GPS City GuideLittle RockMount Holly Cemetery

Stop 17 of 21 · Little Rock audio walking tour

Mount Holly Cemetery

Quapaw Quarter · 1970 · Listed on the National Register

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds of narration about Mount Holly Cemetery, and how it fits Quapaw Quarter, written to be listened to on the spot rather than read at home.

Mount Holly Cemetery spreads through the Quapaw Quarter of downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, a historic cemetery locals nickname the Westminster Abbey of Arkansas. This is the resting place for numerous Arkansans of note, and in 1970 the grounds were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Locals have even nicknamed it "The Westminster Abbey of Arkansas," a reminder of the concentration of stories, monuments, and family plots gathered here.

Each October the place comes alive for a different kind of remembrance. Students from Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School are each given a person buried here to research. They prepare short monologues or dialogues in period costume and perform them at the very graves they studied. Audiences are led from gravesite to gravesite by candle-bearing guides in an event called "Tales of the Crypt." Though it occurs near the American holiday Halloween, the performances are meant to be historic rather than spooky.

You should also be aware that the cemetery suffered heavy vandalism in the overnight hours of April 20, 2016, when numerous headstones were toppled and smashed, including the well-known statues of a mourner next to statues of two little girls. Picture Parkview students each October performing candlelit monologues at the graves of the Arkansans they researched for Tales of the Crypt.

Where it is

Coordinates
34.73758, -92.27847
Area
Quapaw Quarter
Era
1970 · Listed on the National Register
Start the Little Rock tour →

Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.