Charles Witsell Jr. (1944–2025)

Charles Witsell Jr. was an architect and proponent of historic preservation who worked on some of Arkansas’s iconic buildings.

Charles Witsell Jr. was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on June 10, 1944, the only child of Charles Witsell Sr. and Elizabeth “Dink” Witsell. He knew by the time he was in the second grade that he wanted to be an architect. He attended Little Rock public schools until the 1957 Central High School desegregation crisis led to the Lost Year in 1958–59, when all the city’s public high schools were closed in an effort to block integration. He then attended Tennessee’s Sewanee Military Academy, graduating in 1962 as senior cadet officer.

Witsell attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1966 and a master’s in architecture in 1968. He married artist Rebecca (Becky) Rogers, his girlfriend since junior high school, in 1967; the couple had a son and a daughter. Becky Witsell was a frequent collaborator with him on historic preservation projects.

He joined the Cromwell firm in Little Rock in 1968, mentored by Ed Cromwell. He worked on several major historic preservation jobs while with Cromwell but also on master planning of the new city of Maumelle (Pulaski County) as it was developed north of the Arkansas River.

In 1971, the Witsells purchased the Frederick Hanger House at 1010 Scott Street in Little Rock, which was the first of five historic houses in Little Rock’s historic residential neighborhoods that they would restore.

In 1978, he and Don Evans, who also worked at the Cromwell firm, started their own firm, working initially from back rooms in the Hanger House. Terry Rasco joined the company in 1984, and the firm continues in the twenty-first century as WER Architects.

By 1981, Witsell’s résumé included work on the Old State House, the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House, what is now the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Albert Pike Hotel, the Pulaski County Courthouse, and Trapnall Hall in Little Rock; the Bozeman House in Arkadelphia (Clark County); and Old Washington State Park (now Historic Arkansas State Park) in Hempstead County. Tom Dillard, head of the Department of Arkansas Natural and Cultural Heritage (which later became the Division of Arkansas Heritage), proclaimed him “the finest practicing historical architect in the state.” Witsell told the Arkansas Times in 1981 that “I’m much more happy working on a number of small projects than on a few large ones, though I suspect the profitability is the other way around.”

Also in 1981, Witsell was one of the founders of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas (later renamed Preserve Arkansas) along with Parker Westbrook, Kirby Smith, Bobby Roberts, and Carl Miller Jr. He would serve on numerous boards and commissions at the state and local levels as well as three terms on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Board of Advisors. The American Institute of Architects named him a fellow in 1987.

Witsell worked on more than 200 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places during his career, including the United States Bankruptcy Courthouse in Little Rock, Lakeport Plantation in Chicot County, the Garrott House in Batesville (Independence County), Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs (Garland County), and the Confederate State Capitol in Washington (Hempstead County). He also worked on new construction projects in Little Rock, Conway (Faulkner County), Fort Smith (Sebastian County), and Russellville (Pope County), as well as at seven college campuses around the state. He taught classes at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Witsell retired as senior principal of his architectural firm in 2007. Among the many awards he received were the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), two AIA commendations, the Parker Westbrook Lifetime Achievement Award from Preserve Arkansas, the Jimmy Strawn Award from the Quapaw Quarter Association, and the Arkansas Archeological Society’s McGimsey Award. The Becky and Charles Witsell Endowment for Preservation Education and Training, which is administered by Preserve Arkansas, was created in 2006.

He was a member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, where among other lay offices he served as senior warden of the vestry.

He was the co-author of two books. How We Lived: Little Rock as an American City was published in 1984 in collaboration with Cheryl Griffith Nichols and F. Hampton Roy. Arkansas Gazette reviewer Margaret Ross wrote of it: “The book’s 270 illustrations are nothing short of spectacular and, without question, the finest collection of Little Rock architectural photographs ever published,” adding that it “is undoubtedly the finest book about Little Rock’s history that has been published, and it richly deserves a wide audience.” In 2014, he and Gordon Wittenberg wrote Architects of Little Rock: 1833–1950 (University of Arkansas Press), of which Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Philip Martin wrote that “its highest and best use is to remind us that what we take for granted was imagined and built by human beings who imposed their will on the earth and sky, ordered materials, and made us a city.”

Witsell died on June 28, 2025, after a lengthy struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

For additional information:
“Charles Witsell Jr. Obituary.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 6, 2025, p. 1K.

Bowden, Bill. “Architect, Historic Preservationist Charles Witsell Dies at 81.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 3, 2025, pp. 1B, 2B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/jul/02/architectpreservationist-witsell-dies-at-81/ (accessed November 20, 2025).

Martin, Philip. “Architects Chronicles the Men Who Built LR.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 15, 2014, pp. 1E, 6E. Online at https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2014/jun/15/architects-chronicles-the-men-who-built/ (accessed November 20, 2025).

Rains, Judy. “Charles Witsell Jr.” Arkansas Democrat, High Profile section, February 14, 1988, pp. 1, 8.

Ross, Margaret, “People and Places: Life in Our Town.” Arkansas Gazette, June 17, 1984, p. 10C.

White, Mel. “Architect Charles Witsell: A Young Man with an Old Love.” Arkansas Times, October 1981, Inside & Out Section, pp. 4–11.

Witsell-Carvill-Bruce Family Collection. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://cdm15728.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/findingaids/search/searchterm/mss.19.38 (accessed November 20, 2025).