Parker Westbrook (1926–2015)

Parker Westbrook was an advocate for historic preservation in Arkansas throughout the late twentieth century. He was a founding member and first president of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas (now Preserve Arkansas) and served on various preservation boards.

Parker Westbrook was born on January 4, 1926, in Nashville (Howard County) to Walter and Wincie Westbrook. He had two siblings, Lucille and James. In 1943, he graduated from high school in Nashville.

In 1948, he left for Washington DC to serve in the office of U.S. Congressman Boyd Tackett of Nashville. Over the course of twenty-six years, Westbrook served on the staff of four different members of the congressional delegation from Arkansas: Tackett, Representative Oren Harris of El Dorado (Union County), Senator John L. McClellan of Sheridan (Grant County), and Senator J. Willliam Fulbright of Fayetteville (Washington County). He served as special assistant to Senator Fullbright. While in the nation’s capital, his love of historic preservation began when he purchased and restored a Quaker cottage in Waterford, Virginia, that was built in 1807.

In 1975, he returned to Arkansas and became special assistant to Governor David Pryor. In that same year, he was elected to the board of directors of the Arkansas Territorial Restoration, now the Historic Arkansas Museum, in downtown Little Rock (Pulaski County) and was also appointed to the Arkansas State Review Board of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. He was reappointed to the board through the term of Governor Jim Guy Tucker. During that time, he served as chairman of the board for four and a half years. He later was reappointed to the board during the term of Governor Mike Beebe and was still serving at the time of his death.

In the late 1970s, he was also elected to the board of the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation, now the Historic Washington Foundation, the oldest preservation society in Arkansas. The foundation preserved the town of Washington (Hempstead County), located near his hometown of Nashville. In 1980, he became the executive director of the foundation and was elected president in 1990. He continued in the role of president until May 2009. During his leadership, the foundation preserved many buildings in the community and oversaw the move of various structures to the town of Washington for their preservation.

In 1981, Westbrook was a founding member and first president of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas. The alliance is a member of the Statewide and Local Partners Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he served two terms as secretary of the board. He later was honored as advisor emeritus to the National Trust and declared a National Treasure. The Preservation Alliance of Arkansas named the Lifetime Achievement Award in his honor as the Parker Westbrook Award.

On a national level, in 1995, he was named to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation by President Bill Clinton and to the National Park System Advisory Board by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Through the National Parks, he served as the chairman of the Committee on National Historic Landmarks.

In 2007, Westbrook began to campaign for the possessive case of Arkansas to be standardized, arguing that the possessive form of “Arkansas” should be “Arkansas’s,” rather than being rendered with an apostrophe alone. In March 2007, the Arkansas General Assembly passed, and Governor Mike Beebe signed, a resolution endorsing this version of the possessive form.

In 2007, he was inducted into the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism’s Hall of Fame for his contributions in promoting Heritage Tourism and served as chair emeritus on the board of the Historic Arkansas Museum in downtown Little Rock.

He died on November 19, 2015, in Little Rock and is buried in the Nashville Cemetery in Nashville.

For additional information:
Congressional Record. 111th Cong., 1st sess., 2009. Vol. 155, no. 149. https://www.congress.gov/111/crec/2009/10/15/CREC-2009-10-15-pt1-PgS10483-2.pdf (accessed July 10, 2024).

Lucille and Parker Westbrook Collection (BC.MSS.07.65). Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/searchterm/bc.mss.07.65 (accessed July 10, 2024).

Lunsford, Scott. Interview with Parker Westbrook, September 22, 2011. David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. https://pryorcenter.uark.edu/interview.php?thisProject=Arkansas%20Memories&thisProfileURL=WESTBROOK-Parker-Lucas-658&displayName=&thisInterviewee=658 (accessed July 10, 2024).

Parker L. Westbrook Funeral Program. VSFA 1061. Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives, Washington, Arkansas.

Stewart, Shea. “‘Arkansas’s’ [sic] Father of State Preservation.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 21, 2015. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/nov/21/parker-westbrook-20151121/ (accessed July 10, 2024).

Westbrook, Parker. “Arkansas’s Possessive Case.” Department of Parks and Tourism Newsletter (Spring 1993): 11.

“Westbrook’s Hobby Ends in Appointments to Prestigious Boards.” Nashville News, September 5, 1955, p. 1.

Joshua Williams
Historic Washington State Park