Gun in 2020 after completing a master’s in literature in Scotland and a Fulbright grant in Brazil. The Arkansas native is G&G’s digital reporter, covering all aspects of the South, and she especially enjoys putting her biology background to use by writing about wildlife and conservation. She lives on Johns Island, South Carolina.
